Hi everyone, my name is Erika Kim, and I’m a junior in the ILR school. I’m proud to say that I’m from
Facebook is an internet phenomenon that interests me the most. I guess I can say that I am pretty obsessed with Facebook, like everyone else. I was pretty resistant in getting Facebook at first, because it seemed to me that it wasted so much of people’s time. But now, I can’t seem to stop checking my wallposts, messages, and photo comments throughout the day. Also, what I really like about Facebook is that it is an awesome way to get connected and find people that you’ve lost in touch with. For instance, I lived overseas for most of my life (for 13 years), and I always get super excited when some of my old friends find me to “friend” me on Facebook.
This universal site is growing faster than people could probably ever imagine. I would say that some of the Facebook utilities such as posting up wall messages and joining various interest groups would be included in the category of “asynchronous discussion forum” described by Wallace in The Psychology of the Internet. It is flexible in allowing people to sign in whenever it’s convenient for them to post comments and add their opinions in discussion boards formed by groups. However, other features that include notifications of recent changes in people’s profiles, or utilities that allow posting up pictures, Youtube videos, music, and personal advertisements should probably be included in a new, separate internet space category. Wallace probably never anticipated this type of networking site that encompasses so many different features, but it would definitely be worthwhile to create a separate category just for Facebook due to its popularity and growing number of members.
2 comments:
Hi you!
I first want to say that I feel for you in regards to Gilmore Girls-I miss my weekly dose of Lorelai and Rory. But anyways, like most people, I too am an addict of Facebook. From the second I wake up in the morning, to the second I fall asleep, Facebook is open on my computer, and I am constantly checking the new pictures, interest changes, and relationship changes of my 15218 “friends.” While I do agree that this internet phenomenon is a good way of keeping in touch with what other people (I too get excited when a get the friend request from a long lost friend!), especially people you have gotten out of contact with, are up to, I think this phenomenon, like so many others, is destroying more relationships rather than helping them. Because it is so easy to find out what people are up to by a click of the button, many people are finding it unnecessary to pick up the phone, or shoot an email to someone, asking them how they really are, or what they are really up to. It’s so simple to pretend like you haven’t lost touch with someone because you know that they have a new boyfriend, or have a new haircut. But knowing this information isn’t telling you anything about the person, like how they are, or how their family is. So, while I do think it is too awesome to find someone that you haven’t spoken to in 13 years, I don't think that Facebook is really doing a good job connecting you to people that you have lost touch with.
Hi Erika,
I’ve seen maybe part of one episode of Gilmore Girls…
Facebook is obviously an extremely popular site used by many people, but I’m actually one of the few not addicted to it. I used to use it fairly frequently, but now I check it maybe once every few weeks. Even though I don’t use it to stalk anybody, I still make sure my information is up to date because I know so many other people use it. I think of it more of a resource for checking up on people every once and a while or a way of keeping in touch with old friends.
Anyway, I think if you had to force Facebook into one of Wallace’s spaces, it might be asynchronous chat, but I’d say it probably requires a new category - probably not its own category because of other similar websites such as myspace. It might have been a good idea to explain what other sites were similar to Facebook and would go in the same category. I think the category would also include sites based on social tagging such as del.icio.us or maybe digg. None of these sites are really about chat; they are all more about providing information for others to view.
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