Friday, June 29
Applications
Related to the previous post an additional thought has sprung up: how does the rise of applications on Facebook influence the amount of time spent/lost on the site? There are so many things that can be incorporated in your profile that it can be doubted that a visitor of your profile will look at all of it. So is it a way of showing yourself to the world, or a confirmation of yourself for yourself? Almost all these applications have the ability to send messages to the news feeds of other people. So where can the line be drawn between letting people know what you did, or are up to, and in a way 'spamming' yourself, broadcasting yourself to other people. One to many ...
Thursday, June 28
Quote
"The popular mythos tells us that network are powerful, global, fast,and= Quote sent to me by Gavin.
inexpensive. It’s the place to meet friends and carry on business.There, you'll
find entertainment, expertise, and education. In short,it's important to be
online. It ain't necessarily so. Our networks canbe frustrating, expensive,
unreliable connections that get in the way of useful work. It is an overpromoted,
hollow world, devoid of warmth andhuman kindness." pg233
It's interesting to think about the fact in how far social networking takes time away from day to day social activities. Sure, you stay in contact with people you barely see and you know what they are up to. But by spending time online you have to spread your available time over a lot more people. Does day to day social activity suffer from this?
This can lead to interesting questions for the questionnaire:
- How many times do you check your account?
- How long do you usually stay on these sites? (this questions is better answered by consulting internet activity tracking companies - need to be looked into)
Friday, June 22
Facebook Tools
- Groups
A characteristic of being a member of a community is the feeling of belonging, to be part of a greater whole. In Facebook this is created by the use of groups. People can join many groups who they feel they should, or can, be part of. These can be situated around education, work, interests, groups of friends, travels etc... Each of these groups have their own 'wall' and small forum where members can post and talk to each other.
My personal experience is that this function is underused. It started my first research question about "why do people leave/join these groups so fast". From what I've seen most of the groups function as tags which are visible in the users profile. These groups can be joined and left again very fast and the amount of actual interaction going on there is minimal.
It shows that a lot of the interaction, besides checking profiles and sending short messages, still happens offline.
- Events
People can organize events and use their friends list to create invites. These events are based on real-life events. They are a link between the online world and it's network capabilities and the offline strengthening of bounds through interactions. The event site will feature a list of people attending or not, giving more information to possible participants.
- Photos / videos
Each user can upload pictures and videos to his or her profile. These can then be tagged, which creates a link to the profile of those persons in the picture. By notifications the persons will be notified of it and the pictures will show up on their profile. There is no more need to go harvesting pictures from other people's computer (if you're happy enough with the lower quality and size). Compromising pictures can be untagged by the person who's in the picture.
- Notes
Notes function as a blog option. People can write in their notes and publish them so other people can read them. It shares the basic functionality of a blog.
- Poke
Users can poke each other. Basically it's a way to say 'hi' and let them know you're thinking of them. You can relate this to giving a miscall using mobile phones: in certain cultures it means the same as the poke.
- Private messaging
Users can send each other private messages which will appear in the recipients profile's inbox. It shares the same functionality as email, except that it actively links the profile of the sender to the message.
A characteristic of being a member of a community is the feeling of belonging, to be part of a greater whole. In Facebook this is created by the use of groups. People can join many groups who they feel they should, or can, be part of. These can be situated around education, work, interests, groups of friends, travels etc... Each of these groups have their own 'wall' and small forum where members can post and talk to each other.
My personal experience is that this function is underused. It started my first research question about "why do people leave/join these groups so fast". From what I've seen most of the groups function as tags which are visible in the users profile. These groups can be joined and left again very fast and the amount of actual interaction going on there is minimal.
It shows that a lot of the interaction, besides checking profiles and sending short messages, still happens offline.
- Events
People can organize events and use their friends list to create invites. These events are based on real-life events. They are a link between the online world and it's network capabilities and the offline strengthening of bounds through interactions. The event site will feature a list of people attending or not, giving more information to possible participants.
- Photos / videos
Each user can upload pictures and videos to his or her profile. These can then be tagged, which creates a link to the profile of those persons in the picture. By notifications the persons will be notified of it and the pictures will show up on their profile. There is no more need to go harvesting pictures from other people's computer (if you're happy enough with the lower quality and size). Compromising pictures can be untagged by the person who's in the picture.
- Notes
Notes function as a blog option. People can write in their notes and publish them so other people can read them. It shares the basic functionality of a blog.
- Poke
Users can poke each other. Basically it's a way to say 'hi' and let them know you're thinking of them. You can relate this to giving a miscall using mobile phones: in certain cultures it means the same as the poke.
- Private messaging
Users can send each other private messages which will appear in the recipients profile's inbox. It shares the same functionality as email, except that it actively links the profile of the sender to the message.
Communities
By reading about communities I realise that Facebook in itself is not a community. It's basic function is providing the users with the tools to create and maintain their own custom, ever changing, communities. These books are not recent though, and they talk about older forms of internet activities: newsgroups, forums etc. Recent evolutions, of which Facebook is part of, incorporate a lot more information about the identity of each individual user. While years ago you might have been talking to a mere nickname, now you talk to a 'real' person, of which you can see a lot of information.
From personal experience I think that these online social networking sites try to combine the online and face-to-face relationships to another level. All the people in my own friends list I actually know, and have met troughout time. For me it's a way to keep in contact with those people that are not close to me in terms of geography. In the last couple of years, by studying abroad, I have met a lot of different people from all over the world. The fact that we have added each other as friends on Facebook has made it easier for me to keep contact with them. At the same time the system provides me with updates if my friends add pictures, comments, change their profile etc ... so I'm constantly up to date with the current affairs.
One drawback I see so far is that it requires time to update your profile. So I only know a lot of those people who regularly update their information and share that information with the rest of the people they know. It's the user who has to update his profile for the system to spread out.
Relationships can be divided in being weak ties, and being strong ties. Social software like Facebook makes it easier to collect the weak ties, and keep them in your friends list, and also keep updating the strong ties, making it harder for them to disappear.
From personal experience I think that these online social networking sites try to combine the online and face-to-face relationships to another level. All the people in my own friends list I actually know, and have met troughout time. For me it's a way to keep in contact with those people that are not close to me in terms of geography. In the last couple of years, by studying abroad, I have met a lot of different people from all over the world. The fact that we have added each other as friends on Facebook has made it easier for me to keep contact with them. At the same time the system provides me with updates if my friends add pictures, comments, change their profile etc ... so I'm constantly up to date with the current affairs.
One drawback I see so far is that it requires time to update your profile. So I only know a lot of those people who regularly update their information and share that information with the rest of the people they know. It's the user who has to update his profile for the system to spread out.
Relationships can be divided in being weak ties, and being strong ties. Social software like Facebook makes it easier to collect the weak ties, and keep them in your friends list, and also keep updating the strong ties, making it harder for them to disappear.
A new start
I will be using this blog to map out the progress I make on my research project, using this as a research diary, required by the uni besides the actual research.
What are the recent changes about my project? After meeting with my project supervisor, Gavin Stewart, I started thinking about certain changes in the subject. Where the initial idea was to find out how people use groups within the greater network of Facebook it's now developing in a different direction. The big question, the one that surrounds the whole theme, is if social networking software makes people more social...
Personally I think that social software's main reason for existence is to strengthen existing bounds between people, making it easier for persons to stay in contact. Sites like Facebook make your network more visible, with for example pictures and updates from your friends, so that you are constantly updated on the current situation of your network. This is a big difference between the old 'technologies' of the adress book and the phone book. Now all information is in one place, easily accessible at any moment, if you have an internet connection.
The most important aspects of my research that I have to adress at the current time are:
- Methodologies: How am I going to do the research, what are the appropriate methods to find out the answers for my research question? The current ideas are doing a questionnaire with the option of follow-up questions to get more details out of certain answers people might give.
- Sampling: Contacting people on Facebook, using the site's search engine to look for people within one network, London, and within the age limits of 18 and 25. I will then have to use a sequence of numbers to decide who will be contacted or not. This sequence will have to be random and will come from the internet site random.org.
- Refinement: "Does social software make people more social" is a question with a very wide focus. What is 'social' exactly. The question will probably evolve in something more specific along the lines of "How do the available tools on Facebook influence the relations with your friends?"
- Tools: Facebook features different tools for people to explore and use to contact their friends. Examples of this are the walls, poking, presents, tagging of pictures, commenting on pictures, and then there are the multitude of applications developed by third parties. All of these provide a way of communicating with your friends, directly or indirectly.
- To do:
Refine research question, create pilot questionnaire, drawbacks and advantages of the used research methods, background reading.
What are the recent changes about my project? After meeting with my project supervisor, Gavin Stewart, I started thinking about certain changes in the subject. Where the initial idea was to find out how people use groups within the greater network of Facebook it's now developing in a different direction. The big question, the one that surrounds the whole theme, is if social networking software makes people more social...
Personally I think that social software's main reason for existence is to strengthen existing bounds between people, making it easier for persons to stay in contact. Sites like Facebook make your network more visible, with for example pictures and updates from your friends, so that you are constantly updated on the current situation of your network. This is a big difference between the old 'technologies' of the adress book and the phone book. Now all information is in one place, easily accessible at any moment, if you have an internet connection.
The most important aspects of my research that I have to adress at the current time are:
- Methodologies: How am I going to do the research, what are the appropriate methods to find out the answers for my research question? The current ideas are doing a questionnaire with the option of follow-up questions to get more details out of certain answers people might give.
- Sampling: Contacting people on Facebook, using the site's search engine to look for people within one network, London, and within the age limits of 18 and 25. I will then have to use a sequence of numbers to decide who will be contacted or not. This sequence will have to be random and will come from the internet site random.org.
- Refinement: "Does social software make people more social" is a question with a very wide focus. What is 'social' exactly. The question will probably evolve in something more specific along the lines of "How do the available tools on Facebook influence the relations with your friends?"
- Tools: Facebook features different tools for people to explore and use to contact their friends. Examples of this are the walls, poking, presents, tagging of pictures, commenting on pictures, and then there are the multitude of applications developed by third parties. All of these provide a way of communicating with your friends, directly or indirectly.
- To do:
Refine research question, create pilot questionnaire, drawbacks and advantages of the used research methods, background reading.
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