Questions of Identity and social links within a social networking context

Or why does someone want to be my friend on Facebook when they don’t know me in real life?

by Victoria Bansey (s41174436)

Web2.0 is generally considered to be about the rise of information sharing and collaboration on the World Wide Web. The main focus of this “new” Internet are elements such as wikis, blogs (just like this one) and probably the most visible of these, the rise of social networking sites such as Facebook, Flickr, Last FM and twitter.

With these considerations, the component that interests me most is the social interaction online on the social networking sites and how this can be distinctly separate to social interactions in “real” life. This interest stems from my surprise at being added as friend by people who didn’t know me in reality. This has been particularly my experience on Facebook.

For example, I have received two friend requests recently in Facebook. The first is from a person who I have previously never heard of called Benjamin Lee who is from Silicon Valley in California. Benjamin has added me without any explanation (apart from the limited profile that is available) where he mentions that he is looking for friendship and networking and at last check he appears to have 501 friends. I have e-mailed Benjamin to try and ascertain any possible connection between us but as yet have heard nothing back.

The second is from a fellow student in COMP3505. This person is a second year student (I am currently a third year student) who I have never talked to in my life and would have difficulty recognising in a COMP3505 lecture, let alone in the street. Several of my fellow third year students have added this person. When I saw this I questioned a couple of them as to who this person was and why they added them. A male friend said, “because he’s in our COMP3505 class”. I asked if he knew who he was and he laughed and said “no”. I questioned further as to why he had added someone as a friend that he didn’t know and he responded with, “because they added me!”. I asked the same questions to a female friend who responded with “because (a mutual friend) added them”. I thought it sounded a bit strange and asked them if they thought so, and they said “yes, but I’m only showing them a limited profile”. I found this confusing – if someone who you didn’t know approached you on the street or even on the University of Queensland campus and asked for your email address and a list of your interests, musical tastes, where you went to school and your birth date would you give it to them? For most people the answer would be no.

So if that is the case, why would you freely give someone you don’t know access to that information online? I haven’t added either of them – not due to paranoia or general distrust (well, maybe a little), but due to the fact that I wouldn’t consider either a friend in even the broadest sense. For me, there isn’t a social connection there so why do people feel the need to connect to total strangers behind the veil of social networking sites? Is this an online popularity contest where quantity is more important than quality? Or is it because its easier to maintain an online relationship without the restrictions that are imposed in our daily lives?

In the article, “How to make 80 million friends and influence people”, the author discusses the explosion that was then happening (the article is dated June 18, 2006) in Web2.0 social networking sites. It mentions how these sites become a “surrogate social network” where Facebook users have created a new understanding of what it means to be a ‘friend’. A student interviewed, Joe Taylor, talks about this new interpretation,

“At any social occasion you're introduced to many people you will probably never see again. But if you can remember their name you can put them among your Facebook friends, and a huge, loose network develops. There appear to be many people whose sole aim in life at the moment is to acquire as many Facebook friends as possible.”

It is an interesting twist on the now debunked theory of Six Degrees of Separation. This theory came from an experiment run by Stanley Milgram at the Laboratory of Social Relations at Harvard University in the late 1960s. Milgram published his results in 1967 but neglected to mention that there was actually only a 30% success rate of his original aim of an envelope being passed from someone in the central states of the United States to someone who they didn’t know on the East Coast and counting how many people it passed through to its final destination. Of the 30%, that did work, they averaged out to be Eight Degrees of Separation (Ingram P106). Not quite as catchy as six is it?

One of the reasons that has been given for the embrace of the original report is that the late sixties was the epoch for the hippy movement and people wanted to believe that we are all connected to each other in a what a psychologist who examined Milgram’s files calls a “heart-warming parable” (Ingram P106). Perhaps Generation Y are seeking this same kind of assurance. In the post September 11 world, perhaps it is this sense of connection in a disconnected world that they are seeking. But what sort of a social connection is it to someone who you’ve never met before? When I make a status update in Facebook which mentions that I’m home and surprised by my husband Martin making tacos for dinner, my family and friends will all know this is unusual because it is usually me that does the cooking in our house. For someone who doesn’t know me, this will be pointless. Someone who is connected to both of us in Facebook will also see Martin’s status update where he claims to be domesticated in response to my update. I know a lot of my friends in Facebook also aren’t interested in this detail (particularly those who don’t know Martin), but I maintain a connection with these friends through FunWall posts of videos, invitations to events and groups and their status updates. For someone who has no connection to me or my interests, what is the use of this besides to appear "popular"?

In the article “Blog Off”, Natalie Boxall examines the pros and cons of social networking. One of the authors that she talks to, Richard Milward talks about his concerns which mirror my own,

" I worry people will become completely antisocial, spending more and more time in this weird parallel universe where everyone's their 'friend', without actually having to spend any proper time with them."

Perhaps the image of having lots of friends is more important than an actual relationship with that person?

It also seems that the identity theft issues that I mentioned earlier aren’t an issue to a lot of Facebook users. In August 2007, Sophos, an IT security firm sent out 200 random friend requests from a made up person called Freddi Staur (an anagram of ID Fraudster). 87 of those contacted responded, and of them, 82 gave him personal information including resumes, addresses, phone numbers and in one case, their mother’s maiden name. Its a short step from having this information to identity theft - it even happens to royal families.

I also find it interesting that for some of my experiences using social networking sites, in the case of Flickr being added as a Favourite or specifically invited to a group is a much more rewarding experience then being added as a Friend in Facebook. In Flickr, someone has to have specifically searched for a tag or looked through my photographs and decided that they like it enough to add it as a favourite. There are millions of photographs of the Taj Mahal but someone has found my photograph of it on Flickr and added it as a favourite. The addition of my photograph has been a very active interaction, whereas in Facebook, after the initial burst of adding people, my addition of friends has been a passive interaction (I have generally let people find me).

I believe the reason for the popularity and ubiquity of Facebook is that it gives people the opportunity to use the sites asynchronously but also with a huge divergence of geography. One of the main attractions for me personally is the ability to keep track of friends overseas and maintain a social connection. Although I can’t attend an event with them, I can be aware of the occasion, can think of them at that time and send them a quick message to hope they have a good time and then see the photos the day after. I can even see the music that they listened to through Last FM.

My personal experience of using social networking sites, particularly Facebook, has been positive but that still doesn’t stop me being cynical and suspicious about the people who populate its pages. I have made contact with school friends who I haven’t talked to for several years and kept in touch with friends from overseas whilst getting to know my uni friends better. At the same time, I have had requests from people I don’t know which although probably meant harmlessly, I find disturbing.

Though of course there is something more annoying than popularity seeking wannabes - the most annoying thing on Facebook is the seemingly endless invitations to become a werewolf/vampire/zombie or for pointless applications. The only response appropriate to them can be found here and here.

References


Benyon, D., Turner, P., & Turner, S., (2005) Designing Interactive Systems: People, Activities, Contexts, Technologies. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

Boxall, N. (2008). Blog Off. Retrieved March 16, 2008 from http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/careers/story/0,,2263478,00.html.

Garfield, S. (2006) How to Make 80 million friends and influence people. Retrieved March 20, 2008 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2006/jun/18/digitalmedia.observerreview.

Ingram, J. (2003). The Velocity of Honey and more science of Everyday Life. London: Viking.

Kaye, L. (2008) Let’s have a look at privacy and consent. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from http://media.guardian.co.uk/digitallaw/story/0,,2225130,00.html.

Sophos (2007). Sophos Facebook ID probe shows 41% of users happy to reveall all to potential identity thieves. Retrieved March 21, 2008, from http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2007/08/facebook.html.

Viller, S. (2008). Lecture Notes – Week04 Social SW-Handouts. Retrieved March 20, 2008, from http://www.itee.uq.edu.au/~comp3505/Lectures/Week04-SocialSW-handouts.pdf.