Mobile social networking in theory and practice

Abstract

Mobile social networks have gained the attention of the media, academy and mobile market. Despite of the robust tradition of network and community studies, mobile social networks are often addressed improperly. This paper presents a theoretical framework to study mobile social networking and examines the design implications of results of an exploratory study conducted with a group of 18 young adults in Finland. The findings of this study indicate that the quality of mobile applications offering social networking could be greatly increased by integrating the knowledge of two traditions that so far developed in parallel, namely the mathematical as well as social approaches to social networks.