Natalie Ulmer -40553315
Facebook is fast becoming a popular form of networking. It’s slogan of “Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you,” is true. Through the use of Facebook I have increased my connections with my peers. This can mainly be attributed to Facebook’s original aim of helping new university students to meet. This article will reflect upon the background of Facebook, the ways in which it creates peripheral awareness, focusing on news feeds, status and poke. It will also examine the problems of Facebook, and discuss the applications that have been created to maximize the Facebook experience.
Facebook was originally created in 2004 for Harvard students (Facebook 2007). However within a year it had quickly spread to include other universities such as Stanford, Columbia and Yale (Facebook 2007). Mark Zuckerberg’s, Facebook’s creator, initial aim was to help students create new friendships within the university that they students were to attend. In the three years since Facebook’s inception, it has expanded to the extent that it now has over 31 million active users (Facebook, 2007). This population growth can be contributed to the design, which focuses on the peripheral awareness.
The design of Facebook has been based on the multiple single-user. Where the users believes that they are the only person using the site. However several features have been created to allow for peripheral awareness, of other users. These applications include mini stories, poke, news feed, status, notification and the e-mail system etc.
Many of the features of Facebook are based on staying easily connected with friends. Through the asynchronous e-mail system (Figure 1), friends, can easily stay in touch. However this e-mail system is more like an Instant Message system, due to the style of language that Facebook’s e-mail system provides. This program cannot be used in the same way that most e-mails are usually used. For instance you cannot include the e-mail sent to you and therefore cannot reply in amongst the sentences of the e-mail received.
However the e-mail aspect was one of the features that I have enjoyed most. Due to the instant message style I have been able to talk to friends on any computer, as I do not need to install any programs. Hence it is an easy, cheap way for me to communicate with friends, as well as keeping a record of the conversation.
Facebook was originally created in 2004 for Harvard students (Facebook 2007). However within a year it had quickly spread to include other universities such as Stanford, Columbia and Yale (Facebook 2007). Mark Zuckerberg’s, Facebook’s creator, initial aim was to help students create new friendships within the university that they students were to attend. In the three years since Facebook’s inception, it has expanded to the extent that it now has over 31 million active users (Facebook, 2007). This population growth can be contributed to the design, which focuses on the peripheral awareness.
The design of Facebook has been based on the multiple single-user. Where the users believes that they are the only person using the site. However several features have been created to allow for peripheral awareness, of other users. These applications include mini stories, poke, news feed, status, notification and the e-mail system etc.
Many of the features of Facebook are based on staying easily connected with friends. Through the asynchronous e-mail system (Figure 1), friends, can easily stay in touch. However this e-mail system is more like an Instant Message system, due to the style of language that Facebook’s e-mail system provides. This program cannot be used in the same way that most e-mails are usually used. For instance you cannot include the e-mail sent to you and therefore cannot reply in amongst the sentences of the e-mail received.
However the e-mail aspect was one of the features that I have enjoyed most. Due to the instant message style I have been able to talk to friends on any computer, as I do not need to install any programs. Hence it is an easy, cheap way for me to communicate with friends, as well as keeping a record of the conversation.
Figure 1: e-mail conversation
To create peripheral awareness amongst the users, Facebook has a twitter style status update. This status update allows the user to type in what they are doing or thinking, as well as showing this recent updates amongst friends. Through the use of a simple click and type, the status is effortless for both the user to use and their friends to view. These updates are also displayed in the mini feed/news feed (Figure 2) amongst other updates that are displayed.
Figure 2: Example of NewsfeedThe mini feed is another way of keeping a watchful eye on what your friends are up to. Through the news feed or mini feed, which can be found on both the profile page and the home page, you are able to see what your friends have been doing. Be it updated their profile, or sent a friend a present, added a new application or have had a new friend joined Facebook. This application allows the user’s social network to expand, as well as exploring self interests and their friend’s interests, through Facebook. One of the more interesting examples of the news feed is the use of applications. Through the news feed you can see a friend’s new application and then grab a copy for yourself.
Poke is a core aspect of Facebook. Through this simple device you are able to ‘poke’ (Figure 3) a friend. This is displayed to the friends next time they log into Facebook. This helps keeps communication opens and tells the friends that they were online and thinking about them.
Figure 3: Poke NotificationAlthough Facebook is a good tool for interactions amongst friends, it does have some problems. The largest problem is privacy. Although the user has access to what they display on their profile and how visible it is, most users are not aware that people outside their friendship groups can see their profiles and details(Gross and Acquisti 2006). Another major problem for me personally, is that Facebook has now become a very good form of procrastination.
However one of Facebook’s greatest assets is how easy it is to join. When joining Facebook, you use an existing e-mail account and the friends on that account, who are already members, are automatically added. Another positive feature of Facebook is the birthday reminder. This aspect can replace e-mail reminders, such as Bebo. The reason that this form of reminder is better then other applications available, is that Facebook’s birthday reminder remains constant for a week prior to the birthday, on both the profile and home page. This reminder stays in the background and acts a reminder, for the upcoming birthday.
Through the use of Facebook and its applications to create peripheral awareness, I have been able to increase my connection with my peers. This awareness was accumulated through the status, birthday reminders, gifts and questions. The profile page also allowed me to understand my friends better through the applications such as my Questions, cities I’ve visited, TV Quotes, games, iLike etc. I have been able to see a different perspective into my friend’s lives. Even from the little things such as new photos to where they wish to travel to.
The final feature that appeals to me was the photo albums, although similar to Flickr and Photobucket, the photos in Facebook allow you to tag (figure 4) or your friends to tag the people in the photos. It also allows me to view my friend’s albums (figure 5) and through the news feed see when a new album/photo has been put up.
Figure 4: Tagging a Friend in Facebook
Figure 5: Friend's Albums
When comparing Facebook’s Flickr application (Figure 6), Facebook’s album and Flickr (Figure 7) I discovered that each application had its own advantages. In Flickr you can use the tags to quickly view other images with the same tags. However this is not as easily established in Facebook’s version of Flickr. In this version the images appear and there is a link to the actual Flickr page. However it also uploads new images to the news feed which allows the user’s friends to see the new images with ease. The setup is again different when viewing Facebook’s own version. This version of photo sharing is aimed more at the social network and therefore uses the tag system as away of identifying friends in images.
Figure 6: Facebook's Flickr
Figure 7: Flickr
In conclusion, Facebook is a tool that allows us to communicate in cyberspace with our offline friends. Through Facebook’s understanding of peripheral awareness, in applications such as My Questions, top Rated, Status, it has allowed its users to gain more insight into their friend’s lives. Facebook has allowed me to create closer bonds with my peers and gain more knowledge about their worlds.
Bibliography
(2007). "Face book Statistics." Retrieved 12/8/2007, from http://static.ak.facebook.com/press/facebook_statistics.pdf?12:51442.
(2007). "Facebook Timeline." Retrieved 12/8/2007, from http://static.ak.facebook.com/press/facebook_timeline.pdf?12:44617.
Acquisti, A. a. G., Ralph (2006). "Imagined Communities: Awareness, Information Sharing, and Privacy on the Facebook."
Barry Wellman, J. S., Dimitrina Dimitrova, Laura Garton, Milena Gulia, and Caroline Haythornthwaite (1996). "COMPUTER NETWORKS AS SOCIAL NETWORKS: Collaborative Work, Telework, and Virtual Community." Annual Review of Sociology 22: 213-238.
Lampe, C., N. Ellison, et al. (2006 ). A face(book) in the crowd: social Searching vs. social browsing Proceedings of the 2006 20th anniversary conference on Computer supported cooperative work Banff, Alberta, Canada ACM Press
N.B. Ellison, C. S. C. L. (2007). "The benefits of Facebook "friends:" Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. ." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 12(4).
11 comments:
Thankyou for this insightful article. Although I've been exploring Facebook I've never really understood why people would want to use it or what it's purpose is.
Your article has enlightened me and has revealed some of its usefulness. Though given my research into dangers of privacy it does concern me exactly how much information can be revealed. And as you say most people aren't aware other people outside their own groups can and do read their profiles.
I believe if you were to fill out every single bit of information on Facebook that would surely be enough to pretty much reveal any anonymous identities you have through data intersection.
Thanks again.
Great article Nat! I totally agree that facebook is an excellent way to be connected to peers. It has integrated so many thoughtful features that are innovative for the technology especially ones that enhance a kind of physical connection, like through the super poke features.
And not only does facebook provide some great features for social connection but it also provides the peripheral awareness which is important to social connection, your article makes this quite clear.
On the note of security, its not something that I consider a big deal simply because this whole website was made to be able to show other people things about you. I think humans are quite social which a tool like Facebook only enchances and for the most part privacy here goes on a 'what you dont know wont hurt you' basis, which for me is acceptable. Sure, that is probably not the case for everyone but Facebook gives you choices about what you can share.
But Facebook does a great job of connecting peers as you article says. GJ :)
Comment From:
Pierre Medeiros (40987385)
I thought the posting was very elegantly and neatly put together. the subject was clear and each section covered the required information thoroughly. The integration of images helped considerably towards the ease with which a reader could follow what was being said. Great work.
Hi Nat :)
I agree with you on facebook and peripheral awareness. Facebook offers so many other features which just make you glued to the site and the fact that you dont really need to install applications such as instant messengers just to be able to talk to your friends which happened to be on that site. An in terms of privacy, I think that a user can decided how much information she/he wants to publish for others to see.
Thanks to you Facebook - you are the answer to the painful burden that was MySpace.
Nat, you have summed up within your article every reason why Facebook is so addictive. You were able to make the clear point of Facebook providing means of social connections - which is the main reason that I use it! It's the easiest way to keep in contact with 100's of friends all at the same time.
I do have to agree with Swanny (damn reading his post first - got me thinking about stoopid security) that by signing up to Facebook and going wild with updating personal details is going to raise a privacy issue.
All in all, I really enjoyed reading your article - I even learnt a feature of Facebook I didn't know :)
Natalie liked your article and there are features that I have not used that may be very useful, thank you.
Great article! I like how you talked about the core aspects of Facebook and how each feature has been designed with the user in mind. Itss funny how useful the minifeed is and yet when it first came out there was a massive petition to have it removed. People didn't seem to want to give it a chance :-P
Woh there are some features I had no idea of, thanks! A very straight forward report on a monster of social networking site - good job. And yes the privacy is a big issue, but the bigger problem is that people just don't know that they have the power to restrict this!
Yeah, Facebook is addictive. At some level, its addictiveness probably stems from the fact that it created an awareness about other people from the different sorts of features it contains that you have so clearly described about. Even the simple 'poke' that you mentioned, does a good job of reminding someone that they are not invisible.
Good review of the use of the possible uses of Facebook. The article was very complete I would have liked to see your viewpoints on some of the other applications. especially twitter. Personally I find Facebook bloated but still useful. In contrast to Twitter is strongly limited. I would like to see your consideration of the idea that less is more or that to use Facebook effectively the content you actually use should be restricted.
Well put together article. Good to see you bringing in some outside research regarding Facebook. However, would've liked to see you discuss your experiences in a bit more detail in relation to the research and the features of Facebook. Perhaps pulling in some clear examples to illustrate the points you raise.
cheers
Lorna
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