Ibrahim, Y. (2008). The new risk communities: Social networking sites and risk. International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, 4(2): 245-253.

abstract only!

tho i have access to full text. it’s rather doom-heavy.

here’s the conclusion (emphasis added):

The popularity of social networking sites heralds the emergence of complicit risk communities where personal information becomes social capital which is traded and exchanged, and where there are also therapeutic and narcissistic elements, particularly with regard to the construction of self-image and identities. The culture of social networking sites thrives on the performative, on the one hand, and reciprocity and exchange, on the other. Hence the potential dangers and risks of willingly disclosing and displaying personal details become part of the architecture or code of these sites. Social networking sites then leverage on the resulting cultural conventions and communions in order to sustain themselves. The appropriation of new technologies by individuals in order to communicate, form new communities and to maintain existing relationships signifies new ways in which risk becomes embedded and encoded into our social practices, posing new ethical and legal challenges which inadvertently expand the landscape of risk.