Digital social interactions in the city: reflecting on location-based social networks

This chapter discusses how digital interactions are increasingly interwoven with spaces and places in urban settings and how such interactions are mediated by and in turn shape the technologies that facilitate them. We focus on the understanding of interactions using location based social media (particularly Foursquare) as a way to reflect on issues of technological support to human activities, and on the relationship between code, digital agency and the physical world. Our perspective is that of human-centred computing, particularly CSCW (Computer-Supported Cooperative Work) - a multidisciplinary field studying collaborative practices in socio-technical systems with a focus on unearthing and detailing the mediational role of technology in human cooperation, coordination and social interaction. Whether purposely built for mobile devices and with a focus on location (e.g. Foursquare; Swarm), or simply featuring in other platforms that rely on location data such as Facebook Places or Twitter, various location-based social networks (LBSN) increasingly mediate social and interpersonal interactions in urban settings. Essential technological infrastructure enabling such interaction is the possibility of linking data to particular places by means of devices capable of detecting their own location through Global Positioning System (GPS) or other mechanisms. On such basis, however, location based social media user activities take different forms: from “checking-in” (e.g. users register their presence at a venue), to linking location data to digital content to be then shared, to gameplay associated with occupying a location and performing certain activities there. The form of sharing these activities socially with contacts and other users is also constrained by the platform - for example a photograph with location information; or presence at a location with associated content; or a map of movements and check-ins, etc.