Among the five readings I did (listed below) for this session, all of them mentioned the question of interactional influence between online and offline activities, in other words, interactions within the cyberspace and physical space concerning social networking. Interestingly, more than one article used the word “shallow” to describe online “friendships”, which can be a little prejudicial. It reminds me of what my dad said when he saw me spending too much time online back in high school, “The more time you spent online, the less you can learn in the real world.” In his mind, no matter how efficient our life and work are with the use of Internet, “face to face” interaction is still irreplaceable, and online communication is more or less “dull”.
My dad’s point of view may represent some people’s attitudes toward social computing, but obviously not those in our materials. It is more like revealing the bright sides of social computing in this session, especially compared to the implications we discussed last week. First of all, no matter online or offline, according to David C. Evans, the human behavior patterns that were involved are all the same, only the online activities can reach a wider range, hence make social computing “a slight evolution in human relations”. A handy instance will be “Six Degree of Separation”, no matter it has been completely proven or not. In Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism, a point of view is looking for friendship online seems to be focused on quantity while offline choices often highlight the quality. Though this is the current situation of having too many online friends, it can be considered as an action of “status seeking”, which can be a proof of users online status, and since on many SNSs, users’ friendship can be managed by grouping, this situation can be explained as maintaining the quality when pursuing for quantity.
Albrechtslund, who talked about two trends in building friendship regarding social computing: online-to-offline and offline-to-online, discussed the question of people’s lives after their social computing activities. According to him, as users’ digital trails are “external”, they probably will get influence by those trails in their real world life. Albrechtslund also criticized on Tribble’s point that users’ online activities might destroy their offline opportunities. To me, this seems to be discriminate as well, it’s even like Big Brother is watching, and waiting to seize upon someone’s honest mistakes, to some extent. And by studying the relations between Internet use and depression, LaRose came out with some results concerning interactions of online and offline psychological conditions. Positively, social computing with real-world friends can alleviate depression, like when my grandparents also started to use MSN messenger to communicate with me after I came to the U.S.; yet negatively, stresses that users got from the virtual world might come before, but not after those stresses from the real world. But anyway, it is not like social computing will diminish established strong social ties (offline) – like what social displacement hypothesis figured, and maybe what my dad thought! Instead, another hypothesis stated in Galston’s article is that youngsters are likely to transfer their online grouping mode to their offline social practice, and bring big changes to real world organizations. If we agree with Galston’s values of the two principal cultural forces of Contemporary American society, we should be prepared for the possibilities of both the manner of making individual choices and community belongingness will be influenced by social computing activities.
While writing these above, I kept thinking about one question: what are the different levels that can describe the relations between users’ online and offline social network? At this moment, I am only able to figure out three: preservation, extension, and reverse. The first level is a more like a convenient reflection of the real world network, which can be explained by my grandparents, who only use MSN messenger to communicate with family. The second level - extension, can be described as an expansion of people’s real lives. They reflect their true identities in the online social network. By doing this, first, there social links are increased; then, they not only expand their own experiences for certain object or subject, but also enrich other people’s experiences when commuting with them online. This will be the level I would like to investigate this time when I’m exploring through an online community.
The community I chose is Polyvore – a crowd-sourcing site for fashion lovers. I wonder if this site is sponsored by some commercial websites or not since it has prices and hyperlinks to them, but at least it is a good place for them to spread their information. The main function of this site is an application that works like “dress up your Barbie”, only there is no Barbie, but a clipboard where users can drag their favorite items together to build up an outfit and post it. And all those “items”, are pictures of clothes, shoes, and accessories that come from online stores. This is the main part of this community, like the diary function in a blog site where users can express their opinions. Besides, there are basic SNSs functions like profile, comment, grouping, and “like” tag. There is also a “Q&A” section where users can give their opinions to some other users. It is quite a coincidence when I was browsing that I saw a question about maxi skirts, which I was able to answer because I just got one for myself several days ago.
In general, my experiences here satisfied me, and speaking of what this allow me to do that I couldn’t have done offline? Tons! First, I would never have the chance to know so many talented stylish people and their views of fashion since I am not working for Vogue or Harper’s Bazaar; Secondly, by posting my “sets” and “comments”, I got the chance to know what my “taste” is like by others’ commenting and responding, I will also be willing to share my experience and knowledge that come from this site with my real world friends, and all of these are also extending my experiences of fashion (very little though) that I would like to take as a case to explain the extension level of peoples’ online social networking compared to their offline social networking.
Great post! Interestingly, I also do not have much interest in participating in social networks. When I read your comment about on-line and off-line interactions both being human nature, I am intrigued by the outcome of these interactions. For instance, I tend to hand write “thank you” letters, as opposed to sending an e-mail or an e-card. Many of my friends mentioned that they found hand written letters to be more special and personal, as they do not receive them often anymore. Even though it is human nature to send a “thank you” note, how is the message received different? I also enjoyed reading your insights about individual’s offline lives being impacted by their on-line activities. I am wondering how well aware people are of the idea of the “digital footprint.” In this sense, is this an aspect of technological literacy that needs to be highlighted in greater detail? Since this phenomena appears to becoming a part of everyday life, I am also wondering if someone that is too clean (minimal to no digital trail) could be discriminated against for being “too clean.” If this is the case, could reverse discrimination based on this phenomenon take place?
ReplyDeleteLastly, very interesting insights about Polyvore; I have not heard about this until you brought it up :) Regarding your inquiry about false information, I believe that this is a part of the Internet and people need to be aware that this is always possible. Keeping people informed about this is another aspect that will be difficult to consider.
mbco, love your idea of someone "too clean" might also be discriminated, maybe in the near future. I think in that case, either he/she will be judged as lagging behind the new technologies, or as too reserved. However, it will be inappropriate as well.
ReplyDeleteAnd talking about hand written notes, I like them too, if compared to emails or fancy e-cards, I think it's like the difference between shopping in a store and shopping online. I remember in the article about Internet usage and depression, the author also said that some support can only be provided in real life.
BTW, I'm glad that you went to Polyvore, hope you like my "recommendation" :)
Nan, I like you post, especially how you tied in so many personal experiences -- the comment from your dad and your grandparents' use of the internet from overseas to communicate with you -- this makes it much more interesting than simply reading over someone's regurgitating of the class material. So, thank you!
ReplyDeleteAlso just want to comment that I agree with what you wrote when you were following up on your dad's comment that, "all the time spend online is less time spent in the real world." It think there really is a social stigma that exists about social networking and spending time talking to "virtual friends," who you "don't really know." I can confess that when my sister-in-law became really involved with Harry Potter online communities and two of her "Harry Potter friends" came to her wedding, I thought it was really weird. And then when another sister-in-law wanted to go visit a "friend" who lived in Canada who she met on babynames.com communities, I thought to myself, "why can't she just make friends in "real life?" And then there are the people who don't even try to bridge the on and off-line friends --and they shouldn’t have to. So, the social stigma does exist, but now after doing the readings and becoming more aware and understanding the point about "choosing" friends w/ common interests, I am starting to "get it.”
christinals, I smiled when I read that your sister-in-law's "virtual friends" went to her wedding, and I think I can understand more or less about her feelings- of how great it is to find some precious friends online who have same interests and tastes. Based on some theory in the materials, the chance to find a friend online is bigger than in the real world, because there are no such limitations, and we can always do a filter for common interests at first. But since I don't have much experience with online social networking myself, I can only come up with some news about the flaws of "virtual friends", especially when one is turning them from online to offline. The main problem is still related to deceit, and might cause violence or some illegal activities like kidnapping. Although kidnapping and sexual abuse seems to be extreme cases, I couldn't agree more with the point of one can never be too careful about their "virtual friend" before the “identification” can be identified.
ReplyDeleteI also dont have to much an interest in social networking sites other that my Facebook account, I've just never had a huge desire to share my thoughts..
ReplyDeleteAs for what your father said regarding not learning in real life, that can be true.. I dont have the studies to back up my claims, but working in circulation at a library, I can see how difficult it is for some young adults to communicate- they come to the counter with headphones in their ears asking for help, they expect immediate responses and we even have those that come in with their folks to do the talking and this is a college campus!
Social networking sites can be fun and empowering in some ways, but real life interaction is just as important.. people cant interview through Tweets :)
Caloha, I think your instance of the young adults at the circulation desk can be a good example of how people's online activities can influence their offline behaviour, and it is a sad story that we are becoming isolated ones because of online social networking-I don't mean to blame it for everything, like Galston's attitude toward TV, but at least to some degree. Sometimes it even reminds me of some of those despairing science fiction movies of what we might end in.
ReplyDeleteBut these thoughts are just too pessimism, and social computing seems to be an inevitable trend in our modern life with some positive influences as well as you said, and interviewing through Tweets? Who knows, maybe yes!
I never heard of Polyvore but that really seems to be a great site for people interested in fashion, nice find! To me that's exactly what embodies social networking... people with a shared interest get together online in ways that would be impossible in real life, enjoy their hobbies, and maybe once in a while even make a connection that carries over into real life.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time of course nothing is perfect, and your grandfather has a good point too. If all of one's communication is online, it's easy to forget how to make connections in real life. From my experience that seems to be true especially for younger people, who were born into this internet culture and have never experienced life without iPhones, Facebook, and youtube. I can definitely see how that kind of instant gratification offered by the internet for any needs, including social ones, can lead to people having problems when things in real life don't always work the same way.
If Polyvore has recommendations for lads, I'm going to check it out; I need help picking out clothes!
ReplyDeleteI used to be averse to social networks like Facebook and MySpace because they're more or less just ways for marketers to spy on us. However, because friends will tag photos of you that you might not necessarily want tagged, I have found the need to create a profile to monitor my online identity, rather than allow them to create it for me.
I still make extensive use of MSN, Gchat, and AIM to keep in touch with friends/family around the world. Glad you included them as an example!
Julia's experience with younger people mirrors my own, especially when I was teaching English at elementary schools. The culture children are being raised in is very much a 'culture of now' and we need to be ensure we teach them the value of patience. Anyway, great post!
Your post reminded me of how reluctant I am to add new friends to my online social spaces. Usually there is a waiting period for when I will add new friends to Facebook. Also I never have added someone I have never had real life contact with.
ReplyDeleteHowever, your experience with Polyvore made me think about the large collectiveness there now is on the internet. I keep thinking about how communities are now much connected then ever in history. We can probably now start talking about a world wide collective knowledge. As you mentioned with the opportunity you had with Maxi Skirts. Before the internet, and more recently Web 2.0, we would need to rely on experts to get information now we can simply post a question online and get many peoples opinions. I guess the only thing we would need to be careful of is a trend to rely on social consensus as opposed to expert advice as this would create a larger market for amateur level of information as opposed to the expert level being the desired choice.
The experiment you demonstrated definitely answered your question, “what this allow me to do that I couldn’t have done offline?”. And you've done a terrific job promoting the Polyvore site :), to this small group of people. The site sounded so good, after reading your post, I had to go take a look.
ReplyDeleteI think you've pointed out one of the main benefits of joining online communities. We gain access to the collective knowledge, information, and experiences. We would never be able to obtain all of these offline, no matter how many personal interactions we have, and what kinds they are.
Very well done, I think we're in a phase of online interaction where there is still much disagreement and distrust about the value of virtual friends, but your example illustrates very well some of the ways in which you can interact around a shared interest (fashion in this case), and even become a source of information for others. Galston's article is the oldest of this session's readings, and I wonder if that has an impact on its relative outlook--we're more familiar now with online interaction, and while there are still opportunities and threats as you described, there is definitely a "new normal" that didn't exist in 2000.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with Julia and GabrielW's view of younger people, who are effected too much by internet and online social activities. On one hand, these are making their life and work more effective and fun, but on the other hand, these are also changing their real world manners, and probably not in a delightful way. Yesterday, at the Carnival in Punahou School, there was a young girl in front of me waiting in line, and when the ticket seller was talking to her, she just kept texting on her phone but not responding at all for almost 2 minutes. Again, I don't mean to blame it all to social networking or high－tech, but it is a sample of how are these changing social behavior, especially among younger people now.
ReplyDeletePhilip, I think anonymity is one major reason that so many will devote to online communities nowadays, correct me if I'm wrong, but at least for me, I will never share my experience of maxi skirts unless to a close friends in the real world. And your concern of too many amateur opinions or information without authority resources is indeed a problem we have to face when enjoying the benefit of social computing.
ReplyDelete