What do *I* think?
Paul Huish - 41167988
That's what I think. Ok, not exactly, there's a bit more to it.
Introduction
Social Networking has always been important, it's how people know what everyone else is doing. It is extremely important in business situations and also important in leisurely social settings to keep people in touch. I know, because last semester I researched how important social networks are for business situations. Presently I don't actually use many social networking sites and I really don't feel that they help me in any way. However I do believe they can be of use in their own right, obviously for other people; they must be popular for some reason. Below is an exploration into how and why I use what aspects of what social networking programs and websites.
Background
MySpace is one of the top 10 sites on the internet currently. It is a networking site that allows users to share messages, videos and pictures with anyone from around the world. Each user is also able to customize their site to their specific style and able to add music to their page which automatically starts when you open the page but can be quite irritating. Good for keeping in touch with friends you don't see often and plans are easy to arrange. Famous actors and movie stars actually have MySpace pages as well to have a slightly closer connection to their fans though it is only slightly closer than a normal webpage. Unfortunately MySpace happens to be good for 'cyber'-stalking people (Example 1 Example 2) because there is no ability to see who has viewed your page or block who views it. Recently a program/plugin called Profile Snoop had been created to allow the user to see who has viewed their page in an attempt to prevent the stalking. And within a few days this plugin was erased from everyone's page with MySpace saying that it was a violation of their privacy act. So this has upset some people leaving MySpace still rather vulnerable.
Facebook is quite similar to MySpace with the ability to make friends and link to their friends while sharing videos and pictures except for music. Facebook, created by Mark Zuckerberg, was created while he was at Harvard University and in turn, originally only allowed students from that university to join but soon became any uni student, high school students, and now anyone over 13 years of age. "Facebook" refers to the paper facebooks that American universities used to identify students with. Users can send 'tests' and quizzes such as Likeness quizzes to see how similar they are to another person in terms of personality. Users can also use applications and play games with which they can compare scores with their friends which makes some multi-player games which aren't usually for multiple players now a social experience. This site has faced a lot of controversy about privacy issues and such, especially because it is easier to stalk people than on MySpace and, on a scary note, it is possible to steal identities easier because of the personal information out on display.
Twitter is a micro-blogging website that limits each user to only 140 characters at a time when they make a post. "What are you doing?" is the question shown above the typing area to incur simple thoughts to let the user's friends know what they are up to. It is a simple idea to get people in touch with their friends and the little things they do or experience.
Flickr is a photo sharing website that allows friends to share their photos and comment on each of them. A user can make albums of a particular trip they took or of similar photos to keep things organized.
Windows Live Messenger is a free instant messaging client developed and distributed by Microsoft in 1999 under the name "Msn Messenger"for Windows Based Computers. Users can add a friend's email address to the program and it will store them. When a friend signs on, the user will be notified by a small alert and they will appear within the Messenger window. The user can then start typing to their friend and then they will get an alert telling them they are being contacted and can reply instantly, even if they are on the other side of the world.
Google Calendar is a contact and time management calendar which allows a user's GMail contacts to see what they have planned coming up.
Last.Fm is an internet radio music community. A user will be asked to look up their favourite music artist in a search bar and in return it will play a song by that artist, then begin to play one by one through similar artists' songs. It is free because you can't save the songs to your computer or choose which songs you want to play. There is a Last.Fm program available for download which allows the user to share their music and let their friends know what they listen to.
DeviantArt is an international artistic community for artists anywhere in the world to submit their own art, observe master artists (get alerts when the "deviant" they are watching have submitted new "deviations"), contact friends and get comments and feedback on their work. Any deviant can add any deviation to their favourites list to observe later and show other deviants the work they aspire to or are inspired by. For even more networking, a deviant can view any other deviants' favourite list to find even more deviations they like.
Focus
In using, reading about and experiencing these sites, I have formed many opinions, views and ideas on how they work and why. I believe that MySpace and Facebook fit into basically the same category "A site to keep in touch with friends and to share pictures and movies." These two definitely are extremely popular and have obviously achieved what the creators had originally intended them to do. Now while I find both of these sites immensely annoying because they are all I seem to hear people talk about, they must have done the right thing for people to be still talking about them. These two websites work well because it makes the days of letter writing, which took a lot of time and was usually executed over a distance, obsolete. By being able to contact any one of your friends where ever they are instantly, share photos of your trip with them and share a video with them and have all of the rest of your friends witness it, is amazing. It digitally connects hundreds of people from across countries at all times (except when you're not near a computer). With this amazing technology, I'm still not entirely sure why I still avoid these sites. Probably because of the high capability of being stalked on these sites and if someone has the disturbing and determined intention, they can seriously steal people's identities. I believe that this grossly destroys both of these sites' integrity making them problematic as well as problematic in their social benefits.
Twitter is unique by being the main Micro-blogging site currently. To summarize, it's like a normal forum post site where everyone can post their ideas and so forth, just shortened to 140 characters and simplified by limiting the word amount and only really giving simple profile options. This site works well due to multiple people being able to post in a collected area much like all sitting at a table and sharing ideas, but at geographically and chronologically different zones. Its original intention to let people know what other people are thinking or experiencing; I find that rather trivial, however if it was used to organize a group event, I think it would work marvelously. I still don't really use it, I haven't felt the need, it didn't compel me at all. I definitely believe that Google Calendar is great to organize a busy schedule especially being able to access it anywhere you have the internet available, and also the tremendous amount that I use Google myself; the problem herein lies in the fact that I have barely ever used a calendar to organize anything. It's bad I know, but it's just how I work. This is an example of the system not working, but it is simple due to preference, not actual systematic failure.
Flickr is available for viewing a few photos from a friend's trip or a party they had recently with the ability to comment on those photos. A good idea, but I still wasn't interested, nothing brought me back to it and it kept me thinking why I haven't needed to go back to that site.
Last.Fm is a site that I really can relate to and actually have a reason to use. A year or two ago, there was a site called Pandora, well actually it still exists, problem is, you can't use it if you live outside the United States of America due to licensing constraints. Pandora is an online radio site, it allows you to type in a band/artist of your choice and then listen to songs by similar artists for free. I was quite annoyed when I found out this site had become restricted and then became quite happy when I realised that Last.Fm was the same concept, with the social aspect thrown in as well. I listen to it when I want to find new music, but so far the social aspect once again has eluded me, or maybe the friends I have on there aren't as active as the site's "recommended daily intake". Nevertheless, the social aspect hasn't really effected me from this site which adds to the large list of social sites I don't care about.
Now, after all these sites and their social aspects had failed me, it had me wondering...
Why am I resisting them and why do I need all these sites?
Reflection
Well, of course to do an assignment, but even then I managed to avoid and resist them. What about these sites am I supposed to want...what am I supposed to need to use? It seemingly isn't the social aspect, it doesn't seem to be helping or alluring at all. Am I not a social person? Of course that isn't true, have many friends and I certainly need friends, I'd go even more insane than I already am. Then I realised, I already regularly use sites and programs that cover what these other ones offer. I also wondered about the fact that when I think about flickr, twitter and myspace, I feel this deep sense of annoyance towards them, and I feel resistance towards them. This does apply partly to the fact that I avoid most popular things in terms of non-conformity, but that's just preference again. Upon thinking about this issue, I came to understand that I'm not necessarily avoiding what the sites have to offer, just those particular sites because I already use what I need.
I am currently a budding artist and obsessed with all things logo and typography so naturally that leads to DeviantArt where I can upload my artwork and let others comment on them. DepthCore is the next step but I don't believe I'm up to the correct skill level yet. (DepthCore is known for having exceedingly skilled artists and only as such). So by using DeviantArt, I can effectively cross out Flickr because that is only images and cross out the picture submitting functions on MySpace and Facebook. I also use YouTube, like millions of other people so I don't need the video submission from MySpace and Facebook. As for Twitter, I found it so trivial, I really didn't want to post anything, I just felt it was pointless to add anything. I usually only say something if I need to get important information across and I usually just send a group email if I want to plan something, and then ring people separately if they haven't replied. I didn't think it was reliable enough to rely on other people to check this forum, and on the other note, strangers can view plans forming; not the most desirable aspect.
Last.FM, while yes, not entirely important for me, and I don't use it on a regular basis because it's better to not use bandwidth when listening to music, I still use it from time to time if I'm stuck trying to find some new music to listen to. I also use it to scare my friends with what I listen to, way too an eclectic range. Finally, I use msn the most to talk to my friends in real time, this way I'm certain they are getting the message. I don't use MySpace and Facebooks' messaging system because I can just use Msn Messenger. This is what everything centers around, it is all based on real time. I do send emails when people aren't online, but even then I would just pick up the phone and ring them. I am the kind of person who needs to know that my friend got the message, and this is why I don't use the other sites because to me they are just like fancy email and would take longer. This is also why I was resitant to them because the sites we focused on just happened to be opposing to my preferences as I already had everything that those sites offered.
So it wasn't the sites themselves, it was merely the services they offered and the fact that they offered everything that I already used on a regular basis from differing websites that was making me wonder why I needed them at all and why I was resistant to the idea of engaging in the majority of these social websites.
Conclusion
After looking through each of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, Last.Fm and Google Calendar and for a long time wondering why I was resistant to use these sites (Excluding Last.Fm I suppose) , I am glad to know now that it was not just because I was avoiding the latest trends, but actually avoiding and resisting them for a good reason; out of mere preference and lack of necessity. Maybe in time I will start using other social networking sites if they become more conclusive and start offering services that what I currently use doesn't offer.
Reference
・MySpace
・Ezinearticles.com
・Urbandictionary
・Profile Snoop
・Facebook
・Twitter
・Flickr
・Windows Live Messenger
・Google Calendar
・Last.Fm
・DeviantArt
・Pandora
・DepthCore
That's what I think. Ok, not exactly, there's a bit more to it.Introduction
Social Networking has always been important, it's how people know what everyone else is doing. It is extremely important in business situations and also important in leisurely social settings to keep people in touch. I know, because last semester I researched how important social networks are for business situations. Presently I don't actually use many social networking sites and I really don't feel that they help me in any way. However I do believe they can be of use in their own right, obviously for other people; they must be popular for some reason. Below is an exploration into how and why I use what aspects of what social networking programs and websites.
Background
MySpace is one of the top 10 sites on the internet currently. It is a networking site that allows users to share messages, videos and pictures with anyone from around the world. Each user is also able to customize their site to their specific style and able to add music to their page which automatically starts when you open the page but can be quite irritating. Good for keeping in touch with friends you don't see often and plans are easy to arrange. Famous actors and movie stars actually have MySpace pages as well to have a slightly closer connection to their fans though it is only slightly closer than a normal webpage. Unfortunately MySpace happens to be good for 'cyber'-stalking people (Example 1 Example 2) because there is no ability to see who has viewed your page or block who views it. Recently a program/plugin called Profile Snoop had been created to allow the user to see who has viewed their page in an attempt to prevent the stalking. And within a few days this plugin was erased from everyone's page with MySpace saying that it was a violation of their privacy act. So this has upset some people leaving MySpace still rather vulnerable.
Facebook is quite similar to MySpace with the ability to make friends and link to their friends while sharing videos and pictures except for music. Facebook, created by Mark Zuckerberg, was created while he was at Harvard University and in turn, originally only allowed students from that university to join but soon became any uni student, high school students, and now anyone over 13 years of age. "Facebook" refers to the paper facebooks that American universities used to identify students with. Users can send 'tests' and quizzes such as Likeness quizzes to see how similar they are to another person in terms of personality. Users can also use applications and play games with which they can compare scores with their friends which makes some multi-player games which aren't usually for multiple players now a social experience. This site has faced a lot of controversy about privacy issues and such, especially because it is easier to stalk people than on MySpace and, on a scary note, it is possible to steal identities easier because of the personal information out on display.
Twitter is a micro-blogging website that limits each user to only 140 characters at a time when they make a post. "What are you doing?" is the question shown above the typing area to incur simple thoughts to let the user's friends know what they are up to. It is a simple idea to get people in touch with their friends and the little things they do or experience.
Flickr is a photo sharing website that allows friends to share their photos and comment on each of them. A user can make albums of a particular trip they took or of similar photos to keep things organized.
Windows Live Messenger is a free instant messaging client developed and distributed by Microsoft in 1999 under the name "Msn Messenger"for Windows Based Computers. Users can add a friend's email address to the program and it will store them. When a friend signs on, the user will be notified by a small alert and they will appear within the Messenger window. The user can then start typing to their friend and then they will get an alert telling them they are being contacted and can reply instantly, even if they are on the other side of the world.
Google Calendar is a contact and time management calendar which allows a user's GMail contacts to see what they have planned coming up.
Last.Fm is an internet radio music community. A user will be asked to look up their favourite music artist in a search bar and in return it will play a song by that artist, then begin to play one by one through similar artists' songs. It is free because you can't save the songs to your computer or choose which songs you want to play. There is a Last.Fm program available for download which allows the user to share their music and let their friends know what they listen to.
DeviantArt is an international artistic community for artists anywhere in the world to submit their own art, observe master artists (get alerts when the "deviant" they are watching have submitted new "deviations"), contact friends and get comments and feedback on their work. Any deviant can add any deviation to their favourites list to observe later and show other deviants the work they aspire to or are inspired by. For even more networking, a deviant can view any other deviants' favourite list to find even more deviations they like.
Focus
In using, reading about and experiencing these sites, I have formed many opinions, views and ideas on how they work and why. I believe that MySpace and Facebook fit into basically the same category "A site to keep in touch with friends and to share pictures and movies." These two definitely are extremely popular and have obviously achieved what the creators had originally intended them to do. Now while I find both of these sites immensely annoying because they are all I seem to hear people talk about, they must have done the right thing for people to be still talking about them. These two websites work well because it makes the days of letter writing, which took a lot of time and was usually executed over a distance, obsolete. By being able to contact any one of your friends where ever they are instantly, share photos of your trip with them and share a video with them and have all of the rest of your friends witness it, is amazing. It digitally connects hundreds of people from across countries at all times (except when you're not near a computer). With this amazing technology, I'm still not entirely sure why I still avoid these sites. Probably because of the high capability of being stalked on these sites and if someone has the disturbing and determined intention, they can seriously steal people's identities. I believe that this grossly destroys both of these sites' integrity making them problematic as well as problematic in their social benefits.
Twitter is unique by being the main Micro-blogging site currently. To summarize, it's like a normal forum post site where everyone can post their ideas and so forth, just shortened to 140 characters and simplified by limiting the word amount and only really giving simple profile options. This site works well due to multiple people being able to post in a collected area much like all sitting at a table and sharing ideas, but at geographically and chronologically different zones. Its original intention to let people know what other people are thinking or experiencing; I find that rather trivial, however if it was used to organize a group event, I think it would work marvelously. I still don't really use it, I haven't felt the need, it didn't compel me at all. I definitely believe that Google Calendar is great to organize a busy schedule especially being able to access it anywhere you have the internet available, and also the tremendous amount that I use Google myself; the problem herein lies in the fact that I have barely ever used a calendar to organize anything. It's bad I know, but it's just how I work. This is an example of the system not working, but it is simple due to preference, not actual systematic failure.
Flickr is available for viewing a few photos from a friend's trip or a party they had recently with the ability to comment on those photos. A good idea, but I still wasn't interested, nothing brought me back to it and it kept me thinking why I haven't needed to go back to that site.
Last.Fm is a site that I really can relate to and actually have a reason to use. A year or two ago, there was a site called Pandora, well actually it still exists, problem is, you can't use it if you live outside the United States of America due to licensing constraints. Pandora is an online radio site, it allows you to type in a band/artist of your choice and then listen to songs by similar artists for free. I was quite annoyed when I found out this site had become restricted and then became quite happy when I realised that Last.Fm was the same concept, with the social aspect thrown in as well. I listen to it when I want to find new music, but so far the social aspect once again has eluded me, or maybe the friends I have on there aren't as active as the site's "recommended daily intake". Nevertheless, the social aspect hasn't really effected me from this site which adds to the large list of social sites I don't care about.
Now, after all these sites and their social aspects had failed me, it had me wondering...
Why am I resisting them and why do I need all these sites?
Reflection
Well, of course to do an assignment, but even then I managed to avoid and resist them. What about these sites am I supposed to want...what am I supposed to need to use? It seemingly isn't the social aspect, it doesn't seem to be helping or alluring at all. Am I not a social person? Of course that isn't true, have many friends and I certainly need friends, I'd go even more insane than I already am. Then I realised, I already regularly use sites and programs that cover what these other ones offer. I also wondered about the fact that when I think about flickr, twitter and myspace, I feel this deep sense of annoyance towards them, and I feel resistance towards them. This does apply partly to the fact that I avoid most popular things in terms of non-conformity, but that's just preference again. Upon thinking about this issue, I came to understand that I'm not necessarily avoiding what the sites have to offer, just those particular sites because I already use what I need.
I am currently a budding artist and obsessed with all things logo and typography so naturally that leads to DeviantArt where I can upload my artwork and let others comment on them. DepthCore is the next step but I don't believe I'm up to the correct skill level yet. (DepthCore is known for having exceedingly skilled artists and only as such). So by using DeviantArt, I can effectively cross out Flickr because that is only images and cross out the picture submitting functions on MySpace and Facebook. I also use YouTube, like millions of other people so I don't need the video submission from MySpace and Facebook. As for Twitter, I found it so trivial, I really didn't want to post anything, I just felt it was pointless to add anything. I usually only say something if I need to get important information across and I usually just send a group email if I want to plan something, and then ring people separately if they haven't replied. I didn't think it was reliable enough to rely on other people to check this forum, and on the other note, strangers can view plans forming; not the most desirable aspect.
Last.FM, while yes, not entirely important for me, and I don't use it on a regular basis because it's better to not use bandwidth when listening to music, I still use it from time to time if I'm stuck trying to find some new music to listen to. I also use it to scare my friends with what I listen to, way too an eclectic range. Finally, I use msn the most to talk to my friends in real time, this way I'm certain they are getting the message. I don't use MySpace and Facebooks' messaging system because I can just use Msn Messenger. This is what everything centers around, it is all based on real time. I do send emails when people aren't online, but even then I would just pick up the phone and ring them. I am the kind of person who needs to know that my friend got the message, and this is why I don't use the other sites because to me they are just like fancy email and would take longer. This is also why I was resitant to them because the sites we focused on just happened to be opposing to my preferences as I already had everything that those sites offered.
So it wasn't the sites themselves, it was merely the services they offered and the fact that they offered everything that I already used on a regular basis from differing websites that was making me wonder why I needed them at all and why I was resistant to the idea of engaging in the majority of these social websites.
Conclusion
After looking through each of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Flickr, Last.Fm and Google Calendar and for a long time wondering why I was resistant to use these sites (Excluding Last.Fm I suppose) , I am glad to know now that it was not just because I was avoiding the latest trends, but actually avoiding and resisting them for a good reason; out of mere preference and lack of necessity. Maybe in time I will start using other social networking sites if they become more conclusive and start offering services that what I currently use doesn't offer.
Reference
・MySpace
・Ezinearticles.com
・Urbandictionary
・Profile Snoop
・Flickr
・Windows Live Messenger
・Google Calendar
・Last.Fm
・DeviantArt
・Pandora
・DepthCore
9 comments:
Paul, you have hit on a number of points that others seems to agree with. They dont see a need to use such social networking sites, and when they do they are fed up with the invites and what not they receive.
Its very interesting about MySpace removing that application due to privacy reasons, but then again i think you can limit people viewing your profile on there anyway, so i guess it doesnt really matter.
Don't read this wrong because I liked your whole blog, but something I liked about it was the comments about Deviant Art. I myself use this and totally forgot about it as a social networking site.
Interesting that you comment on MSN Messenger as I probably wouldn't have called it a social networking Site as such but definitely good to draw comparison to and definitely worth the mention. My 2c, a good read.
It's interesting to see that you felt resistant to using the suggest social networking sites, I've read a few blogs with similar thoughts. Though I understand why you have the resistance, since you already currently use other methods to communicate with others and don't see the need to add 5 more sites onto your list that basically do the same thing.
I mean out of the 5 social networking sites I joined, I really only use two of them and who knows how long I'll continue to use them....
I find some of the points you came up with very interesting. They seem to link in with many of mine and others feelings about how the use of SNS may not be as great as everyone says.
I also like how you explained fully why you feel this way about them and then gave good examples to back them up like with MySpace removing viewer recorder.
Exactly, why use these sites when you are able to communicate with friends and family without them.
The only one on that list that I've actually enjoyed is deviant art really.
Jarrad Webber 41209141
Thanks for you comments guy I really appreciate that you enjoyed what I had to say. Oh and deanjullie, the sheet said social and mobile computing applications and tools, so it didn't have to be sites, so Msn still fits in, and thank you for your addition.
Maybe you have to have been stalked first to appreciate that the tools could become a hindrance. :) I can see the possibility for annoying people to do stupid things, but so far it hasn't really happened. Probs cos my online rep "rookie floor-mat" and people just don't bother.
I took a similar tone in my blog and i have to agree wholeheartedly with you. If it wasnt 'suggested' that we sign up for these things i wouldnt have bothered with most of them. But yes that was a good point you raised, about not needing to use many of these tools simply because you have alternatives that you can use.
I really like that you included Deviant Art in your blog. I think this is a prime example of a definite community developing online and from my limited use of it it seems much more supportive than similar websites. One of my pet hates is the online forums where its "if you don't agree with me you're stupid", to which gets a reply like "no, you're stupid!" and then degenerates...
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