Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, and I deliberately wrote Networked: The New Social Operating System to place social media in context of societal changes, especially in the West. Immodestly, I still think that is a useful approach rather than looking narrowly on social media. The Amazon link to this MIT Press book is: http://amzn.to/zXZg39 Lee and I are also happy to lecture to your class about this book, if you order a score of copies. There are other books taking this contextual approach, such as Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society. Anabel Quan-Haase, Technology and Society Mark Graham & William Dutton, eds, Society and the Internet Barry Wellman A vision is just a vision if it's only in your head Step by step, link by link, putting it together Streisand/Sondheim _______________________________________________________________________ NetLab Network FRSC INSNA Founder http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman twitter: @barrywellman