You've probably heard of six degrees of separation, the theory has been that an average of six intermediaries can connect any two people in the world. Though it may only exist as a myth, several attempts have been made to verify this figure including email chains in 2001 and 2007 winding up with 6 and 6.6 respectively. Well a recent New York Times article has determined that new forms of communication such as Facebook have possibly decreased that number down to "4.74" worldwide and "4.37" within the United States alone.
While I happen to be in the minority of people my age who doesn't use Facebook, I do find the new connections in the world to be extremely fascinating. There are entire districts of the Internet devoted to the most obscure fandoms and fetishes, and I truly doubt there is much left in the world that isn't online. Of course there is always the classic argument that while these technologies are allowing people to have easier and more connections, they may be inhibiting our relationships by decreasing real world interaction.
So what do you think? Do you think it is a good thing that like minded communities are easier than ever to find due to the connectives of the online world, or are we loosing out on the more mundane and real interactions of yesteryear? And does an increase in online friends really mean you are connected with more people?
I don't necessarily find social media networks solely to be contact/ communication forums and depending on the individual, it may not be used to for searching and connecting to communities. Initially a site such as Facebook, had been targeted towards college students to keep in touch, however this soon expanded and now there are users that range from middle schoolers to their grandparents. Although some of these users may have been persuaded through the central route (Richard Petty, 1986) where they were sold to the idea, functions and content of the network. Other users may have been informationally influenced and conform to the majority under the belief that if everyone else is doing it, it must be the right thing to do (Muzafer Sherif, 1936). Some may also be persuaded into such networking through the peripheral route in which they could have been influenced by superficial cues such as the middle schooler who may simply just be on Facebook for a place to play games as opposed to staying connected with all these people. Then there are also the users that are simply conforming to the majority due to normative influences (Soloman Asch, 1951) where they fear the consequences of being the deviant such as getting left out of events.
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ReplyDeleteI think these technologies are doing both. It depends on the amount of time we spend with these technologies that determine if we are really connected through these social networks or not. I also believe that many people have started picking up technology advancements because they do not want to be left behind. According to our textbook, “Just as humans develop as they get older, cultures sometimes change over time from one generation to the next” (206, Kassin, Fein, Markus (7th edition). The book exemplifies the modernization efforts in China, in which Zhang and Shavitt (2003) found that while traditional values were on mainstream TV, magazine ads had more modern and individualistic impulses. Even though many cultures start off with their own “style,” I think it is inevitable that they are influenced by other cultures and time. Since there is advancement in technology in the present time, various cultures are pushing to become technologically advanced.
ReplyDeleteTechnology, in my opinion, is not only helpful but incredibly frightening. How many times have we sat around at a gathering of friends while everyone texted other people or updated their Facebook statuses. There is definitely a decrease in communication in real life as the interactions of people increase online. However, our reliance on social networking communication comes with a price. Employers now use this as a way to learn and evaluate their potential candidates through social networking sites. When a study was done in 2008, 22& of employers currently do so and 9% of people intended to do so. Since the growth of technology is exponential, we can only assume that those numbers have also increased exponentially as well.
ReplyDeleteI think that this new social space is both incredible and detrimental to the human condition as well, it has its benefits: being access to virtually any interest and creates these invisible communities tied together by solely interests and like-mindedness. Also it becomes easier to speak your mind about how you feel on a subject, the book said when brainstorming productivity was higher when done electronically because people had no direct contact with one another thus they were less self conscious, same goes for general communication and social interaction online. But what I find scary about online social spaces is that it alienates you from actual social experience, no longer do you need to go out and actually organize to go out and meet people you have that ability right at your fingertips, you lose actual human contact and interaction which I think is necessary for human health. I think as great as internet social media is, it is also dehumanizing and separates us from what it really means to be human.
ReplyDeleteBecause of the internet, our social encounters are no longer defined by location. Immediacy can no longer be defined strictly in terms of physical distance. In a study done by Latane and L'Herrou (1996) by having large groups of participants interact through emails, they found that over time participants in direct contact became more similar to each other than those who were not part of the email network. More and more people interact in cyberspace which is making physical proximity a less relevant factor. So rather than the internet making us communicate less with the people in our lives, it is changing how we communicate and who we communicate with, no longer bound by physical proximity.
ReplyDeleteWhile social media can undoubtedly increase the sense of being part of some kind of a community, people still need physical contact to mentally and physically develop as healthy individuals (Repetti, 2002). People who were raised in environments with cold, distant interactions with no physical contact developed all kinds of other health problems across a variety of criteria. For this reason, I would never say that online communication is any real substitute for "real-life" version with the posibillity for physical contact.
ReplyDeleteI believe that technology in this day and age is frighteningly changing the way of our attitudes. When online, one can create any sort of fictional persona, and cyber interaction is completely distinct from the human interaction that we were once used to. In a way, this technology and circles of connection is only altering our ways of communication. Because it is essentially not real life, then we can certainly not rely on this new method of technology.
ReplyDeleteI think the Internet has a good and bad role as far as social connections go. People are communicating with one another (even if it’s through a bunch of pixels on a screen), after all. A study by Latané and L’Herrou (1996) on people networking through e-mail, they found that people do indeed form closer clusters and groups sharing similar interests, especially if the contact was closer (digitally). This shows that socializing and “social space” isn’t always restricted to the physical world.
ReplyDeleteHowever, like the original post brings up- there are places all over the Internet devoted to obscure (and might I add, extremely fucked up, pardon the language) fandoms and fetishes. Social space online is a very strange thing, thanks to deindividuation- people are more likely to act in socially non-acceptable ways online than they are in real life (Kassin, Fain, & Markus, 308). To be honest, the Internet can be both good and bad for socializing. People can connect with enjoyable, like-minded communities easily online, but it’s more rewarding to go out and interact with others face-to-face at times. I think there needs to be a balance between the two.
And for those not well versed on the scary side of the Internet? Just poke around /b/ on 4chan.org. I’ve heard horror stories about some of the scarring stuff posted there. I would've recommended Encyclopedia Dramatica as well, but it looks like it's down. I’d say some of it’s bad enough, it’d make people scurrying back to socializing primarily in real life instead of online for good.
While I aggree there are many benefits to today's "connectedness" I also have some concerns with the nature of this kind of social interaction. With websites like facebook or online dating websites we are often forced to make judgements on who we will and will not share personal information with based on a very limited amount of information about them, often times just a photo. In 2006 Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov demonstrated that it only takes 1/10th of a second for someone to judge a face as attractive, likeable, competent, trustworthy or aggressive. However, these judgements are merely judgements and do not accurately reflect the person's character. So, while online it may seem fine to accept the friend of that kid you had a class with 3 years ago, he may, in real life not actually be someone you would feel comfortable sharing your phone number and place of work with.
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