Facebook delivers constant connection, but does it help us in our quest for community? What is the future of friendships when they are increasingly mediated by digital technologies and commercial interests? Felicia Song, assistant professor at Louisiana State University, offers critical reflections on social media’s influence on contemporary social practices and more broadly, technology’s role in shifting cultural understandings of personhood and community. 

Felicia Wu Song is a cultural sociologist with academic training in history and communication studies from Yale, Northwestern, and University of Virginia. She is currently assistant professor in the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University where she teaches courses in mass media, advertising and persuasion. Her book, Virtual Communities: Bowling Alone, Online Together(Peter Lang, 2009) examines the social and cultural effects of the Internet on community, identity and the public sphere. Her latest project explores the cultural rise of mom bloggers and its impact on contemporary motherhood.

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