Although Orkut was my very first taste of ‘social networking’ online, today it I neglect it as I chose something else over it, something else called Facebook. Although both these social networking groups have similar features and functions, one of the main reasons why I prefer Facebook over Orkut is because only people who I choose to network with have access to my profile. Although initially Orkut did have me hooked onto its novelty I was soon put off by the million strangers who checked out my profile and made strange remarks. (Would you want to make frandships with me/I think you are beautiful/I like your photos and I want to meet you, superb name etc etc).
Social networking groups such as these have helped me get in touch with several people who I have known, met and lost touch with over the years. It makes it more convenient for me to get in touch and also stay in touch with people from all over the world. As one can upload photographs (as much as 60 in each album) and also check other peoples’ photo albums it makes it easier to keep track of the events in the lives of people who belong to your social groups. ‘Scraps’, which are brief messages can be sent across quickly at a greater ease than e-mails, proving to be more convenient.
My observations of late are that using these websites have become a new past time, almost like a new hobby. People spend hours online editing their profiles, making it look more appealing and checking out other people’s profiles too. It’s become a rage of sorts. It’s possible to keep track of other people’s lives through their profiles, if they are active on that website by checking their ‘scraps’ (which is openly accessible) and looking through their photo albums. I know friends of mine who know what is happening in my life only by following my Facebook profile, whether it’s good or bad is only a matter of perception. Personally, I think it’s largely become a form of entertainment and I openly admit that I’m party to it and that it helps me kill time mindlessly. But well, all said and done, one could say it’s just another form of expression. Another way of creating an identity for yourself and having the choice to re-create it over and over again.
Orkut also has the concept of forming communities which provides a platform for like-minded people to interact with each other and discuss any issue under the sun. Communities can be created easily and discussions happen within them, enabling people to discuss freely, debate, learn, spread information and just exchange information cutting across boundaries, thereby expanding their ideas and perceptions.
Although it does serve all the purposes that have been mentioned above and maybe many more, there have been several complaints against these kinds of networking websites. Some such complaints have been against acts such as the creation of hate-communities which propagated violence and hate, the creation of false identities, uploading obscene photos, obscene scraps and comments.
Websites such as these have been useful for me to get in touch with people I’ve not stayed in touch with otherwise and also to upload photographs which others want a copy of. Like most other new technology or service these social networking websites have their benefits as well as their flaws. These social networking websites which have several of us wrapped around their novelty would eventually be replaced by something else once our current fancies fade away, it’s only a matter of time.
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9 comments:
"Although initially Orkut did have me hooked onto its novelty I was soon put off by the million strangers who checked out my profile and made strange remarks. (Would you want to make frandships with me/I think you are beautiful/I like your photos and I want to meet you, superb name etc etc)."
I encountered this a lot too, when I first got on email in the early 1990s! Things change, but stay the same.
At that time, it was easy to send a command to a server
and determine was was logged in at the time. I couldn't hide the fact that I was online, nor could I hide the fact that I was female, because of my name. As soon as I would log in to check e-mail I'd get "talk" requests or email sent to me from men asking to be my friend. A few years later, when I had a web site, came the comments about my pictures as desires to be my friend from men I didn't know.
Honestly it was off-putting, but the value I was getting from connecting with other women and being able to maintain my ties to other friends and colleagues long after we were unable to see each other face to face proved to be far more powerful.
I wonder how we will regard these technologies when we get older? I wish these had been around when my grandmothers were still alive, so that I could have kept in touch with them better. The rate at which my own mom is using these tells me that the elderly may soon find social networking types of technologies valuable in keeping up with extended family. What do you think?
I have both a Facebook and MySpace account, and a few years ago when I was an undergrad, they were something I checked every day, sometimes every hour! It was rediculous how much time I spent on these sites. They consumed so much of my time! At that time though, it was an important time for me to be "networked", meet new people, friends from class, keep in touch with old friends from high school. But today it is different, I have new priorities, and those sites are not as much of a big deal to me. So I do think that although Facebook and MySpace are great tools, that at some point people are going to navigate to something else as thier priorities change.
"People spend hours online editing their profiles, making it look more appealing and checking out other people’s profiles too. It’s become a rage of sorts. It’s possible to keep track of other people’s lives through their profiles, if they are active on that website by checking their ‘scraps’ (which is openly accessible) and looking through their photo albums."
I could not agree more with the above commentary as social networking sites are moving from a way of connecting with old friends to an obsession for some. I believe that everyone cares about what others think of them (to some extent I find this always to be true)and facebook allows people to post their personalities and lives online. You are summed up by listing your favorites for certain categories so other people can get a better sense of who you are. Things can be deleted and censored to give page viewers a false idea of a person (this is of course their right as a facebook user).
While facebook remains popular and a huge distraction for many, the idea of the site is beneficial to maintaining relationships and interacting with those of similar tastes.
"Personally, I think it’s largely become a form of entertainment and I openly admit that I’m party to it and that it helps me kill time mindlessly. But well, all said and done, one could say it’s just another form of expression. Another way of creating an identity for yourself and having the choice to re-create it over and over again."
Is this a concern? As these become the prefered space for people on the net, do we risk losing some elements of literacy?
I'm worried that the lack of design or html or php or any kind of web design rhetoric required by these sites might lessen the utility of the net. One thing I love about the Internet is that we're all free to compete on a somewhat level field if we put the time into learning the tools. But if we turn in our websites for Facebook pages, do we possibly loose an element of literacy?
Manovich's focus on code and system as the vital aspect of modern literacy should warn of the dangers inherent in such a trade off.
Course, we could always use both.
It makes it more convenient for me to get in touch and also stay in touch with people from all over the world.
The is the really nice aspect of social networking sites, nad in my opinion what makes them so popular. The ability to search for and find old friends, distant family members, or people that owe you money within a couple of clicks of the mouse is, for lack of a better word, amazing!
I don't really understand how people can substitute social networking sites for face-to-face time with friends, and associates, but lets face it there is a lot i don't understand.
I don't think literacy and social networking sites are interrelated. I do agree with the importance of all the things Micheal talked about but I feel with regards to social networking, it's a little of placing too much importance on a phenomenon that really isn't related to net literacy. I think social networking works because of its accessibility-ease if you will. The internet's beauty is based on the fact that the medium allows people of various literacies to use it in the best way they see fit. Lack of html, css, php knowledge doesn't inhibit one from the beauty of social networking...infact i think its a hindrance if anything..most programmers i know (with the exception of Fazia, who seems to be a sort of internet wizard using each tool for its particular purpose) are not very social network savvy...they don't quite GET exactly what it is that makes facebook and myspace so popular. They're sort of over-intellectualizing the use of these tools if you will. I think these tools are meant for another audience and if you can sort of integrate the various uses into your intellectual vocabulary, you'll end up getting a lot more (lets enter a topic explication about the defn. of "more) out of them.
"...one of the main reasons why I prefer Facebook over Orkut is because only people who I choose to network with have access to my profile."
This sums up the reason I like Facebook more than other social networking sites. I stay connected to the people I know and I'm not being solicited by others who I don't. With Facebook's new features like being able to organize your friends into groups, it just makes Facebook even more favorable.
I do not appreciate receiving spam and annoying messages from people trying to get me to check out their profile or sell me something. But like I said before, sites like Facebook are attempting to revolutionize social networking by not calling themselves a social networking site. It will be interesting to see if they succeed and not end up a novelty that disappears with time.
My concern about social networks being for 'another audience' lies in the possibility of creating an Internet caste system. I'm two steps from an Idiocracy reference, if you will.
I like social networks and use several, but if that's the only exposure a large number of people have to expressing themselves on the web, does that not foster a culture of illiteracy in itself? I think the relationship may not be directly causal, but it is a relationship. I worry that social networks are easy like talking, but code is more skilled, such as writing.
Getting back to diffusion, if social networks beat out coding by 50 to 1, doesn't that create a concern in granting so much design power to that 2% of the population?
Historically, literacy has existed as one of the key tools of authoritarian power. I'm not so sure it's a big leap to draw comparisons.
Course, I'd need more than one post to cite all the references. ;)
yeah that's defn. true michael. while i don't think this will be an issue just yet, it's probably going to be a giant problem in the very near future. ofcourse i think eventually the lack of solution to this problem is going to result in an internet like on futurama, and i can't wait for the day that happens! :)
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