Douglas Wilson - s4121621
Cigarettes, alcohol, chocolate, they're all addictive, and we know why they are. But what about social networking sites on the Internet such as Facebook or Twitter? These two applications are addictive, as I discovered when my family came into my room the other day, telling me “You've had enough of Facebook and that annoying 'bird' website that keeps texting your phone for today, how about you come outside.” At which I replied, in my flat toned voice, “Just a few more hours”. At this point a suddenly came to the realisation that yes, I am addicted to Facebook and Twitter.
OK just to clear this up, this actually never happened, but you can imagine if it did. The way I really know I'm addicted is when I go on the sites when ever I sit down at a computer. Whenever I see someone on the pages I go on too. And when I am at home, sitting down at my computer I automatically load up the pages. I usually just keep Facebook running in the background, I feel naked if its not there, I use it that much.
So, is this a bad thing? Is it a bad thing that I want to know what my friends (and people I really don't know that well) are getting up too? That may sound a little creepy, but I assure you my intentions are entirely honorable.
Anyway... In this review I'm going to be talking about what makes the Social Networking sites on the Internet addictive, and just to clear my conscious, is this a bad thing.
Launched on the 4th of February, 2004, Facebook is now one of the largest social networking sites available to the general public. Originally this wasn't the case. Created by a Harvard University student called Mark Zuckerberg, the site was only available to students at his University. It then eventually became access able to all Uni students and then finally everyone over the age of thirteen. Facebook now has sixty four million active users and has an average of fourteen million pictures uploaded daily. So what is all this fuss about? What makes Facebook so popular? Well the main reason is that it lets you keep track on your friends and that your able to communicate with them, much like a email account, but the messages tend to be more conversational then the typical email. Facebook, is a substitute for the instant messaging system MSN or AIM. If the users friend is not on MSN then they would send a message through Facebook that is a very relaxed writing style, much like they would be talking face to face. This message can stay on their page forever, much like an email can. So its a fun and easy substitute for MSN, so what? I hear you say. Facebook has an endless list of applications that can be added to the users site. These applications include, likeness tests, movie quizzes, Jetman, Graffiti, Super Poke and my personal favourite Hobo wars. Each program lets the user interact in someway with one of his friends, weather it be competing with each other; seeing who gets the highest score or a certain way of communicating, for example you can poke someone until your fingers bleed, or even throw the odd sheep at someone. Each program is seemingly pointless but never the less fun, and that's what Facebook is all about.
Having never heard of twitter since starting Comp3505 I was a little unsure as to what it was all about. So lets take a look at the deep and dark mysteries that befuddle us all, that is the mighty Twitter. Launched in July 13, 2006 by the start-up company Obvious, LLC. Twitter is an online social networking system that allows the users to send updates of what they are doing to all of their friends. Here is a quote from the site itself explaining what it is.
“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”
To put it bluntly Wikipedia describes it as a Micro-Blogging service. So what twitter requires of its users is to post a small comment on what they are doing at that exact time. Allowing everybody else to see, as long as they are following your feed. This is the big daddy of stalking services. Now you may think, people cant say what their doing at that exact moment, because surely all they could say is 'cdougw – using a social networking site'. But the person writes 'walking the dog' they really are not walking the do
g, because to twitter requires you to be on a computer. Unfortunately for the human race it is now possible to be walking the dog and twittering at the same time. Twitter allows the user to send text messages through their phone onto the website. More on this controversial subject later, for now, I must move on.
Del.icio.us
Del.icio.us is indeed delicious. In late 2003 a genius of a man called Joshua Schachter founded this social bookmarking site. It lets users add bookmarks to their profile, allowing everybody else who uses the site to see what you've made a link too. This site could be seen as a replacement for Google, if your only looking for popular sites. In del.icio.us you can not find Abdul's Egyptian restaurant, but you can find the most popular site within the del.icio.us community for Golf. You may think this is a little pointless, as Google can find you both of these things, but can Google show you your friends favourite or interesting websites that they've found? I rest my case.
Blogger
Blogger was launched on July 3st, 2000 by Pyra Labs, and was bought by Google in 2003. Blogger is a Blog publishing system that lets the users to publish their thoughts on any topic, upload images and give and receive feedback on Blogs. The norm for a active user is to make a blog post once a day. Its an online diary if you will. Although usually peoples diary's are entirely private these ones are open to the public so generally the topics are restrained to under sixteen viewers, although I have seen some pretty saucy blogs. The general length of the blogs tend to be a bit long, much longer that Twitter or Facebook handles. The user could write a whole book and that would be perfectly acceptable. Frankly I don't really have much interest in Blogger, I am not willing to read a three thousand word blog some random I don't know made about their sad and lonely life or what they had for breakfast that day.
My experience with these social and mobile computing tools is that they can indeed be addictive. To understand why I am addicted, I'm going to take a closer look at Facebook and Twitter to see if I can unveil the mystery of my and many other peoples (perhaps unfortunate) addiction.
Lets start at the very beginning, a very good place to start (thanks Julie Andrews). Facebook and Twitters meet with me did not go down well. I loathed them both, recently coming out of a bad relationship with Myspace, I was looking for a replacement website to upload my photos, comment people and stalk my friends. Eventually finding the very boring looking website, I struggled to get to grips with its very different interface. I somehow managed to find my friends and add them. This was a grave mistake as a flood of invitations came for random quizzes and weird games with Pirates and Ninjas, and someone who I shall not name threw a sheep at me. I gladly accepted them all, which instantly filled my page up to the point of crashing my web browser. It literally took me three days to scroll down to reach my Wall to see the comments made. After a few weeks of this I became even more aggravated. I then realised that Facebook had taken control over me, enough was enough. After much searching this site I found the page where you can delete the applications. With a few clicks they were gone, and so was my hate for Facebook. This is where my addiction started. Facebook is now insanely easy to use, making it a pleasure to work on. And getting pleasure out of something is the first stage of addiction. So there's part of the first question answered, Facebook was extremely pleasurable to use.
A few more weeks passed and I became more involved in what other people where doing on their own profile. The home page or commonly known as the News feed allows me to 'stalk' my friends, seeing exactly what their doing, even if they really don't want me to see. For example I can see Lex Hyde's comment he made on some random person that I don't knows picture. I began to care about what people were doing, it was like the six o'clock news but on the Internet, and about my friends, and their friends. I watch the six o'clock news religiously, why? Because I have the desire for knowledge. This desire is the same I get with Facebook and Twitter, so there is the second part for the first question, why are they addictive.
Twitter is entirely the same for me, I did not like it at first, but after a while I became familiar with the interface and became addicted by the same reasons I became addicted to Facebook. Its a very fun program to use, very easy. And second of all I wanted to know what everyone was up to, its the same desire for knowledge I have with Facebook and the six o'clock news.
Time for the second and final question, is this addiction a bad thing?
As I discussed earlier, twitter seems to be taking over peoples lives. Technology in general is taking over our lives. Is this a bad thing? Well I'm sure the previous generations will say 'Yes! This is terrible, kids should be out outside, running around, getting their hands dirty.' Well this is entirely possible, twitter allows you to be anywhere in the world and still get updates about what people are doing and are able to send information about what they are doing themselves while they are getting their hand dirty. So in this brief argument I think I have justified that being addicted to twitter isn't a bad thing, but what about Facebook. Facebook does not allow you to be anywhere when gaining information about your friends, you have to be at a computer. Again the oldies will say, 'get outside, do something, meet people!' But we are doing something, we are being very socially active with our friends and sometimes meeting new people. So with that comment, I don't believe that being addicted to these sites is a bad thing, I am socially communicating with people.
So some social networking sites are addictive, they provide a pleasurable experience, and gives the knowledge that I crave. Facebook and Twitter may not be the type of addiction that I get violent and start shaking when I've been away from it for a while. But it certainly is enough to miss it, even for a day without them. And now that I have proved that there is nothing wrong with this, I can enjoy their company, guilt free.
[1] http://twitter.com/
[2] 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.
[3]Livingston, S. Young People and New Media: Childhood and the Changing Media Environment,
Sage Publications, London
8 comments:
An entertaining read. I know what you mean about feeling naked without being able to check the sites.
I agree with you when you mention that we -are- being socially active by participating on these sites, so in the "antisocial nerd" sense this addiction is not harmful. However have you considered the financial ramifications to all the lost time people spend on these sites when they should be doing their work! I wrote about it in my blog, the findings were staggering to say the least! Check it out!
Your reflection reads well Doug. I know how addictive Facebook can be when you have nothing better to do. It can easily disrupt night-time study at home. There are so many positives things about the whole idea of social networking through the internet. However, if a person is totally dependent on the internet to interact with other people, this can be a problem when having to deal with situations requiring social skills face to face.
Hey,
You have created a great read, even on first reading i didnt knotice your typo ;) But after your comment I had to check, Theres a few numbers according to the exact number of people on facebook, 92mil from wiki, 42mil from Ultimate Guides magazine, so maby we should all just be impressed that in the few short years that facebook has been online that it has managed to get so many users.
Some really excellent phrasing, keep up the good work :D
Alan J Lambert
I have to agree with regards to del.icio.us - I love the portability of your bookmarks as well as the easy searching through the tags. The opportunity to be able to search through friend's networks also means that you can see what they've bookmarked - definitely great social compatibility.
I think it is great that you wrote about addiction, because I did as well which means that it must be a common theme which others have picked up on as well. Your experiences sound similar to mine and in fact your 'fictional' situation from your introduction actually happened to me! Not in so many words, but my family did notice a change in my internet usage and behaviour. I talk more about it in my blog.
"I began to care about what people were doing, it was like the six o'clock news but on the Internet, and about my friends, and their friends. I watch the six o'clock news religiously, why? Because I have the desire for knowledge." This was my favourite part - comparing these applications to the news and all for the desire of knowledge. Loved it!
"That bird website" - Classic. I agree that certain options in Facebook can be next to impossible to find. Also agree with the 'older generations' closed minded view of a computer not being capable of social interaction. In fact one could gain tenfold the amount of social interaction in one hour at the computer rather than on a football field.
Interesting how you talk about being addicted to these social network things as good or bad. It'd be interesting to study weather it is the social interaction people are addicted to, or the technology itself. I tend to find, in my experience, that using technology to interact actually aids face to face interaction. I talk to people through facebook that I don't have the time or will to catch up with a lot because of logistical reasons or whatever, but being able to stay in touch by using technology means we don't become disconnected by not being physically apart.
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