Introduction
Information technologies have become increasingly important in the human society. Most of the tasks were solved with the aid of computers. Over the past two decades, internet has progressively played an important role of lives of millions of people. They can survive without television or radio, but not without the internet. The Internet has been a source of entertainment, information, and communication to many. Countless numbers of online communities are formed via the internet to the extent where people view online communities as significant as real life comminutes. The hottest trend of how internet website built is social networking website. The business value of these websites can reach billions of dollars, for instance, Facebook. Google is offering 2 billion to buy over the currently most talked about online community websute, Facebook.
Background
I have signed on a couple of social networking website. They provide diverse areas of focus and service .
Facebook
A free social networking website. Facebook‘s ability of allowing users to join groups and add friends, provides them with an avenue to form online committees .Video and photo sharing features provides a platform where users can stay in touch with their friends even if they are not in the same region and keep themselves updated with one another’s’ life. The introduction of add on applications, for example, games and social meeting have dramatically enhanced the sociability of user.
Flickr
Flickr focuses their service on photo sharing where users can upload a number of high quality pictures. Their service is widely uses by bloggers as a photo repository. Flickr allows users to tag their photos which ultimately acts like a keyword or category label, enabling users to search for specific photos with more ease.
Last.Fm
Last Fm is a cool music community website. Music files are shared among users within this website and users have the option to create custom radio stations. Last FM allows users to receive music recommendations from other users who enjoy listening to same of genre of music using a system known as "Audioscrobbler". It is almost possible to locate any song by any artist with the availability of Last Fm’s vast music library base.
Twitter
A very interesting social networking website where users can send updates of their status to the twitter server using device like mobile phones and instant messenger. Users’ friends will be able to receive updates of his status through the web or their mobile phone.
Google calendar
An online application where internet users are able to organize their time schedule as well as share events with their friends and family. The application allows user to upload their schedules and other interesting events online. Built-in tools such as mobile phone notifications and search tool helps to prevent them from missing your pre-plan schedule. It is a very useful online application.
Focus
Social networking websites have significant influence on our lives without people evidently noticing it. The topic that I will be reflecting on primarily deals with how these social networking websites have influences our lifestyles.
Reflection
Facebook
Research has shown that Facebook has 50 million users. The popularity of Facebook does not lie only among teenagers and student. In fact, it is well received from everyone ranging from professionals to new mums. Research has shown that woman make up 57% of those in the 18-34 age group and users are willing to spend an average of 5.3 hours each month on the website. When one has spend so much time dedicated to Facebook, influences are inherent. I have one year of experience with Facebook which I realized that it does have a substantial impact on me.
The Photo sharing and Wall Post applications in facebook have provided a more convenient alternative for me to receive updates on my friends’ lives, some whom may live thousands of miles away from me. I seldom call up my friends nowadays and enter mundane conversations such as “How are you ?” or “How has life been so far?” However, with the ease of Wall application, I am able to leave a message for him/her at my convenience. Another application provided facebook is friend search.
I realised that it has become very common for people to use Facebook as a dating website. Facebook requires users to create a profile of themselves and include information about their marital status, education and work history, as well as photos of themselves.. They then build up a network of friends by searching lists of online members and making contact with people they know. Users have to accept confirmation to be friends before their full details are visible to others. This feature provides an environment where singles have tones of opportunity to meet up with others singles. For instance , I personally made a lot of new friends through this website. The large number of games application in Facebook also enhanced the socializing platform. Users are able to make friends anytime, anyway and enjoy friendly competition with one another through these games application which certainly will enhance relationship with friends. Through Facebook, physical distance among family, friends or even strangers are instantly reduced in matters of minutes or seconds.
Flickr
Flickr is our life photo album. In the past, we use photo albums to store our entire life memories so that we are able to view the pictures once in a while to reminisce about the past. However, life changes with the fast development of social networking websites. We now store most of our photos online. Flickr is specially designed to provide service for user to store and share their photos with friends where they are able to view at their own convenience .Comparing Flickr and other social networking websites such as Facebook and Friendster. Filckr tends to lose out on the fact that they are less interactive and significantly less features for an online social environment. Facebook provides much more applications for user to allow interaction with one another. I don’t usually log on to Flickr because what Flickr provides are just a subset of what are available in Facebook and Friendster. On the other hand, Flirkr is widely use by blogger as a photo repository which makes up to their disadvantage.
Last.Fm
With Last FM , the way we choose, buy and listen to music has gradually changed. More and more groups or individual singers publish their music for free online, which means that we can listen to any music anytime. With the invention of this online music sharing website, we are considerably more exposed to a wide array of music and at a lower or costless way. Our choice for music will no longer be influenced by price tags, record label or where the albums are positioned among the shelf space. This evolvement of listening to music with the radio or CD players to online music file sharing has occurred for a period of time and with this outburst of online music website, this change is going to manifest in the lifestyles of majority of people in coming years.
Twitter
Twitter is a website which I will describe it as an information distribution system. Updates of where the users are, what they are doing can be easily retrievable by their friends. I used it to disseminate and coordinate instructions when organizing events . With the help of twitter, it is easier for me to contact all my friends at one go instead of the old fashioned way of calling them one by one It is possible for users to add links within twitter such that if users have a personal website and seeks to drive traffic for that particular website, all they have to do is to befriend other twitter members and they will be able to locate the links that users have posted on the twitter website. Essentially, all they have to do initially is to create a personal profile on twitter which works in a similar as Facebook.
Google calendar
Google calendar is a very good tool for disseminating your schedule and get updates from friends and colleagues. I used it to update my friends on my weekly schedule, and coordinate lunch, dinner and social events. Indeed, it saved me a lot of time from calling friends individually, which in the past has caused much confusion and anger during the process. Several companies are using this as a means of arranging meetings for their employees. The substantial amount time saved by using Google calendar has attracted many users to sign on to this application especially when time if often viewed extremely precious by many in this modern and fast-moving society.
Conclusion.
With the flourishing of the social networking technology, we are able to perform tasks with less time and effort. We have the ability to receive first hand information about their friends and the people around us just by a click on the browser. The tools provided by all the social networking websites have granted us with so much convenience that we are starting to adapt our lifestyles to suit the change in IT environment. Ironically, computers seem to be taking control over us, when it is supposed to be the other way round. On the surface, we seem to get closer and closer with one another. However, I feel that we are slowly drifting away from one another. I believe that if people relied on social networking and computers to communicate with each other and start taking them for granted, it will unavoidably create unforeseen problems in the future. For example, people will gradually feel uncomfortable while making conversations with others in-person or in the worst case scenario, they lose the ability to adapt or have difficulty in fitting to any social circle. With the fast advancement of the IT technology in the future, there will be no doubt that we will live in a virtual world and we will have serious problems with personal interaction. I feel that there should be always a balance toward all matters. Make full use of the latest technology to our advantage but not rely on it totally.
Reference :
http://www.physorg.com/news84027254.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=512535&in_page_id=1879&in_page_id=1879&expand=true#StartComments
S41094262
Lee Yiu Wing
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Change technology or technology Changed us?
My Reflection
INTRODUCTION
For a long time I have resisted those who told me to sign up for various social sites. "You should join livejournal," they would say, and I would reply "Not right now, maybe later." I would get emails inviting me to join Facebook, which I would promptly ignore. But when I was offered 15% participation marks to try out various social networking sites, I couldn't say no. And it turns out I was right. I'm not meant to be social.
BACKGROUND
the web sites I looked at were as follows:
Flickr:
A social networking site based around sharing photos. Once uploaded photos can be shared with others, as well as being tagged so it is possible to search for photos.
Facebook:
A social networking site which allows you to keep in touch with friends. It has a friends list, as well as networks and groups. It also has a large number of aplications to do a variety of things.
Last.FM:
A social site which keeps track of the music you listen to and offers recomendations of new music. It also allows you to keep a list of friends and lists people who have similar tastes in music.
Google Calender:
This site allows you to record your appointments on an online calender. You can make your calender public or private, however if you make it public it will be visible to everyone and even appear in Google searches.
FOCUS
I guess I should start by saying I am not normally a particularly social being. Before doing this course the extent of my internet socialization was email and instant messaging, and now I suddenly find myself with much more. Of course I don't tend to use all of them very much, and I don't find myself particularly suited to most of these sites at all. My reflection will focus on my experiences with these sites and what I liked and didn't like.
REFLECTION
The main example of this is Flickr. I think it is a good idea, I can see the uses of it, but they don't apply to me. I am not in the habit of taking photos, and do not in fact even own a camera. Because of this I don't have any photos to share with my family and friends, or with anyone else for that matter. I do, however, occasionally look at photos others have place there. Google calender was also pretty useless due to the fact that I am extremely unorganized, and it is normal for me to not know what I am doing until the day before it happens, if then. I am also uncomfortable with making my calender public, allowing anyone to see what I am doing when, even complete strangers who have stumbled on it using a Google search.
The other side of the scale lies with Last.FM, as I am constantly listening to music, especially when I am working at home, and I have just spent the last couple of weeks doing assignments. I downloaded the audioscrober and connected it to windows media player, and it lists all the music I listen to on my page. Then it gives me interesting information on what I listen to. For example, it recently listed Battelore as one of the bands I listen to most, despite the fact that I only have 2 of their songs on my computer, however over time this has change to reflect the amount of music from different bands I own. It also points out all those song I have that I never took the time to tag properly, some of them appear on my page with the wrong information, and the site says it can't find the artist, largely because it is listed as 'compilation' or 'buffy soundtrack', since it is to much effort for me to find out who actually wrote the songs. Then there are other times I have gone to look at my page and it has left me notes saying a song was not recorded because it is insufficiently tagged, and tells me to correct this. I haven't got around to it. I enjoy listening to the music recommendations, and although the social side of the site is limited because I don't know of any of my friends who use it, the site is quite helpful when I am using a public computer and want to listen to music. I may one day even look at that list of people it says have similar tastes. I am quite happy to allow all of my music to appear on the list, as all my friends like different types of music, and my tastes are so varied I consider it normal to jump from Cradle of Filth to The Beatles to crazy Japanese music that where I don't understand a word they say. I also like the pretty collage of album covers it makes from my music.
While Last.FM is the most used of the social tool I have signed up to, Facebook is probably the one I have used most for social reasons. However, this was hindered by the fact that most of my friends on Facebook have been on it for a long time, and are rather static in what they do with it, or I already speak to them too often using instant messaging, and as such we don't often have anything worth saying on Facebook, or if we do it gets said on msn. We can be rather boring sometimes. I do enjoy playing with the different Facebook applications, and comparing my results to others. Apparently I'll only survive for 55% of a horror movie...oh well, at least I lived through the first half.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion social networking sites are not for everybody. In my own case, I used Last.FM, however I didn't use any of it's social features. While the fact that you don't have to deal with these people face to face can be a distinct advantage, hiding away in a dark room playing on Facebook is not as enjoyable as actually going out and spending time with friends. The main reason, however, that I do not have a use for these sites is that I have no desire to talk to people who are not my friends over the internet, and I already have many different ways with which I keep in touch with the people I want to talk to.
Social networking sites rate and review.
Written By Dean Jullie (41188424)
Introduction
To begin I should put it out there that I have fallen for social websites and fallen hard at that. When I’m at my computer there seems to be less and less to do other than logging into the five or so social websites to which I belong. It seems I feel content when I get to my Facebook page and there is a comment or friend request waiting for me, however; when there’s not a single comment or request aimed at me I begin to experience disappointment and a little despair. I believe the true experience is when one of every type of social website is combined together, thus providing the user with a complete and satisfactory social experience.
The following topics will take a look at five different social websites each aimed to expand your social network via the internet.
Facebook
Facebook is a social site that provides users with the technology to SPAM APPLICATION REQUESTS. But on a serious note Facebook is a social website that is simply a means for someone to keep in touch with and share photos with their friends. Another quirky feature of Facebook is the applications feature, the applications you can use in Facebook once selected, are linked to your profile and can show different things ranging from sending a friend an e-beer or throwing an e-sheep at someone. The main focus for Facebook is the friends database, Facebook’s combination of messages super pokes and pictures make it a pretty decent way of keeping in touch with friends from school, friends overseas or just your close friends.
Google Calendar
Pretty much what it reads, Google Calendar is an online equivalent to the Microsoft outlook calendar system. This social site allows the tracking and viewing of other users calendars. While this software/website may sound un-secure the process is restricted to how much information you choose to upload onto the online calendar. As a user you can edit your calendar to show details such as work shifts, university times or general catch-up with friend dates.
Twitter belongs in a class of its own when it comes to status updates. Once logged into the website a user can simply update their status. Twitter faces everyone with a single question ‘What are you doing?’, then in 140 words or less you write your status and post it to the site. Anyone following your profile will be able to read your status, it’s that simple. Twitter also takes this status notification setup one step further by adding an external element, the mobile phone. If selected twitter can send you text notification messages whenever the people your following update their status. Likewise you can update your status via mobile phone.
Last.FM is the ‘Social Music Revolution’ or so they claim. Last.FM provides an online music service to users where whenever a user listens to a track on their computer the details of that song are uploaded to your page. Last.FM provides a way to add friends, contact friends and see what your music compatibility rating with other people is.
Last but not least we have Flickr, this is a very neat and tidy way of sharing images you as a user upload with the rest of the Flickr community. When an image is uploaded tags can be added making that image searchable on Flickr. Users can leave comments on any images they view adding a feedback element to the user’s experience.
The focus of this reflection is to provide an insight into the way I view online social networking sites and a little into how, when combined they provide a full experience.
From first being a member of only the one social website aimed at maintaining friends online, I have been introduced to multiple forms of online social networking. There are many websites that collate information about users for fun purposes but do not really count as social sites, for example What Pulse is an online community that is team based where each user uploads data from their computer containing the number of keystrokes and clicks that have been made. Each team then gets a ranking on how well they are doing in comparison to everyone else. This site has little to no communication between its members and provides no quick or current feedback to the user. A social networking site must in my opinion be so simple and feature packed that our grandparents could use it.
One thing that does come into question when using the online social sites is security and how much information should you really post on your profiles. The answer to this question is a relatively simple one, the amount of information available to the world is directly in proportion to the amount of information you choose to apply to your profile. I for one use a separate email address for work purposes and a not so important email address for social websites or anything online for that matter. My second email address contains limited information about myself; likewise do my profiles on social websites. Having basic security like this enables users to in a sense hide behind their online screen name.
Now to the more important side of my experience with online social networking, how well they worked. If I was to pick a favourite site it would be Facebook, now I’m not saying I love Facebook because I don’t its just that it combines images and text and even some music all in one as well it is probably the easiest to find friends and meet people with. The worst experience I have had on one of these sites would defiantly have to be Google Calendar, this being said if I was a really organised person and had the use for a calendar like this I would probably find it a lot more useful. As it stands I don’t have any use for Google Calendar, unless my workplace started using it to show us shifts and we could add our availability (now to get my boss using a computer hmmm). Flickr would probably come in second last, sure its good and neat at what it does but the social side of it is a lacking a little something. When searching through the images on Flickr I find that I don’t really search through the pictures with the intent to comment on a picture. I feel that’s how most users would find it and therefore it seems to me that Flickr doesn’t do as good a job as Facebook’s photo management.
Twitter is the site that I would rank reasonably high as well; Twitter even has a Facebook application allowing your twitter status to be shown in Facebook. Twitter provides a status notification system that far outreaches many of its competitors, the fact that mobile phone technology has been brought into it means great accessibility which means easier to use and can be used more frequently. The ‘Social Music Revolution’ Last.FM is pretty fun to use I will give it that, providing up to date information on what songs your friends and colleagues are listening to and weekly statistics like top artists and top songs. Last.Fm to me lacks the common social networking that some of the other sites provide, I think, however; Last.FM was intended to run like it is as more of a singular use site.
In my opinion most of the sites I have learnt and used have their key features which make them unique and usable; using a combination of your favourite social networking sites is, in my opinion the way to go. If your not a big music fan and don’t like knowing what your friends listen to then don’t sign up with Last.FM, likewise if you don’t really have a need to share your pictures and comments on others pictures Flickr isn’t for you. I think now, knowing all of these sites exist I will find it hard to quit one or the other sites as long as my friends continue to use them. I think the best experience possible for online social networking doesn’t just come from one website; it will come from your tailor made selection of social sites.
- What Pulse.
Keystroke counting team based site.
http://whatpulse.org/
- Facebook.
Social networking site.
http://www.facebook.com/
- Last.FM.
Social music site, shows recently played tracks.
http://www.last.fm/
- Flickr.
Picture / photo sharing site.
http://www.flickr.com/
- Google Calendar.
Public Calender website.
http://www.google.com/calendar/render/
- Twitter.
Status notification site, also utilises mobile technology.
http://twitter.com/
Social NetWORKS
This image represents the multitude of people that communicate via social networks like Facebook and how they are all related to one another:
The phrase ‘social networking’ is a comparatively new addition to the already mystifying dictionary of computer-speak, and it represents one of the very latest internet phenomena. In essence social networking means evolution, a theory which has developed into a practical purpose and its popularity can mainly be attributed to its flexibility and how easily it can be harnessed by its users. Social network sites allow their users to create and submit their own content – whether that’s a simple comment, a collection of photos or an entire homepage of their own.
Social networking relies on the idea that content can be shared with others, either publicly or in private groups and this allows users to keep in touch, search for users of other interests or share information with people in similar situations.
The focus of social networking sites is to use and develop the idea of a community, sharing things with existing friends and making new friends as you go. Social network sites such as Bebo, MySpace or Facebook allow a user to create his or her own profile, add comments, text, information about themselves and even uploading music, song lists, photos and videos. Groups can be created from virtually any subject in these sites. In a group people with similar interests, hobbies, employment and many other things which can bring large groups of people together from across the world instantly from any computer terminal.
There is practically no limit to the application of social networking. Sites like MySpace which allow artists to upload their music and share it with the world is an example of how social networking can be used to gain employment, online dating is also similar, as it allows people to see a person’s photo their status and even share email or telephone calls before they decide they want to commit to a romantic relationship.
Multiplayer games such as second life also falls under the category of social networking as it allows users the ability to meet and interact with other users around the globe in a 3D virtual interactive environment. Blogging also falls under the social network banner, as it allows you to create your own personal website onto which you can post links, photos and anything else you like to share with friends and complete strangers.
Privacy
With increased popularity of computers and high speed connections security on your computer and its internet accounts is vital, as it prevents data tampering, sabotage or even your personal work being copied. The same goes with social networking sites. There are many safety and privacy issues relating to the use of a social network site mostly involving how a site can make your personal information free for everyone to see. Therefore it is vital that information such as your home number, address, places visited often and even relationship information should be carefully considered before posting. A good rule is not to post any information online you would not be happy for anyone to read. Some sites allow you to control who can see your information or posts, usually controlled by a friends ‘list’ whereby they have to be logged in and on your list before they can see your home address.
When creating a profile on a social networking site information such as address, phone number and credit card details are usually optional, and it is therefore not required for them to be entered given the nature that anyone could use this free information to access banking details or transfer money. Most social network sites offer some form of messaging system, so it is relatively easy to start a conversation with other users. You must still be careful about which personal information you tell people and how they are planning o use it.
Along with this social networking comes with a range of legal considerations, which are usually included in the websites terms and conditions area. It is important to observe copyright laws before uploading video footage, text or photographs that do not belong to you without prior permission. Sexually explicit or violent images or text may also cause your account to be suspended or even possible legal action.
Originally designed for students of Harvard University Facebook a relatively new site designed by 23 year old Mark Zuckerberg, has stolen the lime light from MySpace with the companies estimated value of $10 billion and over 43 million users. So why is this site so popular? The basic operation and the user experience doesn’t differ much from other sites of its kind, users simply need a valid email account to register, you can supply as much or as little information as you like, things such as hobbies and interests, education and employment are just some of the area’s most popular. It is then possible to insert a profile image and search other users for relationship status, hobbies and generally the idea is to allow you to find likeminded people who share similar interests as you, helping you develop friends around the globe without leaving your house.
One way Facebook is different from the competition is that it allows different ways of communicating with people on your friends list. Every profile includes the wall, a simple interactive message board that an account owner and friends can post short messages to each other, simple and highly effective. It is possible to send people in your friends list a full message, full and private, from you to him closely related to an email. RSS feeds also allow you to keep track of activities of friends and new information on Facebook.
Facebook also allows users to upload photos and images and arrange them into albums, without the use of an external site such as Flickr. Your friends may also leave comments about your photos which the user can then vet and delete incase there is any violent or undesirable comments left on the images. Facebook can mainly dedicate its success to the lack of social network sites that cater for the older users, and also the simple layout not over run by ad’s and popup windows advertising Viagra and “You Have Won” windows.
Blogging
Blogging is the process of keeping a kind of online diary where users may leave comments, so more or less a online board where only authors can post large amounts of information. The reason why blogging has become so popular is due to people writing online, their thoughts, what has happened and allowing user feedback on what they thought about certain things. Sure other sites allow this exact same feature, but the user knowing that he is in control allows a difference in what information they feel comftable posting. If you use a board then it is likely that other users have been there longer, and you may watch what you say as you will be considered a new comer. But with a blog you are master, you control everything and you may post information and long boring diary entries about whatever you wish, imagine if anyone ever read or commented on these. But some blog sites such as the COMP3505 blog can show practical uses, such as viewing and commenting on other people assignment work and how information can be manipulated to serve practical purposes.
Last.fm
This site deals with music lovers. You can automatically keep tabs on other users and friends by means of online profiles with loved and hated music aswell as what they have played recently. RSS feeds also make it easy to keep track of other users behaviors. The software included in this site allowed users to upload their windows media player playlists and history however provided little coverage for users of other systems such as Mac or Linux. The included software was easy to use and powerful. The speed of the music downloads was comparable to radio and at a much higher quality. The search function allowing artists to be grouped into similar and tagged to easily find artists of the same genre is a powerful tool in this package and has led to its current popularity.
Along with all of these and many more sites comes a list a mile and a half long with programs that can enhance the users interaction with social networking sites. MyEdit 1.0 for example is a MySpace tool that has been used to personalize many MySpace pages without the dorky explorer window as its only interface. ShareThis add on also allows an easier interface for Facebook when communicating with your friends. To conclude the social networking may very well only be in the early stages of development and already this popular, only time will tell what this creative and endlessly flexible design will become. From the use of social networking sites the connection between myself and other users has increased, mainly thru last.fm, as musical tastes are a major part of the people whom I connect with. Other hobbies also effected the users I communicated with. Only one thing is certain for the future of social networking, my experience is not over.
Feel free to visit MySpace http://ajlambert.spaces.live.com/
Alan J Lambert
41405710
Ultimate Guides - Facebook and other social networks ISSUE 2 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network
www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/24/9-ways-to-build-your-own-social-network/
www.whatissocialnetworking.com/
www.orgnet.com/sna.html
Becoming Social in an Instant Instant Instant
I admit that I am neither the most sociable nor am I the most active person when it comes to socialising. It is not that I don’t care about other people, but it is only a fact that it is not in me to ‘talk that much’; the other way of saying this is I am not so much of a vocal person. For instance, I would rather sit with a group of people and listen to whatever they have to say about how their day went. Because for all I know if they ask me about mine, all I can blurt out is the usual “It’s awesome!” and so it goes on. For me, presence is two sides of a matter: chatting online is different from ‘being there’. Social networking websites has made communication easier for people like me.
In the next few paragraphs, I will be relating the impact of online social networking services to the entire society – How it promoted social efficiency, and how it produced the wonders that worked for the social and the not-so-social people, like me, to easily interact and communicate with others (Kopomaa 2000).
Background
For the purpose of this assignment, I will be drawing most of my knowledge based on my experience of using various social networking websites, including the ones that were recommended for the students to explore.
Facebook is now known to be one of the largest social networking website amongst the people of today. It not only allows people to easily connect with others around the world, but it also presents users with the most abundant and entertaining features. One of this, is the ‘wall’ provided in each user’s profile page, where people can post messages for the user to see. It can transmit virtual actions to other users; the earliest one is known to be the ‘poke’. It allows users to update their ‘status’ to inform their friends of their current condition. It also provides a photo application where people can upload unlimited photos and share it with others to see. As days and months passed, more and more applications are developed and can be added to ones user page, all of which can be used to interact with other users on facebook. This is by far, in my opinion, is its most appealing aspect.
Last.fm is a music community website that allows users to build musical profiles based on the music they listen to, from the website’s streamed radio stations or from the user’s portable music player or computer. It records every detail of the song the user is listening to and generates recommendations pages, which links users to more songs of the same genre, as well as other users that have similar music taste.
Twitter is another social networking website that mainly provides instant messaging services. One can post ‘updates’ and messages of up to 140 characters to the Twitter website itself, via sms, or other-third party applications such as facebook. These messages, also known as ‘tweets’ are sent to all other users who have signed up to received them. Users may receive these tweets via the Twitter website, sms, rss, email or through an application.
Flickr is an online photo sharing website that allows users to upload photos and share them with other people online. It allows users to organise images by using tags to categorise the photos so it will be easier for other users to find.
Focus: Social Efficiency
The proliferation of social communication devices in the age of information technology is a blessing to the hopes and desires of the modern individual. Many of this social communication software not only provide interactivity, but also, mobility that allows users to have a sense of control over the complications of modern life. The hit of modern technology today is something known as social networking that offers the possibilities of letting people of all ages associate with one another across the miles or better yet, just across the room!
Perhaps, the roots for which made social networking websites click is the fact that it contributes to social efficiency by instantly connecting people, and thus, gradually and effectively generates various and specific online communities wherein people can move around freely. Social efficiency maybe described as the amount of interaction among individuals, while having sole control and freedom to engage in social activities whenever one wants (Williams 1982). I would like to elaborate these issues on the following paragraphs.
Instant Connections
Imagine 50 years ago; back when mobile phones, computers, the internet and all other social networking services are still waiting to be discovered, when there was no easy means of transmitting messages from one place to another. Back then and from the longest of time, paper is considered to be one of the most remarkable social medium. With a pen, it can convey and communicate thoughts and ideas, which is probably its most distinctive attribute. People then started to use paper as a social medium by sending letters to and from faraway places. It has served its purpose well, but after all these years, it is rapidly becoming obsolete, in terms of its use as a social conveyor (Koelsch 1995).
In this modern day and age, printed words and pictures are easily transported to new multimedia technologies, in this case, Web 2.0, particularly the various social networking tools that have been made available for all to use. It eliminates all the hassles of writing a message down on a letter, letting people run around to send them, and waiting for several long days to receive them. For instance, I would only have to rely on facebook or twitter to send my simple regards of ‘Hi! How are you doing?’ or greeting to a friend who is celebrating his birthday; no need for the purchase of a card and the trouble of mailing it over, no waiting on to receive them, in a shorter term – instant! The same thing goes for Flickr. By uploading images, I am able to immediately share it with other people miles away from me.
Making connections with other people this way is fast and convenient. Personally speaking, talking to people on facebook or twitter is easier because there is no need for physical contact and the tools are readily being provided for. If facebook tells me that it is the birthday of someone I hardly know and hang out with, then I would eagerly write a birthday greeting on that person’s wall, for the simple reason of ‘why not? It’s just writing on the wall.’ In addition, I would feel better for being nice that I care to greet that person. So in a way, social networking websites provide the opportunity and enforce people to actively socialise, even when they do not feel like it.
Instant Communities
In the Web 2.0 environment, social networking websites unites people together, thus, gradually forming a community where different people can relate with each other and be able to share the same interests, regardless of temporal and spatial constraints (Anderson 1983). Electronically participating and communicating with others through these social networking systems stimulates sharing of compound practices and customs, which gives the individual a sense of being part of a community (Rennie 2006).
Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, and Flickr are specific communities that allow individuals a space to belong to. Each community consists a network of friends and the existence of combined interests as well as constant participation that makes each community active.
The new virtual communality also has a room for self-realisation. Interaction is rapid and superficial, yet in certain social relations it can have a long personal history and may both maintain and strengthen close ties. The connections of the past are endlessly present in creating each moment in the present time (Kopomaa, 129).
The aforementioned social networking websites serve as a meeting place for people to share and discuss interests. By interacting in this manner, it gives out a sense of belonging and a strong relation to the people you hardly even know. For instance, Last.fm and Flickr has given me the opportunity to share my interests and in return, know about what other people’s interests are—what type of music they listen to, what songs they are into now, etc. Likewise, Flickr allows me to look into my friends’ life by looking at the travel photos they have uploaded. In reflection, this allows me to look at myself anew—I would feel proud of myself, the-not-so-actively-social individual, for actually care to look at what other people are up to. The cause for actually bothering to know how other people’s lives are going, what they’re interests are, etc. branches from the reason that I actually belong to this community. By registering, in these networking websites, I immediately became a member of this social community; therefore, interacting with others is seemingly a necessity to continue to exist.
Conclusion
The contribution of social networking websites to the society is undeniable. Its function is nearly impossible to face-out from each individual’s lives. The attraction of these tools lies in their ability to provide stimulation, enjoyment and satisfaction through ‘instant-ness’. People who are not used to actively socialising with other peers become explorers, in a sense that they start to voluntarily participate and begins to react to whatever stimulus each community presents (Jallinoja 1991).
The privatization of our way of life is at the present very much characterised by temporal and spatial changes (Kopomaa, 129).
Social networking tools makes interaction and communication easier because it transcends time and space. It grants users a lot more by providing instant and continuous access that allows users to flexibly and instantly participate around a community, which heavily contributes to social efficiency.
References
Anderson, Benedict (1983). Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso.
Jallinoja, Riita (1991). Modern Life: Signs of the Times and Practice. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.
Koelsch, Frank (1995). The Infomedia Revolution: How it is Changing Our World and Your Life. Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Limited.
Kopomaa, Timo (2000). The City in Your Pocket: Birth of the Mobile Information Society. Helsinki: Gaudeamus.
Rennie, Ellie (2006). Community Media: A Global Introduction. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Inc.
Williams, Sir Bruce (1982). Living with Technology. Sydney: Commercial Printing House Pty. Ltd.
I can’t be seen on Twitter, it’s not popular!
Introduction
Face book
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
- http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/facebook_inc/index.html?inline=nyt-org
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook
- http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-social26mar26,1,5732722.story
COMP Reflections, Op.3505
by Rebecca Campbell
In terms of enjoyment and frequent use, Google Calendar, Twitter and Last.fm are top of the social and mobile computing tool list. However, blogging on the latter inadvertently turned into a review of the annoyance that is Facebook, seeing as every tool tested could be presented on in it some way. Then in the face of that, a report that had to be posted online opened my eyes to a whole new aspect of the damned social computing tool, Blogger. For the sake of social and mobile computing, this report will endeavour to review the affectivity of Google Calendar, Twitter and Blogger tools in their social and mobile aspects.
Google Calendar was handy on a personal level, as its flexible structure allowed easy manipulation of events and saved on paper. Randomly testing out the tool, clicking on most things resulted in a response, usually to edit that field and so it felt very intuitive. However, even though it was used to basically plot out time for doings, it ended up being used more as a journal, to keep track of what had been done. Whilst working on an assignment, the hours studied were recorded into the calendar; mainly as a reassurance that time had been spent on the assignment, despite time to word ratio. The addition of other peoples calendars didn’t prove beneficial, but in terms of trying to organising group projects in the future, it could be a useful tool. The only provisos being everyone would have to maintain their calendar and clarify whether the periods left vacant were for leisure or available for work purposes. In this respect, it’s more effective as personal tool than social tool.
At first, Twitter seemed pointless, given Facebook had the same device mixed in with the rest of its useless applications. But with it’s free-to-mobile posting, Twitter helped conduce awareness of peoples random doings whilst serving as a reminder to the existence of the program itself. Without the mobile updates, it would have been something used every Wednesday for approximately 2 hours max. The way students used in this predicament was to post random tid-bits of information. People following each other would either observe or choose to answer with their own tid-bit. However, answering to someone’s post didn’t guarantee an answer in return. It’s more like a conversation where everyone’s just saying what’s on their mind but not really taking anything in. Twitter has the ability to support conversation, but it requires constant monitoring on the participators behalf and there is no way of knowing if the other will reply. It’s very non-committal and even if a reply was expected, offence can’t be justified. For formally organising group work or events, it would be ineffective. The nature of the tool is such that there is no hello or goodbye (although people tell will say if they just woke up or are going to bed), only their current state at the time of posting. If there is no response, it means they are currently not using Twitter and that’s it. In terms of mobility, Twitter wins hands down, simply because of it’s ability to reach anyone who’s signed their phone up to the service. As long as they’re in range they can receive and post updates themselves and these will be relayed to people wherever they are at.
Ignoring the inconsistencies in working between Word and Blogger, it was interesting how different the approach to writing and submitting became, knowing that all people in the course could possibly read and comment on it. This also changed the composition of the presentation, as it had to be catered to a wider audience. Because of it’s blog presentation, the motivation to present something interesting to read, and to inject some form of personality into the piece is a driving force, so that it is not just another report with the same facts as everyone else. Unfortunately, if the subject is not particularly interesting to the author, the content may only reflect sarcasm.
Usually submissions are seen by the lecturer, tutors and possibly family members for proof-reading. Their marks and remarks can be taken on-board and learned from. With peer assessment, this leaves the window open for constructive, non-constructive and/or abusive comments. One comment could change the entire way the topic is viewed and result in the report being re-written. A waste of time, or a success in social technology…?
Reading already posted blogs is also an interesting aspect. It can either induce motivation or lethargy, depending on the viewers personal blogging standard. Commenting does not determine the validity of the content. In fact, the more outrageous the blog, the more infuriated comments may be incited. In the interests of a social and mobile study of web tools, which would prove more fruitful?
A big part of an effective social tool is its ability to be used in a way that is fun and enjoyable for all participators. This is based on the tools actually being redundant in use unless it does provide some form of entertainment or hold and interest for anyone. In class it was mentioned that if everyone was made to sit down and Twitter in a formal setting, it wouldn’t have been as popular as it has become. Blogger is a way of publishing any opinion waiting to be said, regardless of the validity of the piece… doesn’t necessarily guarantee it will be heard/read. Google Calendar was the least social tool in this context; it was probably made for people who are incredibly busy and all collaborate through google applications.
The biggest test will be to see what tools continue to be used outside of uni course requirements.
An Addictive Reflection
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
Reflection on social and mobile computing tools
Following article is on my reflection of the social mobile computing tools. I have selected few tools to reflect which gives different services such as social bookmarking (del.icio.us), sharing pictures/photos and information (Facebook), connecting with mobile phones (Twitter), web posting (Blogger) and adding web sites together - Pipes (yahoo). I will discuss each tool separately under the heading of the main service provided. In that, firstly I will describe the tool and then my own experience of using the tool followed by pos and cons of the tool. I will conclude the article based on the discussion.
Social bookmarking
What is bookmarking? The ordinary bookmark provides the reader to keep tract of a particular page. Similarly, the internet user can remember a web page in their personal computer. Although the user can import/export bookmarks, it is still limited for individual level. However, social bookmarking provides opportunity to create specific web pages which enables user not only to mark websites personally but also to share with others. The sharing can be controlled (limited to a specific group) while enabling the functions such as sorting, organizing, storing ect ect possible.
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking web service that is owned by yahoo which has more than 3 million users.[1] I have exposed to use this service during my COMP course. I made an experimental bookmark called http://del.icio.us/rohanabm. The mail advantage i realized is that I can have access to the bookmark on the net. It also allows me to share my bookmark with other members as well. Similarly, I can add other members’ bookmarks to my list. Therefore, it will save my time.
The particular interest of del.icio.us is its simplicity. It also allows making tags, which are some kind of “keywords” that can be used to organise websites. However, del.icio.us looks boring; although you can have a small picture of the website, it is not much attractive especially with the different font sizes and with monotonous background.
Other similar services are Furl (from File Uniform Resource Locators) which is little bit of eye catching. SimPy is an open source service similar to del.icio.us. The faves.com is much more attractive and has a more functions to communicate with others; it has a function of ‘rating’ of the contents of linked web pages.
In summary, social bookmarking has place to keep interested websites in one place that can be access through web by one or more people.
Sharing pictures/photos and information
Facebook is social software in which pictures or videos can be connected apart form sharing with your personal information by text. Current usage of Facebook is about 64 million.[2] It was originated and initially and limited to Harvard University students only, but now the service is free to anyone. It provides sharing of pictures and videos with a group together with some personal details. Similar to basic e-mails, any message posted by a friend will appear in the inbox. If gives you some information about your friend such as ‘coming birthdays’. It also provides some advertisements. I registered in this service as an exercise for the COMP course. The first thing I noticed is that already I had received some invitations form my friends which I have kept for years. Anyway, once I replied to that particular friend, I received a reply back very soon.
What I understood by using this social software is that even though I haven’t used them, there are people who are waiting for me to join. I consider it is a some kind of social responsibility. Apart form sharing pictures and information, Facebook will also giving access to several discussion boards which are on different themes.
However, since Facebook it is open to public, it has a privacy issues such as data-mining. However, facebook will give a chance to the user to delete the data permanently if they needed.[3]
There are books and articles written on facebook.[4]
In summary, Facebook is an attractive service which you can post pictures and videos with group of your fiends.
Connecting with mobile phones
Twitter is one of a service thru which user can ‘tweets’ or send short updates to either to a mobile phone (sms) or via some other web services such as Facebook. It can be consider as a micro-blogging service.
I have started it very recently, it is something like sending ‘sms’ messages using a PC. It is convenient when you are not connected to the web but you have a mobile phone. However, the information you could send is limited. Sometimes, I will not receive a reply form the other end in-time contrary to its objectives. Although, the service does not charging for its messages the local rates will apply for the sms since the message is going through a mobile service. It also gives feeling of little ‘discomfort’ as someone is following you which is similar to ‘big brother’.
Connecting PC with mobile phone is a very attractive concept. However, with exposure to the web, there is a chance of overcrowding of your mobile phone.
Web-posting
The Blogger is a website in which your can create a records and keep updating. The most recent updates is usually appears in the first. It is something like a diary but can be accessed to the public. You also could limit the access to a defined group of people.
The advantage of a blog over personal web site is that the blogger allows the content to be kept ‘adding’ by various people while having a similar web address. Since it is a free service, you don’t have to pay for the domain. You can still choose a format similar to a web page. However, there is a danger as well. The political/sensitive information will have bad consequences.
I knew the Google blogger site before the COMP course, but I haven’t used to it frequently. However, I have gained much experience during the course and I am happy to use it now.
Adding web sites together - Pipes (yahoo)
The ‘Pipes’ is a web application which provide user to add more websites and search engines (yahoo and Google) together. Unlike just bookmarking, this has many advantages.
The most useful web application I got to know is the pipes. That is because, I have added both search engines together, yahoo and Google, to search for a ‘keyword’. It has saved my time in searching, otherwise I need to do searching daily and also each search engines separately. Using the pipes, the output can be received as an e-mail which comes daily so that every new resource related to the keyword will appear in my mail.
In summary, pipes is a fantastic tool I have used. I am experimenting with adding more search engines to pipes.
Conclusion
Although, social software can be categories on the basis of most prominent service provided, they share features. The peculiar feature is the ability to access through the web by a group of people. Some functions such as social bookmarking has place to keep interested websites in one place that can be access through web by one or more people. The pipes is a tool to feed one or more web sites together. Facebook is an attractive service which someone can post pictures and videos to share with a group. Google blogger is similar to a web site but can add on information. Connecting PC with mobile phone is a very attractive concept although having some limitations. However, maintaining of privacy and confidentiality is an issue with most social softwares, a wise use of such services will help people to save people time and resources while keeping their social life healthier.
Ref:
[1] http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/09/06/exclusive-screen-shots-and-feature-overview-of-delicious-20-preview/
[2] Statistics. Facebook. Retrieved on 2008-01-14.
[3] Privacy and Security. Facebook. Retrieved on 2008-03-15.
[4] 1. Abram, Carolyn (2008-02-11). Facebook For Dummies. For Dummies. ISBN 0470262737.
2. Alba, Jason (2008-02-01). I'm on Facebook--Now What???: How to Get Personal, Business, and Professional Value from Facebook. Happy About. ISBN 1600050956.
3. Feiler, Jesse (2008-02-11). How to Do Everything: Facebook Applications. McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. ISBN 0071549676.
Non-Social Users on Social Networking Services
By s4102260
INTRODUCTION
The hype of Web 2.0 has lead to emerge various mobile and social computing tools providing efficient procedure for communication between users and other users. [1] Social networking services (SNS) are one of its kinds providing such services primarily on web basis.
I’ve always been a moderate user of SNS before commencing this course. Though I was never addicted to them because I don’t use them for the purpose of socialising with friends, while that’s one of their major offered benefits. I prefer to spend more time individually on hobbies and interests at home, thus socialisation is almost enough for me outside my house. Consequently, majority of SNS usage in my personal life are not for communicating with friends, instead it’s a tool for me to improve my experience in hobbies, interests or duties such as those related to work and academic purposes.
After confronting with the SNS necessary for this course, which includes services that I would have never signed-up for, I have further distinguished the reasoning behind my passion and disfavour of usage towards utilities of SNS. I will discuss them in this post from my perspective as non-socialisation driven users.
BACKGROUND
I have chosen four of the following SNS for further discussions: del.icio.us, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
del.icio.us
Provides variety of helpful bookmark related tools. It allow users to keep bookmarks of their favourite website, share them with others and discover websites that someone else found valuable. [1] The use of social network assembled abundant stock of users’ favourite links that are organised into categories by tags, so the users can find and/or easily share the most popular or the most recent links of the kind. It functions as another gateway to visit relevant websites of user’s interests, rather than via typical usage of search engines such as ‘google’.
YouTube
Allows users to upload and share their own video clips, and view video clips that are shared by others. The vast amount of video clips shared by the users through YouTube cover numerous topics, offering rich contents. Users can search for video clips by various options that include its built-in search tool, featured video list, categories of videos in assortment of choice, and subscribed channels and communities. It’s targeted more so for the broadband Internet users as it requires their Internet connection speed to view video clips without a fuss, though it still is reasonably accessible for dial-up users.
Facebook
It is a social site open to anyone from 13 years old and above, originally designed for college students. [2] The purpose of Facebook is to permit communications between its users and their friends or others around them. Unlike its competitor ‘MySpace’, Facebook does not support media such as music and videos, however it reinforces user experience through Facebook applications. A range of Facebook applications built by the Facebook team and third parties enhance and broaden the usage. They may supply games to play between friends, or provide practical business related utility that could be shared across workmates.
Twitter
Allow users to inform their current activities to the others in their network, and vice versa. It also offers option to view public timeline that display latest postings performed by users using Twitter service. Users are informed of their activities through their own Twitter user page on the website, mobile phones, or Instant messaging applications. Use of mobile phones allows users to communicate their situation virtually anytime, anywhere in the world.
FOCUS
Privacy and security plays major role in my SNS experience. As I explained earlier in the introduction, I prefer utilising SNS for my own benefits more than for socialising with friends. Types of SNS that please me necessitate less sociability that requires minimum information from me, as they would involve less effort and potential risks to achieve my objectives.
SNS varies in the level of sociability required to make use of its service. Some merely use the power of social ring to augment available contents (e.g. del.icio.us) and provide richer user experience, while other may entirely rely on the social interactions as their service (e.g. Twitter). The level of required sociability directly relates to the maintainability of privacy, and risk of threats. Higher level of required sociability will extend vulnerability of privacy protection, and increase chance of exposure to further significant threats. [3] [4] These issues associated with SNS are another major issue other than the personality that repels users like myself from making use of sociability dependant services.
At current state, I simply would not want to be involved in the SNS with high-level sociability because of my priority in my personal life, and the perceived benefits that I may acquire from them are not significant. At least the security of SNS environment needs improvements to be successful in their attempts to encourage non-social users like myself to actively socialise. Otherwise, to please users like myself, requirements of social level must be kept minimal.
REFLECTION
Within the four examples that I have prepared, I was pleased with del.icio.us and YouTube, while not favouring Facebook and disliking Twitter.
With the help of social network, del.icio.us and YouTube both assemble abundant supply of contents. The wide variety and range of contents that they offer effectively fulfilled my necessity at most occasions. However the richness of content that were provided weren’t my only rationale for favouring these services. Service that were offered by del.icio.us and YouTube could both be utilised anonymously if desired. It gave me option to either stay anonymous or to provide minimal information such as username and email address (that aren’t publicly revealed) for additional experience. Which meant that I could be partially involved as an observer of the contents, or if I wanted to share some contents, I won’t be troubled by the risks that may have emerged due to exposure of my personal details. I believe their simple and clear usage purpose enabled such facile user requirements, offering ideal services to the users like my kind.
Twitter also provided simple and clear usage purpose, however its idea was entirely dependant on the sociability thus it did not suit me. I didn’t want to reveal activities I’m currently undertaking to the world. I’d rather SMS or call someone on my mobile phone if I wanted to inform someone about what I’m doing, since I can maintain my privacy that way. I also didn’t want to know what others are doing or hear about them unless if it’s something important to me, interests me, or if someone had something that they need to tell me. Since I couldn’t filter unnecessary posts from others, I simply turned off the service. If someone promised to post something that’s important to me, instead of turning the Twitter service back on, I would rather ask that person to simply SMS, call me or email me.
As for Facebook, although its main objective was to permit communications between its users and their friends or others around them, Facebook applications that were offered altered usage for users like me. As explained earlier in the post Facebook’s main objective didn’t interest me so my use wasn’t based on such activity. Instead it was based on the entertainment enhanced with social network offered through Facebook applications. That initiated my motivation to sign-up on Facebook so I could try them out. Facebook applications operated between my own networks or across wider public. It presented positive social experiences enriching my at home experience with regard to my hobbies and interests. However, active users of the applications were essential so there were sufficient updates to the competition, comparison and such. Once they became inactive, the delivered user experience decreased. My perceived values towards such applications were lost and I no longer used them.
Furthermore, additions of new entertainment applications were a hassle at times, since some applications demanded invitation of my friends in order to play, forcing me to socialise. They were sometimes simulated by spam applications that lurked between friends causing more issues. I was required to invite my friends before they were available for trial, so I would spread them to my friends without knowing that they’re spams. I recognised that they were spam applications after the successful addition, when advertisements were displayed instead of providing promised experience. To avoid such issues, I now completely ignore all applications requiring friend invitations beforehand, even though some may be genuine. The inconvenience to add new applications that are my motives resulted in dissatisfaction towards Facebook.
By the time all of the applications that I favoured became unpopular within my network and adding new applications appeared to be a stress, Facebook has lost its significance to me.
CONCLUSION
I believe I’m not the only type of users who use SNS for personal benefits rather than to socialise and for socialising. The type of SNS that suits my use has minimal requests of private information, communication, option to participate only when I wish to, whilst offering further efficient and effective solution to fulfil my objective through usage of social network. To target user group like me, those aspects must be considered in the design of SNS to deliver successful user experience.
REFERENCE
[1] http://www.news.com/Year-in-review-Web-2.0-apps-get-slicker%2C-more-social/2009-1032_3-6222223.html?tag=topicIndex
[2] http://del.icio.us/about/
[3] http://www.commonsensemedia.org/website-reviews/Facebook.html
[4] http://www.wiredsafety.org/internet101/blogs.html
[5] http://www.news.com/The-security-risk-in-Web-2.0---page-2/2100-1002_3-6099228-2.html