Last week, I turned in my project for my digital history seminar. What I hope is evident from my design, I used this course to play with an idea of investigating “Facebook friends” in the past. “Facebook friends” is a modern term that can describe relationships ranging from life long friendships and one time acquaintances. Though Facebook and the term “Facebook friends” are modern things, social networks are nothing new. Examining social networks of the past provides context for events, like the political scandal on which my thesis is based.

My digital project is meant to visualize some of the relationships, which I have been writing about for my thesis so that I can better see the relationships. I have found textual descriptions of these social connections to be very long winded and often difficult to read, but visual descriptions can quickly and often more accurately present social relationships.

Though perhaps not as developed as much as I would have liked, the opportunity to expand my research remains. This digital project, just like any print project resulting from a research seminar needs additional work before becoming publishable.