The Rise of The Social Network

We’ve all seen the Internet rule and the growth of online content. It’s part of everyday life now for most people. Do you still remember when e-mail used to be cutting edge technology and that was how most communication was done? I do. I mean sure, e-mail is still how major companies and how inter-departmental info gets circulated in office buildings, but what about things outside of work? In the world we’re in today, it’s so easy to pull out that iPhone, Blackberry, or whatever communications device you happen to have on hand and talk to friends. Oh, by the way, forget calling, turns out that texting is by far exceeding all e-mailing and phone calling. However, in this post, let’s focus on the rise of the Social Networks and it’s dynamics that make it so appealing to the upcoming computer literate generations. Before we start…think about this: What are the consequences of growing up immersed in a virtual social network? Will that really limit inter-personal communication? We’ll just have to see. Let’s explore folks.

It’s official. Facebook and Myspace are defnitely going to be in the dictionaries alongside Google. I mean, how many times have you heard someone ask a question and the reply, “Just Google it”? I know I’ve heard it too many times to count. Heck, I say it to people all the time. At this point, if you’re lost, have no idea what Google is, or are bored, you might as well stop reading and maybe go Google “google”. You know what? You should just stop reading then if you don’t know what I just said. For those who choose to continue, now think about how many times you’ve heard phrases like: “I’ll facebook you tonight”, “Just facebook me”, “Myspace me”, “Why don’t you tag me.” Which brings me to another point which I’ll just briefly touch upon. Viral videos and video content sites like YouTube. I admit, YouTube is an excellent resource and a source of ever so many laughs, so it too has been incorporated into our vocabulary. Phrases like: “YouTube it” and “I got YouTubed”, are pretty common. My point? I didn’t really have one to start with, but these sites that the average American visits on a daily basis or at least has heard of is being incorporated into our lives, as apparent by our vocabulary. I would assume that it’s safe to say that it is a part of who we are now, just as e-mail was a while back. Don’t worry, we’ll talk about e-mail soon, when I feel like getting back on topic. But wait a second, what about places like 7-Eleven, Safeway, Wal-mart, and places like McDonalds? Haven’t they been incorporated into our vocabulary? Sure they’ve been incorporated into our lives, but do you ever hear people say: “Yea I just Safewayed”, “Walmart me up”, or “McDonald me”? Never. It just doesn’t work like that. Only Internet phenomenon can be incorporated on such a level. Seems like pretty good stuff eh?

This post comes at a time right after Facebook started switching out old home pages and putting in new home pages. The switch started March 11th and has been going on for some time now. Part of the reason Social Networking has such an appeal is sometimes just pure aesthetics, other times it’s peer pressure, and also because we have our own selves on the Internet. No, I’m not saying that every person who spends time online has multiple personalities, but being online is kind of like standing behind a shower curtain. You can see a silhoutte and let your imagination do the rest of the work, but it’s just not the same as the shower curtain being peeled back. Which would you prefer? OK, don’t answer that. Back to the appeal: younger generations and college kids are all over Facebook and Myspace, sharing all aspects of their lives. Oh and how can I forget Twitter. It is growing rapidly, although personally, I don’t know a whole lot of people who have a twitter account. They’d rather use Facebook. How do I use Facebook? I like to keep in contact with friends and post lots of items. Then again, that is what Friendfeed is for. I have even less friends who use Friendfeed.

I guess people on Facebook and Myspace are all friend whores. Ok that is a stereotype, but Facebook and Myspace are both great places to “friend” every single person that you ever come into contact with or spend more than a minute with. Even though you know NOTHING about that person, you can talk to them online like you know everything about them. That is, especially if they fill out their profile and you can see it. Oh you like…blah blah bla bla and so on. Sure you can put yourself out there and friend all the people in the world, but at the end of the day, an average person really on has about 10-15 “real” friends and still only about 5-7 “close” friends. I don’t know how researchers and scientists define “real” and “close” but hey it’s proven. Sure there are some annoying aspects of social networks that we all know about. We all have those little things when we’re surfing that we hate, but it can’t be perfect. After all, life isn’t perfect either.

We’re almost through. You can totally skip this paragraph if you don’t want to hear what I think about the new Facebook design. It looks nice and seems to sort of resemble Facebook on the iPhone and iPod in terms of organization. The basic functionality remains the same and the major changes are the publisher box that is both on your home page and also on your public profile. It’ll pretty much follow you wherever you go on Facebook. Like I said, nothing too drastic. If you look at the little avatars, they’ve been smoothed out to look a little more web 2.0 transitioning to web 3.0 designs. Organization is a little simpler. There is less to distract you because the feeds are more effeciently organized. News feeds, photo feeds, and status feeds, all of which you can choose to look at. The right hand side, are the “highlights” columns, just videos and lots of media. Cool thing? I think it’s the ability to select videos and media. You can also choose your friend list and just look at their updates. I’m probably going to use my features..My “most visited” friends. Awesome. I’ll probably do another post when I familiarize myself once again with the world of Facebook. Crap.

Back to the original point. Sounds like perhaps e-mail is going to be even more personal than it has ever been. It’s like how a phone call is more personal than a text message. Text messaging and talking on AIM or any chat client is casual, even when you’re using MSN in an offic environment. That has made a phone call acceptable as “personal”. Same goes for social networking and e-mailing. With a revolution in real-time updates in both Twitter and more recently Facebook, messages on these networks are impersonal, although efficient and fast. This makes e-mail the “personal” form of communication. Who would have though? Personally I do have to say I enjoy sending e-mails sometimes. End of point. My rant is done. All this was done in the UC Davis library, where I should have been studying.