And now

Restaurant
My colleague Will Reader has been getting a lot of attention for his work on social networking sites. The headline - that sites like Facebook don’t deepen friendships – isn’t particularly startling. What is more interesting is the way in which online social networking has gained popularity – that and its role in thickening existing social ties (Barry Wellman has been saying this for a while). Thickening, in the sense that I use it, doesn’t equate with ‘depth’ but merely points to the fact that social networking is additive, bridging online and offline worlds. (Thanks to Ed for the photograph).