SNS and Intimacy
Monday, September 14, 2009 by shaf_sz
I feel that relationships, although previously on the decline in regards to intimacy, have been further pushed towards this direction through SNS. Hear me out. We live in a time where we can be 'friends' (through SNS) with literally everyone with access to the internet. This includes people on the other side of the globe. Donath notes that SNS is leading to almost like a social-supernet, in which we have relationships on a massive scale due to this technology and I argue that relationships are becoming a case of 'quantity of quality'.
We look at someone with a lot of friends and what do we think? Wow, they're really popular, I guess there's something about them that makes them like-able. The amount of relationships we have, no matter how superficial, creates a facade - it becomes our identity. With an expanding supernet of social relationships, combined with the amount of SNS available (which, by the way, are getting even MORE egocentric (read: twitter)) compels us to not only keep in contact with people constantly, but through many different mediums. Frankly, it's hard to keep up and the focus of the SNS moves away from social networking to furthering social reputations.
The egocentric and individualistic nature reinforces this idea of the superficiality of SNS but of course, we can't really blame people for wanting to make a good impression. My main concern is the increasing limitations of SNS on deeper and more interactive relationships. Although SNS showed great promise and still have great uses (for example, keeping in touch with friends/family who move away), the direction SNS are taking seem to be reflecting our increasingly egocentric and individualistic society, and rather than being a tool of communication, they're becoming a tool for the furthering of ones own reputation.
We look at someone with a lot of friends and what do we think? Wow, they're really popular, I guess there's something about them that makes them like-able. The amount of relationships we have, no matter how superficial, creates a facade - it becomes our identity. With an expanding supernet of social relationships, combined with the amount of SNS available (which, by the way, are getting even MORE egocentric (read: twitter)) compels us to not only keep in contact with people constantly, but through many different mediums. Frankly, it's hard to keep up and the focus of the SNS moves away from social networking to furthering social reputations.
The egocentric and individualistic nature reinforces this idea of the superficiality of SNS but of course, we can't really blame people for wanting to make a good impression. My main concern is the increasing limitations of SNS on deeper and more interactive relationships. Although SNS showed great promise and still have great uses (for example, keeping in touch with friends/family who move away), the direction SNS are taking seem to be reflecting our increasingly egocentric and individualistic society, and rather than being a tool of communication, they're becoming a tool for the furthering of ones own reputation.