Friendship and Social Networking
Friday, October 16, 2009 by Nandan
Facebook, Bebo and MySpace are just a few popular social network sites that I am sure we have all at some point in our lives (me included) have used. I have always enjoyed logging on and using such sites. When I was in high school, my favourite social network sites were definitely Bebo. I liked how I could personalise my page with funky and loud ‘skins’ or backgrounds, I could add music to my profile, as well as being able communicate with friends and family. However, now I find that I much prefer Facebook despite the fact that this social network site essentially does exactly the same thing as Bebo. I have come to appreciate Facebook’s simplistic yet conservative set up and aesthetics which gives a very mature feel to the site. Furthermore, I enjoy how I can easily see how my friends and family are doing by looking at status updates, pictures, notes and videos on my homepage.
Social network sites are wonderful as they allow its users to connect with friends and family on a global scale. Social network sites provide users with means to further communicate and connect by enabling users to view and upload pictures, send comments, view posts and status updates as well as enabling users to converse with one another through instant messaging. Social network sites also allows users to add people with whom they share strong ties like best friends and family as well as allowing users to add and connect with those who they share weaker ties with such as acquaintances and work colleagues.
I have always viewed social network sites as fun and exciting way to communicate with friends and family. However, although my view is unlikely to change, I did find Judith Donath’s piece entitled Signals in Social Supernets a very interesting and thought provoking read. As Donath (2008), correctly pointed out, “Whether face-to-face or online much of what people want to know about other people is not directly observable.” Thus we rely on signals such as body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, consumption patterns, posts and comments that are exchanged on profiles to ‘read’ people and make judgements about others. Donath (2008) argues that because “People want to make the best possible impressions, to appear important, creative, and popular,” this can lead to deception. In a normal social context with friends the likelihood of deception is very low; however Donath argues that online representations do not always coincide with offline identities. I would definitely agree with this statement to a degree. Many people, including myself are guilty of telling little white lies or slightly exaggerating about ones self on their profile to make themselves sound a little better. For example in your interests one might say they enjoy cooking when in actual fact, they don’t actually cook that often but do watch cooking shows on television regularly. In this regard I can see where Donath is coming from.
I also found Donath’s comment regarding friending on social networking interesting when she said social network sites create “Supernets” that enable people to maintain more ties than possible without the invention of digital media and social network sites. In her essay, Donath, J. quotes Robert Dunbar (1996), a British anthropologist who claims that “The figure of 150 seems to represent the maximum number of individuals with whom we can have a genuinely social relationship.” Both Donath and Dunbar appear to agree that social networks do not enhance friendships but rather weaken them. Their argument is that instead of users establishing meaningful relationships with close friends and using social network sites as a means to enhance the relationship, many users of social networking sites add many acquaintances with which they have little or no association. Both theorists question if “Social Network sites will shift people’s social world from one focussed on a few important relationships to one consisting of an immense number of weak relationships?” I can clearly see their view point as many of my friends on Facebook have over 500 friends. This would definitely make one question how many of those people they actually have strong ties with. Furthermore, in some cases, the quantity of friends is often used as a way to display popularity which inevitably has taken over the quality of friendships.
Alternatively, I would argue that social networks can actually help to strengthen friendships as they offer a way to daily see how our friends and especially acquaintances are doing if we haven’t had the opportunity to see or speak to them. Which ever way you choose to look at it, is ultimately up to us to decide how we use such sites.
References
Donath, J. (2008). Signals in Social Supernets. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 13, p231-251. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00394.x
Dunbar, R.I.M (1996). Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Written by Jessica Kadarmia
Social network sites are wonderful as they allow its users to connect with friends and family on a global scale. Social network sites provide users with means to further communicate and connect by enabling users to view and upload pictures, send comments, view posts and status updates as well as enabling users to converse with one another through instant messaging. Social network sites also allows users to add people with whom they share strong ties like best friends and family as well as allowing users to add and connect with those who they share weaker ties with such as acquaintances and work colleagues.
I have always viewed social network sites as fun and exciting way to communicate with friends and family. However, although my view is unlikely to change, I did find Judith Donath’s piece entitled Signals in Social Supernets a very interesting and thought provoking read. As Donath (2008), correctly pointed out, “Whether face-to-face or online much of what people want to know about other people is not directly observable.” Thus we rely on signals such as body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, consumption patterns, posts and comments that are exchanged on profiles to ‘read’ people and make judgements about others. Donath (2008) argues that because “People want to make the best possible impressions, to appear important, creative, and popular,” this can lead to deception. In a normal social context with friends the likelihood of deception is very low; however Donath argues that online representations do not always coincide with offline identities. I would definitely agree with this statement to a degree. Many people, including myself are guilty of telling little white lies or slightly exaggerating about ones self on their profile to make themselves sound a little better. For example in your interests one might say they enjoy cooking when in actual fact, they don’t actually cook that often but do watch cooking shows on television regularly. In this regard I can see where Donath is coming from.
I also found Donath’s comment regarding friending on social networking interesting when she said social network sites create “Supernets” that enable people to maintain more ties than possible without the invention of digital media and social network sites. In her essay, Donath, J. quotes Robert Dunbar (1996), a British anthropologist who claims that “The figure of 150 seems to represent the maximum number of individuals with whom we can have a genuinely social relationship.” Both Donath and Dunbar appear to agree that social networks do not enhance friendships but rather weaken them. Their argument is that instead of users establishing meaningful relationships with close friends and using social network sites as a means to enhance the relationship, many users of social networking sites add many acquaintances with which they have little or no association. Both theorists question if “Social Network sites will shift people’s social world from one focussed on a few important relationships to one consisting of an immense number of weak relationships?” I can clearly see their view point as many of my friends on Facebook have over 500 friends. This would definitely make one question how many of those people they actually have strong ties with. Furthermore, in some cases, the quantity of friends is often used as a way to display popularity which inevitably has taken over the quality of friendships.
Alternatively, I would argue that social networks can actually help to strengthen friendships as they offer a way to daily see how our friends and especially acquaintances are doing if we haven’t had the opportunity to see or speak to them. Which ever way you choose to look at it, is ultimately up to us to decide how we use such sites.
References
Donath, J. (2008). Signals in Social Supernets. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Vol. 13, p231-251. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00394.x
Dunbar, R.I.M (1996). Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Written by Jessica Kadarmia