Online Social Sites as Virtual Parks: An Investigation into Leisure Online and Offline

The Internet is perceived as undergoing a new era termed Web 2.0, a new generation of websites characterized by social networks and user generated content. This shift is predominantly social versus technical in nature. In particular, online social sites are characterized by its leisure properties which this paper argues is by no means novel but deeply rooted in historical, economic, social and cultural spaces and practices and intrinsically tied to offline practices. Thereby, to understand the nature of cyberleisure spaces and its offline/online, transnational/transcultural and historic/contemporary relationships, this paper proposes the metaphor of virtual parks as a critical and comprehensive lens for analysis, making the argument that parks best reflects the rhetoric of online social spaces–that of being open, non-utilitarian, public and free for all.