The New York times ran this article recently about how Facebook is changing, and what issues the Facebook community has had with these changes. The usual issues re: privacy are discussed (I hadn't heard about the Eagles employee who blasted managent for letting Dawkins go on Facebook, only to get fired because one of his Facebook friends who was a higher up in management saw it), but I think the most interesting thing to me is how people are getting mad about how much useless information they are seeing as a result of the new updates. This intrigues me for two reasons:
1. This new emphasis on using Facebook for real-time and more extemporaneous updating that the company seems to think is the future of Facebook mirrors the recent rise of Twitter, which serves a similar function. Now, both of these serve a distinctly different function than other modern technological modes of information sharing/communication in that they are a) impersonal (that is, not real-time person-to-person communication) and b) not as rational and premeditated as, say, a traditonal blog entry or an email. This leads to:
2. Does this information give us a deeper insight into societal change in general? Are current technological trends pushing us towards communication that is both wide-reaching and very impersonal? If so, what is the societal impact of this? I think this would be hard to tell from my own direct experience, because I don't really use Facebook too much anymore and have never used Twitter. But, if I grew up using Facebook and Twitter, I worry that, when it came to meaningful, in-person communication with people, it might be more difficult to express myself if I was used to expressing myself only in such impersonal ways. Additionally, because a Facebook friend or a member of the same online community is distinctly different than a real life "friend", would it become harder for me to distinguish how my interactions with these different people in life should be?
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Well, I don't quite know what this says about a societal change. Do I think there is one because of this? No, not really. How much information can really be conveyed in 160 characters? I see facebook as a way of keeping up with people, I don't really see it as a networking tool. It's design was to be fun, accessible to college students as a way to keep in touch. It has since expanded from there to the general public, and I don't think it has been for the better. More than a couple times I've thought of taking stuff off of it. The last thing I need on there is worrying about an employer going through that, although there's nothing illegal on it or anything.
ReplyDeleteTwitter is interesting. One of my cousins has said its the most useful networking tool he has found. He's started his own company and has been using it extensively I guess. I've never used it and am admittedly skeptical. I don't see how it can be that great. Ok, so it's easy to get 160 characters out there to a lot of people. That doesn't mean anyone wants to hear what you have to say or that its worth hearing. However, as I explore setting up my own site, I'm wondering about the possibilities of twitter to get my site out there in the grand scheme of things. I feel that until I try twitter myself, I won't fully understand it.
I don't necessarily think growing up with facebook or twitter would lead to a sort of degradation of communication skills. I suppose the potential is there, but the likelihood of that happening when people do the bulk of their communicating at that age in school face to face is not much of a concern.
I'm confused by your point. Do you mean the way in which you interact with them? Say you run into a person thats pretty much a facebook friend only, and the question is do you talk to them like you were best buddies in elementary school? Guess I need some clarification there
"That doesn't mean anyone wants to hear what you have to say or that its worth hearing."
ReplyDeleteThis is what gets me about both of these; people do actually think everyone in their circle wants to hear the bullshit of their everyday lives.
We (more so my sister's generation) have grown up with Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian being famous for literally no reason at all, so some of us think "hey, why not me?" If you act like you're important, maybe you will become important.
I don't know if people have seen this Bill Simmons quote in (ironically) my Facebook or read it in his column, but it hits the nail on the head:
"The more interesting angle for me is how Twitter and Facebook reflect where our writing is going thanks to the Internet. In 15 years, writing went from "reflecting on what happened and putting together some coherent thoughts" to "reflecting on what happened as quickly as possible" to "reflecting on what's happening as it's happening" to "here are my half-baked thoughts about absolutely anything and I'm not even going to attempt to entertain you," or as I like to call it, Twitter/Facebook Syndrome. Do my friends REALLY CARE if I send out an update, "Bill is flying on an airplane finishing a mailbag right now?" (Which is true, by the way.) I just don't think they would. I certainly wouldn't. That's why I refuse to use Twitter."