Social Online Video Experiences

Participation in social organizations such as team sports, volunteer and religious organizations has been diminishing over the past few decades (Putnam, 2001). One reason for this decline is television (Putnam, 1995). Instead of going to bars or bowling alleys after work – places where people can form new relationships and expand their social networks – people instead go home to watch the latest sitcom or reality TV show. While it has been argued that news and current affairs programs " [do] not seem to be damaging to the democratic health of society " (Norris, 1996, p. 479), the act of watching television is a socially isolating activity because it eliminates the social context in which new relationships are formed. Online video provides an opportunity to build social capital among viewers. Because the act of watching video is online, viewers are able to simultaneously watch video and interact with each other. However, it is unclear whether the passive act of watching a video can be combined with active social interaction; watching a video and interacting with others both require attentional resources, and these activities may be mutually distracting. Thus, while online video provides an opportunity to build social capital and enable people to create and maintain relationships, it will only be successful at this if viewers are able to manage their attention between the two activities. If these activities prove incompatible because of overwhelming amounts of distraction, then online video communities may not be able to help rebuild the social capital lost to television. The goal of this thesis is to design for social online video experiences. This includes understanding existing social practices around online video, measuring the impact of watching together on social relationships, helping people manage their attention between interaction and video, and helping people find others to interact with while watching. This understanding will help online video designers build communities of viewers, and ultimately, fulfill the potential of online video as a socially engaging activity capable of rebuilding the social capital lost to television. In this thesis, I will examine the activity of watching together from two perspectives: an individual group of people who watch a video and chat with each other, and an online community of viewers. For groups of individuals who watch and chat together, I will demonstrate that the experience is both enjoyable and social. Although chatting while watching is distracting, this distraction does not …