| Networking the networks |
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| Written by Sean Garmire -Argonaut | ||||||
| Tuesday, 04 April 2006 | ||||||
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Kate and I have been friends for about a year now, but I’ve never seen
nor talked to her. I found her profile on Facebook. I noticed she liked
“Franny and Zooey” by J.D. Salinger, one of my favorite books, so I
clicked the button that said “add Kate as a friend.” So began our digital friendship. I know just by reading her profile where Kate went to high school, what her major is and that she enjoys being “cool and cute.” I also know that she is looking for friendship, is interested in men and is politically moderate. Kate and I have never met in person, nor have we ever spoken, but we know each other’s favorite movies and songs and we occasionally send each other a message. This is a relatively new kind of friendship, and it’s being shared by a rapidly growing segment of the population. According to its own statistics, MySpace has amassed more than 67 million members in 37 months and is ranked by the Alexia ratings service as the fifth most popular English site on the Internet and among the 10 most popular Web sites on the planet. With the astonishing growth of it and other sites like it, many people’s social groups are also growing. But MySpace isn’t the only site offering social networking services. Sites like Facebook, Xanga and Bebo make it much easier to learn a person’s favorite movie, book or “The OC” character. Users’ political beliefs, favorite bands, relationship status and other, often more intimate details can all be found on their online profiles. Facebook is one of the most prevalent social networking sites at the University of Idaho, and the distinctive blue and white page is usually visible on screens in the university’s computer labs. The site is the collegiate version of MySpace launched by Harvard undergraduate Mark E. Zuckerberg just two years ago. According to BusinessWeek Online, Zuckerberg is looking to sell the site and recently turned down an offer of $750 million in hopes of landing $2 billion. Facebook now supports 2,100 colleges and universities across the nation with 7.3 million users. The site was only made available to UI in March 2005, but already 54 percent of the student population is supported with profiles and 5,000 students log in every day. Unlike the much more heavily traveled MySpace, Facebook is limited to anyone — students, graduates and faculty — with a college e-mail address ending in “.edu.” Users are limited to viewing student’s profiles from their own university unless they are approved as “friends.” And because individuals on Facebook must have an e-mail address designated by their school, it is more difficult to remain anonymous on the site. Facebook administrators recently created a high school version of the site, and also linked it to the college version so students can network with people they went to high school with. The Facebook profile appears superficially to have all the qualities of the inside of a high school locker door, with photos from vacations, notes from friends, class schedules and favorite quotes. April Stephenson, an avid Facebooker and UI student, says that’s what’s enjoyable about it. “It’s superficial, but that’s why it’s so fun. You wouldn’t have a chance to talk to any of these people on the street,” she says. According to Stephenson’s profile, she is interested in reading and solving world hunger, and she likes bands like The Ramones and Sigur Ros. Like most users, she checks her account at least once a day and updates it about once a month. While Stephenson says she uses the site mainly to keep in touch with out-of-state friends, Facebook allows her to easily find people at her university who have similar interests. She says it allows her to contact people she wouldn’t have a chance to talk to in real life. She compares using Facebook to a busy sidewalk — except on Facebook, you know the favorite band of everyone who walks past you. That’s why, she explains, it’s so important not to post too much information. “If you don’t have street smarts, all this personal information is open to the public,” she says. Not everyone is willing to share much personal information on their profiles. Malia Volke is a senior earning a degree in conservation biology. Her profile contains less personal information than most, but still provides her name, major, hometown and some photos. After boycotting the site since its introduction at the university, she caved in in February and opened a profile. Volke agrees with Stephenson’s sidewalk analogy, but says that’s why she’s so hesitant to divulge information. Though social networking sites, most notably MySpace, have been havens for stalkers and identity thieves, Volke says that’s only part of the reason she doesn’t post personal information. “I didn’t want to become one of those people who are obsessed with it,” she says. “It’s non-intimidating and non-committing. That’s why these relationships are so interesting and addicting.” Volke, like many users, wants to have the option of using social networking sites for communication, but with a greater degree of anonymity. Volke doesn’t like one of the most prominent side effects of having a Facebook profile: celebrity. Simply put, Volke doesn’t want people she doesn’t know knowing her. There is certainly a degree of celebrity a profile lends its user, but according to UI assistant psychology professor Traci Craig, that’s a good thing. Craig is studying computer-mediated relationships and has maintained a MySpace account for two years. Craig says these sites help users build more varied relationships with people who would normally be outside their social group. “Before these sites caught on,” she says, “you were generally friends with people you lived with and worked with, which created a very monolithic point of view.” Craig says social networking sites like Facebook provide a critical “next step” for people to make a relationship. Someone can use the site, say after a party, to find people they met that night and message them. It’s less intrusive than asking for personal information, like a phone number, because the information posted on the profile is open for the public. Craig says profiles take on the role of social resumes, revealing information like a person’s relationship status and who they’re interested in, all in a positive light. Sure, it might seem like superficial information, she says, but it’s just enough to get below the surface. And while some people think social networking sites are trading human contact for on-screen relationships, Craig disagrees. “People are scared that we’re all just going to talk on the computer all the time and never have any real contact,” she says. “But that really hasn’t been the case.” In fact, Craig is right. According to a study by Pew Internet & American Life Project, a nonpartisan research organization, 31 percent of online social network users said their networks increase their amount of real-time friendships and “significant ties,” while only 2 percent said it reduced them. The evidence found in the Pew study indicates that communities are in a period of transition. The neighborhood is fading, but larger, Internet-aided communities are taking their place — a fact that doesn’t seem to bother Stephenson, who, thanks to Facebook, will never forget another friend’s birthday.  Add as favorites (92) | Views: 3096
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