Are they really “social” and can you call them real “networks”?
This is a current work in progress. Comments and suggestions are more than welcome.
What do I mean by “not really social”, well if you look at the definition of social below and if you look at what social networking is supposed to lead to is “physical connection with people”. It is the actual connection with people I would call social, funnily enough the online banter seldoms ends in a physical contact and in some ways seems to actually help in keeping us isolated. Isolated, because through social media people feel like they are actually connecting whilst not actually connecting. Online spaces have none of the drawbacks of actual contact, require no dress code or actual truthfulness and yet when you meet with someone, they quickly can see some of and down the line, all of your online falsehoods aka bullshit.
I would suggest that the people you feel closest too are the people you are most honest and open with and who you hide from the least.
Social networking sites like facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo, Twitter, Orkut, Xing and the myriad others have boomed in the past few years.
What exactly are people hooked on?
I have been chatting with a couple of friends of mine who like me just don’t get it. The people I connect with I never make contact with through facebook and those that do make contact are mostly
Here is a comment from a blog I was looking at recently which I found funny/interesting.
Last summer, I set my birthday on Facebook to May 24th. I got a few dozen “Happy birthdays” via Facebook. Right after that, I set my birthday to May 31st. On May 31st, I got a couple dozen MORE “Happy birthdays.” A small of handful of people noticed, but there were a surprising number of people who said happy birthday to me twice without even noticing.
My birthday is in August.
Another snippet from this cartoon, I ran across.
Almost everyone in the world watched television, and millions of people are involved in television production, and yet there is not a single show on TV that accurately depicts real life. This will doom you to a life of shattered expectations as you have already spent about 30% of your existence watching sitcoms.
This again points at what I am talking about, you online is not you and is not fully real. So why bother?!
Definition
social
• adjective 1 relating to society, its organization, or hierarchy. 2 needing companionship; suited to living in communities. 3 relating to or designed for activities in which people meet each other for pleasure. 4 (of birds, insects, or mammals) breeding or living in colonies or organized communities.
• noun an informal social gathering organized by the members of a club or group.
— DERIVATIVES sociality noun socially adverb.
— ORIGIN Latin socialis ‘allied’, from socius ‘friend’.
network
• noun 1 an arrangement of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines. 2 a complex system of railways, roads, etc. 3 a group of broadcasting stations that connect to broadcast a programme simultaneously. 4 a number of interconnected computers, operations, etc. 5 a group of people who interact together.
• verb 1 connect as or operate with a network. 2 Brit. broadcast on a network. 3 interact with others to exchange information and develop contacts.
— DERIVATIVES networker noun.