as to reflect on our assumptions about learning and interest development.
Figure 1.3. Connecting the spheres of learning.
Image by Mizuko Ito.
The chapters of this book are sequenced to trace how young people get involved in online affinity networks, find a place for themselves in the social scene, and connect those experiences and that learning to academic, civic, and career opportunities. This arc is not so much a learning trajectory as much as it is a map of how online affinity networks can fit into a network of learning activities and relationships centered on youth interests. Although there are steps and pathways that young people traverse through time, connected learning is more appropriately conceived of as the growth of a network of connections than as a linear pathway or an internalization of skills and knowledge. Connected learners are situated within a set of personal and organizational relationships that knit together their interests and affinities, relationships, and organizational sites of power and opportunity such as schools, civic institutions, and workplaces (see figure 1.3).
Online affinity networks can play a powerful role in connecting a young person’s learning network because they distill and make accessible a set of relationships and roles that are centered on personal interests and identities. For young people who do not have peers and mentors in their local communities and organizations that share their interest, online affinity networks can fill a vacuum in their connected learning networks. And when they are able to connect the relationships and learning from their online affinity networks back to their local relationships and organizations, the outcomes can be transformational—opening new educational pathways, civic engagements, and economic opportunity. The chapters in this book take on these three dimensions of the network of connected learning by first describing the interests and shared practices that draw young people into online affinity networks, and then turning to the dynamics of peer status that they encounter when they are engaged in these communities. The final chapter looks at links from online affinity networks to academic, economic, and civic opportunity. The organization of the chapters also mirrors the interdisciplinary nature of this study, which brings together internet studies, social network analysis, and the learning sciences. Each chapter highlights the contributions that a study of online affinity networks can make to each of these fields of study in turn.
Interests and Affinity
In the second chapter of this book, we delve into the core practices and structures that make online affinity networks tick: how they wrap themselves around a shared “content world” (Jenkins 2012), organize shared practices that engage participants, and build open online infrastructures that welcome new participants and challenge veterans. We draw from prior research on participatory culture and online communities of interest (Gee and Hayes 2010; Jenkins 1992; Jenkins et al. 2009) and consider the unique forms of social bonding that young people encounter in online affinity networks. The practices we describe are situated within a trend that internet researchers have identified for people to increasingly leverage mobile and online technology to build more intentional and specialized networks (Lenhart et al. 2015; Matsuda 2005; Rainie and Wellman 2012).
Depending on the interest, the glue that holds online affinity networks together varies widely. Competition and tournaments are the shared purpose that drives the StarCraft affinity network. For young people who knit and create levels in LittleBigPlanet, creative challenges are a focal point for the community. Bollywood dancers orchestrate performances, and Nerdfighters mobilize around social causes. While united by a shared content world, infrastructure, and affinity, successful online affinity networks are spaces of constant renewal. Moderators and community leaders describe a process of constant adaptation in order to continue to respond to an ever-changing network and sustain engagement. What are the cultural content, shared activities, and infrastructures that hold these networks together, and how do they adapt through time?
In addition to describing the infrastructure, culture, and shared practices that hold an online affinity network together, this chapter also considers the role that networks that are learning centered can play in young people’s discovering new interests and deepening existing ones. The chapter locates the online affinity networks we studied as a particular kind of influence in young people’s lives, one that enables them to connect to specialized knowledge and relationships that are not present in their homes and local organizations. Young people take to online affinity networks when they want to embrace interests and affiliations that parents and teachers think are a waste of time and that are stigmatized by their local peer groups. One Direction and professional wrestling fans describe how online fandoms offered a safe space for them to geek out on interests that many in their local communities looked down on, and StarCraft players hid their obsession with the game from their parents. Even in cases such as knitting, in which the interest has a positive or neutral valence in the family or with local peers, young people describe the online affinity networks as a place where they were able to connect with people who really “get” them and understand the passion they bring to their interest.
Peer Status and Social Capital
Online affinity networks are a context where young people can form social relationships and networks that differ from those they find in their schools, sports, and local communities. Chapter 3 takes up questions of how status and reputation are negotiated in online affinity networks, and the forms of social capital that young people gain from affinity-based relationships they develop in these networks. Online affinity networks that are learning centered give young people a context to be recognized for creative production, specialized knowledge, and commitments to a community or cause. These pursuits can also be sequestered from their everyday identities in school and in families, which can give them a safe space of experimentation and expression, supported by peers who really “get it” and have a shared appreciation for their commitments. Because they rely on open online infrastructures, online affinity networks can have low barriers to entry, and those we examined embrace a welcoming and inclusive ethos. At the same time, when they are focused on high-quality work and performance, they develop social processes for recognizing achievement and contributions to the community that create status distinctions. How do learning-oriented online affinity networks mark achievement, contributions, and status in the network? What kinds of social support and benefits come with young people’s gaining status in these networks?
The relationships that young people develop in online affinity networks can be strong and intimate because of the shared affinity and camaraderie of these settings. At the same time, they also have qualities of what Mario Small has described as “compartmentalized intimates”—relationships that are strong but tied to very specific activities and affiliations (Small 2009). The knowledge, skills, status, and social capital that young people develop in online affinity networks are highly valued within the interest group, but they often do not connect and translate beyond those who are in this network. It is akin to what Sarah Thornton has described as “subcultural capital” in describing the indie music clubbing scene (Thornton 1996). Being set off from mainstream culture and organizations creates a strong sense of belonging and unique markers of status, which simultaneously creates boundaries that inhibit connection to social and cultural capital outside of the affinity network. Our cases have varying degrees of tension with the cultural and social status markers of adult and mainstream institutions, but they are all characterized by robust internal markers of reputation, achievement, and status.
Opportunity: Connecting Back to the Wider World
After examining the characteristics of peer status and reputation, the book then takes the final step in the journey through the connected learning model. How and when do the learning and social capital developed in online affinity networks connect and translate to academic, civic, and career opportunities? In many ways, the strength of the bonding and learning that happen in online affinity networks is grounded in their relative
