Reflections

Done by s4148323

Introduction.

Over the years, social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have changed the way we interact with our friends. Be it sharing photos, playing multiplayer games or even communicating with one another, all these were made possible through websites such as those mentioned above. Through this course, I was newly introduced to a number of social networking websites. For this assignment, I would first provide a brief description about these websites, and then proceed on to share my views and thoughts. Last but not least, I will conclude this assignment with a summary of how these sites have impacted us positively or negative.

Background.

Friendster

First launched on 22^nd March 2002, it was a privately owned internet social networking website which was very popular amongst internet users, especially in the Asian region [1]. In fact, it was the first social networking website i’ve ever used. Friendster allows users to create individual profiles, providing information about themselves as well as allowing them to upload pictures about their daily life etc. Friendster also allows the addition of friends, thus increasing users’ social networks. Friendster sorts friends in terms of degrees. For example, friends whom you added are known as “first degree friends” and friends of those friends are connected as the “second degree”. One key feature provided by Friendster is that it allows users to view the connections between friends. In this way, it might show that two of your friends might actually know each other.

Thoughts on Friendster

When I first started using Friendster, it was the answer in keeping in touch with friends throughout my life. In the past (as in the early to mid 90s), the only way to truly keep in touch with friends was to call all of them and arrange for a gathering. Unlike now where handphones are commonplace, it wasn’t an easy task organising such an event via telephone. With Friendster, I was able to broadcast messages to friends about an event just at the click of a button. Friendster has also enabled me to add friends whom I wish to stay in touch but seldom had the time to actually meet up in person. It was also a good way of finding long lost friends whom I’ve not met for more than 10 years. Being one of the earliest social networking sites around, Friendster started out looking rather simple with basic features. At first, it was not an issue and was rather fun just looking through friends’ profiles and keeping myself up to date on what they are doing. However as people have different “commitment” levels, the frequencies in which they update their profiles vary. As a result, some friends might spend time everyday updating their profiles while the only time others log in to Friendster was the first time they registered.

Another aspect I find lacking with Friendster that there isn’t a level of interactivity with other users. Other than just viewing profiles, there isn’t really much else there is to do. It was only when I’ve registered Facebook that I realise that Friendster has actually missed out on a lot of its potential. The earlier versions of Friendster allowed users to view each other’s profile, send private messages or posting on bulletin boards. However, it felt as if I was reading a book and there was no true interaction between my friends and I.

Facebook

Facebook is created by a Harvard student known as Mark Zuckerberg and was launched on the 4^th of February 2004. At that time, Harvard University was in the midst of developing a website called Facesmash which was a site that allowed students to make a comparison between two students and decide which of them was “hotter”. Growing impatient on the progress of the site, Mark decided to develop his own version and called it Facebook [2]. Facebook contained elements similar to Facesmash but included extensive profile features which allow students to search for each other through their courses, social organizations and Houses [2]. Initially, Facebook was opened to students of Harvard University only. However, it became so popular that it expanded to other universities in America and even employees of companies such as Apple and Microsoft. Eventually, Facebook became open to the general public and anyone who had an email address is able to register.

What made Facebook so popular is probably its user interactivity. Users could post messages on other users’ “Wall”, send virtual gifts when it is the recipient’s birthday and even add applications to their profile and join in on multi player games with other users. It also allows users to upload photos and sort them out into albums. Another neat feature offered by Facebook is that it allows users to know how many of their friends are surfing Facebook at the same time. It also allows users to chat with them via a small window at the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

Another key selling point of Facebook is that it provides a framework that allows users to create applications or apps as they are called. It even provides tutorials and tips on how to create these applications (http://developers.facebook.com/). These apps range from games, to messaging, to sharing of videos and so much more. With the economic downturn, some users have even developed apps which can help to determine a user’s career suitability based on their personality. With such potential, it small wonders why Facebook has become so popular.

Thoughts about Facebook

When I moved from Friendster to Facebook, it felt like I’ve entered an alien world. The layout out seemed so cluttered and messy and I did not know what to do. When I started adding friends, that’s when the nightmare came. Right apps are fun but imagine having hundred of your friends sending you requests to join them as Zombies, Vampires, Soldiers or what not to fight against each other..... It seemed cool at first but having hundreds upon hundreds of requests was starting to strike a nerve. Well all this was a matter of getting used to. Looking past all this, I started to appreciate how “informative” Facebook can be. First off, when you log in to your account, you will be shown a list of updates of your friends. What they have been doing, a list of photos that have been recently uploaded and even notifications about someone who has got into a relationship or has just broke up. It’s just like getting gossip without having to ask “How you’ve been lately?” I felt that the developers of Facebook have gone through a very deep thought process in determining what a user should see the moment a user logs in to his account. This is one aspect I have appreciated tremendously.

Facebook has provided a whole package of entertainment, interactivity and socialization to users. Yet, Facebook does have its negative sides. Due to its huge successes, many Facebook users spend long hours just “Facebooking”. Many companies and government organisations in various countries have attempted to ban their employees from access the social networking website. The same can be said for some companies in Ontario [3]. Even someone close to me has spent endless hours glued to the computer screen. I remember a time when my brother was so engrossed with the Facebook version of Risk that I could see him playing just as I was heading to bed and wake up the next day seeing him in the same position still playing that game.

Another major problem that has begun to surface due to the popularity of such websites is cyber-bullying. As defined by the National Crime Prevention Council of America, cyber-bullying is “when the internet, cell phones or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person.” It might seem impossible how users may be hurt by such acts and yet many cases have already been reported in America. Take for example the case of Megan Meier, an American teenager who committed suicide due to cyber-bullying. Apparently a mother of Megan’s former friend wanted to teach her a lesson for spreading gossip about her daughter. As a result, she created a fake MySpace account and posed as a teenage boy in order to befriend and obtain personal information about her. She then humiliated her by sending her hurtful messages which in the end resulted in her unfortunate demise. This particular case has allowed much of the world to know how serious this problem can be. Fortunately for know, social networking websites such as Facebook are working hard in creating measures to minimise these acts [6]. I feel that on our part should such things occur to ourselves or if we know of someone who is a victim of cyber-bullying, it is important to report such matters to our parents or even the police. In this way, unfortunate incidents such as the Megan Meier case would have been prevented.

Twitter

Twitter is a micro blogging website which allows users to post short messages of up to 140 characters long about what they are doing. It also allows them to follow other users and receive updates of what they are doing. Think of it as sending an SMS to a central location and anyone who follows what you post will be able to view it. However it does not stop there. A 140 character long message may seem too short to really carry any message across, yet people have found extremely creative ways in expanding its potential. With reference to the article by Jason Palmer [4], these micro blogging services have been used in emergency situations as well. In the case of the Mumbai attacks in 2008, Twitter was used as a medium for eye witnesses to provide their updates of the situation [5]. It was also used as a medium to broadcast the need of blood donors as well as to coordinate how this could be done. Unfortunate hostages were able to provide updates of what the terrorists were doing and also informed their loved ones that they were still ok.

To enhance the user’s abilities in provided updates of what they were doing, Twitter has provided a multitude of applications. Just to name a few, these applications allow users to send updates via customised software for iPhones and even special applications which are used to display updates on the computer desktop. As with Facebook, Twitter provides Application Programming Interfaces or APIs for developers to create their own customised Twitter applications. You can even find a comprehensive guide which offer step by step instructions on how to create these applications. In the event where internet is not readily accessible, users situated in the USA, UK, Canada or India would be able to use the SMS service provided by Twitter to post those updates.

Thoughts on Twitter

Initially, I could not truly find a practical use for Twitter. However after conducting some research on it, I am convinced that Twitter can offer so much more. It might seem funny at first that people would want to post what they are doing every now and then on a website. Some might even wonder who actually bothers reading these stuff. Yet why is it so popular? On a social level, I’ve come to a conclusion that although a person might not be able to physically spend the entire day alongside a friend, being able to know what that friend is doing is not half as bad. It gives a person a sense of being a part of that friend’s life. To know how a friend is doing, what he or she is thinking, whether any difficulties are being faced at the moment; it’s what I would want to know especially for someone close to me. It is especially heart warming to know that people care about you and send supportive messages to cheer you on when you find yourself knee-high with problems.

On a professional level, Twitter has proven itself to be a big help to executives who need to coordinate events such as a business meeting or a product presentation. The tweets posted by prominent figures such as US President Barack Obama have in many ways helped him in his presidential campaign. In another example, Chairman of Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson has utilized Twitter to post jobs available in Virgin. Once again, it shows the potential Twitter has is as huge as how creative the human mind can be. As of now, I see Twitter in a totally different light and although I’ve yet to find a way in which I could benefit from Twitter directly, it’s just a matter of time before my creative juices kick in and craft a practical use for me to fully enjoy its benefits.

Blogger

Blogger is a blog publishing service owned by Google which allows users to post blogs or weblogs. A blog is similar to a diary entry where a person writes down his experiences or inner thoughts and posts it online for others to see. Viewers can then provide comments on those posts. However blogs are not strictly for personal use only. Many corporations have made use of blogs to act as a medium to advertise products, update employees on project developments etc. Blogs are also used by customers to post product related questions much like a forum.

Thoughts on Blogger

I’ve never actually written a blog before I came to this course. Mostly due to the fact that I’m lazy I guess. However I do read up on blogs written by friends. Similar to what twitter does, it allows readers to know what the blogger is doing and in a way be “involved” in his/her life. Blogger has also made it very simple for users to customise the layout of their blogs and also allow them to post pictures and even videos. With that, many bloggers have used blogs to post their hobbies such as photography, art and even post second hand items for sale.

As compared to Twitter, blogs allow you to post much more information. However people who post stuff about their daily life may tend to unintentionally include sensitive information. This is something that has been reported a number of times in my home country. Where I come from, all boys will have to enter national service when they reach the age of 18. Sometimes, these full time national servicemen might handle sensitive information pertaining to the military. As they post blogs about their daily life in national service, some might include sensitive information related to what they do. A number of these cases were reported in the news and some of these bloggers were asked to remove their posts. The same can be said for employees of large corporations in the commercial sector. Employees of a production company may unintentionally reveal trade secrets of their company as they post their daily blogs. As such posting too much information about your daily life might in a way reveal information which you otherwise might have kept secret.

Conclusion

It is for certain that social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook have brought a huge change to our lives. Not just simply for socialising, these websites and services have proven to be very useful in many other aspects. In business, education or even the arts, many people have made very good use of these websites. Clearly it has become the most “in” thing for our generation. Yet we have to remember that as with all else, there are certain disadvantages involved. Posting too much personal information online might prove as a risk to our privacy. All these information could be gathered just by searching hard enough through social networking websites. Take into the account all the social networking websites mentioned above. Friendster and Facebook provides personal information via the user’s personal profile; Uploaded photos might reveal the general location of where that user is living; Even a user’s daily patterns might be revealed if he or she constantly posts on twitter. It has become much easier for people with malicious intents to know more about you. With that I conclude that although it might be fun to know all about others, we can never be sure at the same time who else might be stalking you. Posting too much personal information about ourselves might in a way risk not just our privacy, but our security as well.

References

[1] B. Schiffman, "In Praise of Friendster," 2008.

[2] A. J. Tabak, "Hundreds Register for New Facebook Website," in The Harvard Crimson, 2004.

[3] R. Benzie, "Facebook banned for Ontario staffers," in The Star, 2007.

[4] J. Palmer, "Emergency 2.0 is coming to a website near you " in NewScientist Tech, 2008.

[5] S. Busari, "Tweeting the terror: How social media reacted to Mumbai," 2008.

[6] T. Leonard, "Facebook to crack down on cyber bullying," in Telegraph.co.uk, 2008.