I can’t be seen on Twitter, it’s not popular!

Introduction

I would have to say that I’m a sucker for social networking, unfortunately I’m one of those girls who gets very caught up in the whole social aspect of internet, that it causes me to constantly procrastinate. I started using MySpace back in early 2006 and since then I haven’t been able to quit my favourite social networks…that’s right I’ve become a junkie so much so that shamefully, the internet has caused me to lose contact with friends who aren’t connected to the most popular social networking sites such as face book. Alas on the plus side my avid addiction to the networking sites finally became a positive when I stared taking this class. Of course I was already a member of some social networks such as face book and MySpace and various forums, and I had used programs such as msn and AIM, so I was interested to discover the new sites twitter, blogger, and FlickR.

Face book

Possibly one of the most popular social networks online, face book allows you to find friends, share details and photos with them, and add different wacky applications which may or may not be interactive with your other friends.

Twitter

Twitter is a social network that allows its members to update their status, or micro blog as more commonly referred to, and then freely sends out the update in a text message to your friends.

Blogger

Blogger is a place where members can post their own blogs (journals/online diary), be apart of different networks whether it be for social or academic reasons.

FlickR

FlickR is a photo sharing social network which allows members to freely post photos so they may share with other users.

Experiencing new social networks is always fun, and also takes a little while to get use to. A good example of this is how I originally never wanted to switch from MySpace to facebook because I felt somewhat of a loyalty towards MySpace seeing as it started my social networking appreciation, however I gave in just like everyone else because of popular demand. At first facebook was plain and boring aesthetically compared to cool customizable MySpace, and not as easy to use. Of course now I’m a big facebook fan however back 6 months ago you couldn’t get me on the application and I know multiple people who were the same. I guess the answer to why I changed, just like other people, is because facebook became the popular one. That brings up the next point, using social networks is rarely fun unless you have friends who are also actively participating in the network, that is what was interesting about using these new applications. As for my thoughts on them, I believe I would have become much more active on twitter if I had more friends using the application, and I really didn’t like the text messaging feature. Although finding out about your friends through text messaging seems fun, the novelty wares off a little too quickly, and suddenly you realise how much you’re being spammed. As for the application Blogger, well I had little previous use of blogs besides posting a MySpace blog once in a full moon about my favourite movies, so this was interesting to me; however like on MySpace I found blogger to be uninteresting and a little silly. I think blogger works on the idea that people like to express their opinions however stupid, far fetched and boring as they are, and because they have posted online it’s believed they have a say, and that people have read them, thus making them feel better about themselves, much like quizzes people take on MySpace. As for the social website flickR, even though it’s very pretty and a good idea, I cant help but feel it’s a little pointless next to applications such as facebook where you can post images as well as doing multiple other things.

Honestly after joining other social networks I would have to say I find all these sites pointless with the exception of facebook. Of course I’m biased by saying this because I very much enjoy using facebook even before I started in this class, but none the less I feel that all the other social applications are simply elements of facebook that have been fragmented throughout the internet, and that facebook is simply all these social networks being combined again. Twitter is just like the status updates on facebook, so in my opinion quite pointless. Blogger is completely useless unless you’re a lecturer or a celebrity and people actually care and are interested in your opinion. And FlickR is just another strand of facebook. However I know I’m a complete hypocrite, this is the problem with social networks, because where there is sociality there will be the element of popularity. I know that if the popular application suddenly turned towards blogger, I would be blogging away like there was no tomorrow and of course this is shameful on my behalf. The point that I’m trying to make is that social networks are only as good as the people who use them.

Conclusion

Despite all the mean things I’ve said about social networking, I truly do find it to be amazing. What more could you really want

- An easy way to stay in touch with your current friends and being able to meet new ones

- A place to blog and tell other people your opinions on anything at all, even if close to no one reads it or care…you will never know, and who knows, maybe you reached out or really touched someone who read your blog.

- Showing off all the fun you’ve had and how cool you are through photos on social networking

- And knowing what your friends are up to all the time through texts, at least you will feel like you’re in the loop

My point is that there will always be positives and negatives about these applications, and even though I personally don’t think they are all that great, I think social networking in general is simply incredible and really fun!

References

1. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
3. http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-social26mar26,1,5732722.story