Steinfield
This study found that certain kinds of facebook use appear to facilitate the maintenance and formation of social capital of all kinds.
what are some of the negatives that can come using facebook/ the
invention of facebook? Would advertising to people like our parents-
in their 40's and 50's ever work? It has worked with high school aged
students and college, but I'm curious to know if people think the
success could be carried over to our parents generations and help them
reconnect with college friends and then perhaps create some sort of
resurgence within their social network. The article states that facebook
can help people make new friends but keep the old, but can it also
work in the reverse- not necessarily making new friends, but more
centered around reconnection with the old. Do you think our class will still be using facebook ten years from now? Do you think that facebook actually
helps those with low self-esteem? It may help mask the problem if people are comfortable friending people they aren’t actually friends with, but I don’t think it lends itself to real life situations. On a different note, I worked for a big corporation this summer that was buying part of facebook.com. I sat in on a number of meetings where my company tried to figure out new ways of advertising and was ultimately trying to get a sense for facebook in general. They had the youngest member of their group, who was about 35 years old, get a facebook account and report back. The person was so off target and didn’t understand that people really don’t have a purpose for being on facebook. They kept trying to find the underlying meaning and to me it looked like they were looking for something intellectual, but in reality I think maybe only college kids can tell you that there is no real purpose or necessity for facebook- but rather it is an amazing procrastination tool.
The Rise of Personalized Networking:
“Each person sups from many tables, but experiences only a single banquet of life” I don’t agree. I think he overanalyzed and that Wellman, if he took a step back, would realize that now can be the time for individuals, for networks, and for groups. As people are now starting to shop online and take classes online, what is next? Will the “cyberplace” ever max out or will it continue to gain further uses and continue to offer more services? We can already order food off of the computer..will movie theatres be obsolete because we can watch them on our computers, music stores all claim bankruptcy? I do agree with Wellman when he points out that many relationships exist in both the physical and cyber worlds and are often dominated/preferred by which ever proves more convenient.
Kleinberg and Lawrence:
This article did a good job setting up the differences between the core, upstream nodes, downstream nodes, and tendrils. I don’t think I agree that they are all the same size as I feel like the core is a lot smaller than the tendrils. The core to me seems like only the companies that are very popular – which I think are extremely outnumbered by smaller and less popular ones. I do agree though that the internet sites that have a lot of links, will get more links and increased visibility- following form with the “rich get richer” theory. Because link structure helps the visibility of web sites, how do niche sites become popular? I have read Gladwell’s tipping point, but if the rich keep expanding the divide, how is it that smaller sites compete? There is ultimately this intricate community embedded in the web.
Pentagon sets its sights on social networking websites:
The author says that he is shocked by what people voluntarily post about themselves online. I don’t find it all that shocking. Not everything in life is about work, so what if people have fun outside of work. I’m sure I’ll feel different about that one day though. I find it a little disturbing that the NSA can find out what we look at online- but what is the worst they could see? Buying underwear at Victoria’s Secret? I continually get emails from Career Services reminding all Penn students that potential employers may be able to see my facebook profile- I guess I don’t care. But I also don’t do anything too exciting.
Comments (3)
I think that your questions about Facebook’s appeal to older people are very interesting. I remember reading an article within the last month in Business Week that talked about a Facebook-type of social networking website for adults. It appealed to people in their 40s and 50s. Or maybe it actually didn’t “appeal” to them. When deciding what to write as a comment to your blog posting, I wanted to say, “Oh, there is this adult ‘Facebook’ site.” So I did a Google search for “adult social networking site” and “adult Facebook,” and I couldn’t find anything about it. Then I realized that my lack of information was particularly telling. All the articles that came up were about Facebook and how adults are afraid of it. Or MySpace and how it’s really not for adults. I think that says a lot.
But the fact that they are a generation that was not raised with Facebook or even computers and the Internet is largely a cause of that. Not only do people that age not have the time to dwell online, but even if they had the time, it is likely that ‘dwelling online’ would not be their first idea of what to do. That thought brings me to your other question, of if we will still use Facebook in 10 years. I do see people who are in their 30s on Facebook, and I think that they are creepy. But that’s also because they had graduated college before they ever started an account. I think that Facebook will grow with its target demographic, a trend already seen by the fact that over time, Facebook started putting on “organization networks” (where you work). Thus, I think that if the content of Facebook develops to keep attracting older people, then people will retain their accounts as a type of “address book” for many years.
Posted by Mindy (r10) | November 7, 2006 12:47 PM
Posted on November 7, 2006 12:47
I think that facebook use may be widely accepted among adults who are linked onto the web and technology. Corporate integration would be the easiest way in which adults would be able to adopt facebook only because they simply do not spend as much time using new media as our generation does. Adults read newspapers and watch television more than the internet, while I feel that this generation spends more time on the web. For this reason, I think that facebook could be used by adults who are apt to use technology for other reasons like work.
Also, I do not think that adults are as privy to sharing information that is required to be truly integrated into the social network. Most adults in that age bracket have families to take care of and it seems their priorities may lie in different places. The lack of usage would change what facebook could mean for baby boomers
Posted by Anne | November 7, 2006 9:44 PM
Posted on November 7, 2006 21:44
I really enjoyed your analyses and thoughts on both Facebook and the future possible extensions of the “cyberplace”. I too, wondered when Facebook came out whether it would be a craze that lasted for a short time, through my college years, or beyond. My boyfriend, who was president of his class his senior year of high school, told me that Facebook and MySpace have completely lightened his workload of finding people when it comes time to plan his high school reunions. I think for purposes such as these and keeping track of people over the years, Facebook is definitely part of a new revolution. For this reason, I also think it is very likely that our parent’s generation could easily become a part of this in the years to come - at least the computer savvy ones. I remember coming home for the summer after my freshman year of college and talking about Facebook with my friends downstairs at my house as we were getting ready to have a fun night of watching movies. My dad kept coming in and out of the area to get some dinner and take care of things. On one of his trips down, minutes after we were discussing Facebook, he said, “Why won’t this Facebook site let ME on?” I was totally shocked and even scared for a moment that he had found some way onto it and had seen my personal pictures, political views, and quotes. It was a reality check for me, and only recently have I started trusting Facebook again enough to post things I wouldn’t want my parents to see. But it’s a constant fear of mine. Why is it that having a future employer or our parents see our profiles is so disturbing, yet we don’t care who else sees it, as long as they are part of our generation?
I also liked your idea of the “cyberplace” expanding and extending to things like our own mini movie-theaters and music stores. I know I for one am definitely bound by space here at college and have to miss seeing many movies in movie theaters because I don’t have a car and the on-campus movie theater isn’t playing the movies I want to see. I think it would be an amazing idea if we could just by our tickets online and view the movie from a laptop. The only problem with that is not knowing how to price them, and movie theaters possibly losing money from kids buying the viewing of these movies as if it were an $8 ticket and then having 15 friends come over to watch it with them. They couldn’t control things like that happening and they would likely get cheated from a lot of movie revenue. It’s an interesting idea though and for me at least, would make movie theaters obsolete. I actually don’t enjoy going to movie theaters and would much prefer everything to be accessible from my laptop. But the ramifications of such a privatizing move might be very interesting for society. We have very few places, like movie theaters, that require us to leave home, and I fear what this might do to society.
Posted by g23 | November 9, 2006 7:14 AM
Posted on November 9, 2006 07:14