Let's See Where This Goes....
Today's entry will be the following: The Facebook. This is also applicable to myspace and xuga, so if you subscribe to either of those, hopefully this will follow.
A recent interview with the creator of thefacebook.com stated that the number one complaint with thefacebook was NOT people being stalkers, but instead that people were sacrificing their social lives for the facebook. I kid you not. There are people who are not going out on a Friday night because they would rather sit at home and look people up through their friend collection.
The sad thing is, I don't think this is abnormal. Perhaps it's a bit extreme, but facebook.com has become a staple of my "websites to check". Hence, I go from mail.umich.edu straight to nytimes.com, yahoo! sports, livejournal.com/gimbleisdabomb/friends and finally www.thefacebook.com. The question is why? What am I searching for exactly? Why is there an excitement when someone I haven't spoken to since 6th grade updates their profile?
I take this to another extreme...do you notice when people change their profiles, and can you identify the changes? I know this sounds somewhat disconnected, but to some extent thefacebook.com has forced us to label even when we claim we never would. Here's the connector: by joining a certain group, I have officially labeled myself, and a change in that facebook group is a strong implication. Let me give you a VERY HYPOTHETICAL situation. I use this one because I think it is common knowledge now that I would never use drugs, but at least this will get across my point.
Let's say when I first joined facebook.com I was in a group called "I will never smoke weed". Then, a year later I am redoing my profile and clearing out my groups, and I decide to erase that group. Does that make the assumption that I have started smoking weed? The thing is, I believe that some of my friends would think that I started using drugs just because of what groups I have joined/rejected.
I'll be honest, I'm not sure where this entry is going...short of the following..it's amazing where technology has gone over the past couple years, and the implications it has brought with it. The internet has created a new form of labeling and stereotyping that didn't exist 20, 10, even 5 years ago. And while they may not be perfectly correlated, I believe that thefacebook.com is just another brick in the preverbial wall.
I apologize again for the randomness of this entry. My mind is somewhat focused on other things at the moment, but I wanted to get some of my facebook qualms out in the open. Does it stop me from updating my profile and picture on a regular basis? No. But, it has made me realize that I should be a bit more cautious about what I choose to put in my profile. Appearently, after I put a picture of Rachel and I at formal up as my picture, there was an automatic assumption made by a number of my friends that I had entered into a relationship with her without telling them. Does this mean the picture of Kyle and I on spring break that is in my rotation questions my heterosexuality? Once again, all I'm saying is to closely consider how you choose to represent yourself through websites like thefacebook.com.
And please, realize....having a picture of you holding alcohol does not make you cool. Period.
And here's what you all should comment on today: thefacebook.com. Originally it wad created as a social network for people who were traveling to other college campuses (i.e., I go to Penn State for a visit, and want to find a party so I go through my friend's social network and see what parties are occuring). I would argue that the purpose of the facebook.com has really changed over the 4 years of existance however. My question to you is: what is the real purpose of thefacebook? Why are people so obsessed with it? What is the pull?
Enjoy :) This could be interesting.
A recent interview with the creator of thefacebook.com stated that the number one complaint with thefacebook was NOT people being stalkers, but instead that people were sacrificing their social lives for the facebook. I kid you not. There are people who are not going out on a Friday night because they would rather sit at home and look people up through their friend collection.
The sad thing is, I don't think this is abnormal. Perhaps it's a bit extreme, but facebook.com has become a staple of my "websites to check". Hence, I go from mail.umich.edu straight to nytimes.com, yahoo! sports, livejournal.com/gimbleisdabomb/friends and finally www.thefacebook.com. The question is why? What am I searching for exactly? Why is there an excitement when someone I haven't spoken to since 6th grade updates their profile?
I take this to another extreme...do you notice when people change their profiles, and can you identify the changes? I know this sounds somewhat disconnected, but to some extent thefacebook.com has forced us to label even when we claim we never would. Here's the connector: by joining a certain group, I have officially labeled myself, and a change in that facebook group is a strong implication. Let me give you a VERY HYPOTHETICAL situation. I use this one because I think it is common knowledge now that I would never use drugs, but at least this will get across my point.
Let's say when I first joined facebook.com I was in a group called "I will never smoke weed". Then, a year later I am redoing my profile and clearing out my groups, and I decide to erase that group. Does that make the assumption that I have started smoking weed? The thing is, I believe that some of my friends would think that I started using drugs just because of what groups I have joined/rejected.
I'll be honest, I'm not sure where this entry is going...short of the following..it's amazing where technology has gone over the past couple years, and the implications it has brought with it. The internet has created a new form of labeling and stereotyping that didn't exist 20, 10, even 5 years ago. And while they may not be perfectly correlated, I believe that thefacebook.com is just another brick in the preverbial wall.
I apologize again for the randomness of this entry. My mind is somewhat focused on other things at the moment, but I wanted to get some of my facebook qualms out in the open. Does it stop me from updating my profile and picture on a regular basis? No. But, it has made me realize that I should be a bit more cautious about what I choose to put in my profile. Appearently, after I put a picture of Rachel and I at formal up as my picture, there was an automatic assumption made by a number of my friends that I had entered into a relationship with her without telling them. Does this mean the picture of Kyle and I on spring break that is in my rotation questions my heterosexuality? Once again, all I'm saying is to closely consider how you choose to represent yourself through websites like thefacebook.com.
And please, realize....having a picture of you holding alcohol does not make you cool. Period.
And here's what you all should comment on today: thefacebook.com. Originally it wad created as a social network for people who were traveling to other college campuses (i.e., I go to Penn State for a visit, and want to find a party so I go through my friend's social network and see what parties are occuring). I would argue that the purpose of the facebook.com has really changed over the 4 years of existance however. My question to you is: what is the real purpose of thefacebook? Why are people so obsessed with it? What is the pull?
Enjoy :) This could be interesting.