Analytical Response 1 - 10/21/14
Chris Nalwasky
10/21/14
Social Media & Participatory Culture
Analytical Response 1
In my interesting Social Media & Participatory Culture class at Rutgers University, we have learned a variety and a set of interesting topics thus far. Included in the concepts are “liking” on Facebook, the dangers of the internet, your experiences of online friendship, online intimacy and passion, love as technology, and self-interest in the attention economy. As you can see, these are a wide assortment of terms. In watching videos and reading the selections provided for class and based on my own personal experiences using the social media platform Facebook, I will be discussing the dangers of the internet and online friendships. These concepts are somewhat alike and based on my experiences, I can back them up.
The dangers of the Internet are a really controversial topic not so much up for debate, but for the amount of danger and conflict that is possible all over the web. You were always told to watch what you put on the internet whether its credit card information, other banking, social security numbers, watching out for scams, and to watch what websites you are going on and looking at and photos and such you are posting. You never know who will find your profile and want to do harm to you. In addition, employers will search for you and scout your profile.
Inn Danah Boyd’s article Social Network Sites as Network Publics: Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications “Social network sites have gained tremendous traction recently as popular online hangout spaces for both youth and adults. People flock to them to socialize with their friends and acquaintances, to share information with interested others, and to see and be seen. In addition, “there are those who use these sites to flirt with friends-of-friends, make business acquaintances and occasionally even rally others for a political cause,” (Boyd, 2010). With all of this commotion, comes time of disaster. In a way, spending too much time online and on Facebook is a danger. You become so focused on your phone or your computer and you don’t take the time to appreciate the world around you. I see people all the time with their heads down when they walk or on the busses here at school. In a way, are we “alone, together,” (Murray & Manivannan, 2014)? Put your phone down and take a look at a beautiful city skyline or even the cute dog walking next to you instead of writing on someone’s wall.
In the Frontline Film Growing Up Online, there are a few stories mentioned in the film about kids or teens making bad choices. This one incident was where a group of high school friends snuck into a concert and acted crazy and drank even though they were underage and it was a mess (Van Petten, n.d.). These pictures and videos ended up on the internet for the world to see. One thing my mom did when I was a kid growing up was having the computer on our main floor next to the kitchen so it wasn’t in any private room. In addition, my brother-in-law is a computer wizard and works with computers so he showed my mom ways to monitor, not that I was a bad kid online. Something that was stressed in another class at Rutgers was to check what you put on your Facebook as future employers search for you and look at what you have on. There was an emphasis to not post that picture from the party from Friday night. However, having the ability to share with friends and post pictures and connect with others is awesome and why Facebook is on my agenda at least once every day to check up.
On Facebook, you can change your privacy settings but if it is public, anybody can look at your information you have posted and even try to contact you and talk to you. This is a spot for online sexual predators. Also, Facebook and online is a place for cyberbullying and it can ruin a child’s life or even take it as it highlights in the Frontline film (Van Petten, n.d.). Thankfully, I have no experience with either of these but just to show you that they exist.
Online Facebook friends are something that can be looked at in a couple ways. Some people add everybody and anybody, while others just add their real friends. Well, what are real friends? Friendship is the state of being friends and a state of mutual trust and support between two or more individuals (Murray & Manivannan, 2014). I personally have added people I “know” from work, or school, or something along those lines. In addition, I add people who I really talk to. I currently have 1,261 friends on Facebook. Do I “know” them each on a personal level, of course not? I have added people who are of interest including friends and family but also other acquaintances and others from school that I have seen and know of. In a video from class, our brains can keep track of 150 meaningful friendships, and no more (howstuffworks.com). In a Chris Bloor piece, “if we have too many friends, the beneficial effects of the network become fragmented. Maintaining a large group of friends takes our focus away from getting to know the characters of a few trusted individuals,” (Bloor, 2010). I would say I have five really close friends and categorizing them as two best friends, two “bros”, and of course, my girlfriend.
With Facebook, you are able to connect with your best friends you have now, or reconnect with family and even an old childhood friend who you haven’t seen in ten years like me which is absolutely amazing and why I like Facebook. I searched him up on Facebook one day after remembering his last name and I was able to add him as a friend and message him and reminisce of playing soccer in his backyard. Now, would I have a deep conversation with someone on Facebook? I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t even have one with my girlfriend. I’ll save that for a phone call or in person. However, these friendships and even those people you meet online can be authentic and I think Facebook is great (no, I am not a Facebook junkie). In this “Web 2.0”, this new age “replaces the one-to-many model of service provision with utilization of users through the any-to-many potential of the internet” (Scholz, 2007). In a study done in the UK in 2005, Lewis and West’s article Friending: London-based undergrads’ experiences of Facebook, found that Facebook as a low commitment friendship acting as a “security blanket” where you are included in people’s lives, but not in depth (Lewis & Clark, 2005).
In the age of the Internet and Facebook, there are many dangers on the Web and we all no matter how old or young we are must think twice about what we are posting. In addition, we must all be careful of what information we are giving out and keep things private as you never know who is watching and who wants to get you. In addition, no matter how many hundreds or thousands Facebook friends you have, you really only have a select few best friends. All the other people just become noise. I personally have always watched what I put on my Facebook including all videos, sharing other status updates or links, pictures, anything. I mostly only have photos of myself, my family, and my girlfriend on uploaded. I don’t have any “bad” or “harming” photos and frankly, don’t do any crazy things anyway. Facebook is great for reconnecting with old friends, but we really have a select few friends that we can trust no matter what, and there is nothing richer than getting to spend time with them and enjoying the world with our phones turned off so there is nothing to post online.
Works Cited
Bloor, C. (2010). What are friends for. Facebook and Philosophy. (pp. 147-157).
Van Petten, V. (n.d.) Summary: Frontline’s Growing Up Online. Radicalparenting.com. http://www.radicalparenting.com/2008/02/01/summary-frontlines-growing-up-online/
(n.d.) Fw:Thinking [video file]. Retrieved from http://shows.howstuffworks.com/fwthinking show/future-of-social-media-video.htm
Murray, D., & Manivannan, V. (2014) Lecture Notes, Rutgers University, 09/23/14-09/26/14
Boyd, D. (2010). Social Network Sites as Network Publics Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications. Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites. (pp. 39-57).
Lewis, J., & West, A. (2009) Friending: Long-based undergraduates’ experience of Facebook. New Media & Society, 11, 1209-1229. doi: 10.1177/1461444809342058
Scholz, Trebor. "A History of the Social Web (draft)." Collectivate.net. 26 Sep 2007. 1 Oct 2007 <http://www.collectivate.net/journalisms/2007/9/26/a-history-of-the-socialweb. html>.
**The indents got messed up when I pasted here