Description of Subtheme:
Covering the topic of societal change, a study entitled “The Impact of Emerging Social Networking Facilities on Social Acts in Relation to Social Occasions and Events” was conducted at the Sociology Department. The study examines birthdays, marriages and religious occasions as special social occasions for which social events and gatherings might be organized. At these gatherings, social acts, behaviors and face-to-face interactions between people occur. A social occasion allows people to assemble for social interaction that marks memorable situations. As social interaction is a fundamental feature of social life (Goffman, 1963), many sociologists and researchers have been interested in understanding social life through the analysis of how and why people interact the ways they do. Thus, it is important to also understand how new technologies, including social networks, are changing people’s ways of interactions. The evolution and spread of social networks, driven by the advancements of the Internet, enables people to be continuously connected, at anytime from anywhere. This has reshaped the ways in which people communicate and interact with each other. Face-to-face interactions are more and more shifting to online and virtual interactions. Thus, studying the impacts and influences of the social networking on social acts, behaviors and interactions is deemed to be important in understanding the contemporary changes in people social life. The aim of this research is to examine to what extent the emerging social networking facilities influence the social acts, behaviors and interactions in relation to social occasions and events; specifically marriages, birthdays and some religious occasions.
Future research projects that are subsumed under this subtheme may deal with the following topics:
Social change as experienced by Lebanese migrants/returnees.
Women, marriage and career choices.
iConnect
