Does technology affect us or do we affect it? Do internet social networking sites operate as a substitute for face-to-face contact? How have sites like Facebook and Twitter changed how we conceive of and publicly present our identity? These questions guide this edition of Philosophy Talk, where John and Ken are joined by a live audience and guest Malcolm Parks, Professor of Communications at the University of Washington.

John opens the show by relating his skepticism about social networking, describing his use of Facebook and its bizarre concept of friendship, where a “friend” might be someone you’ve never met. What does friendship mean in this context? How has social networking changed how casual friends, businesses and customers, lovers, and activists united in a cause relate to one another? Malcolm Parks joins the conversation and suggests that these relationships are enhanced by the immediate connectivity social networking offers.

Ken提出，社交网络不仅开辟了新的社会组织和联系形式，而且鼓励以新的方式思考我们作为人是谁。Facebook等社交网站的个人资料就像是公开宣布身份的舞台。这些网站给了我们在如何公开展示自己方面无与伦比的控制权，肯认为，我们是谁是由我们在这种情况下如何声明自己而形成的。一名观众提出这样的问题:把自己的身份代表成一个特定的人，是否就会让你成为那个人?这进一步质疑了我们在网上可以同时扮演多个角色的能力。

The conversation turns to how social networking undermines top-down structures of authority, such as peer-reviewed publications, by giving anyone with a computer and access to the internet the ability to connect with others and publish material. While older forms of authority allow for quality-control and a degree of exclusivity, the dissemination of knowledge through social networking is competitive and dialectical but unmoderated and open to potential hazards such as trolling. The show closes with the conclusion that social networking is reconfiguring the social world, for better or worse.

• Roving Philosophical Report(Seek to 6:42): April Dembosky interviews Bob Hyatt, a pastor at Evergreen Christian Community in Portland, Oregon, about his use of social networking sites to further religious fellowship.

• 60-Second Philosopher(Seek to 49:22): Ian Sholes describes the linguistic phenomenon of Twitter.