I joined Facebook in 2005. At that time it was still limited to college students and required you to use an e-mail address ending in ".edu" in order to sign up. What I found on "The Facebook" (as it was called then) was an entirely new form of connecting with friends. First and foremost I was able to talk to friends from back home in a way other than e-mail. I was also able to add friends that I was meeting at college. My roommate and I would get excited any time a girl was the one to send a friend request to us. One of the best parts though was being able to join Facebook groups. I was soon in groups ranging from my high school or my apartment complex, all the way to groups focused on common interests such as video games. These groups provided a key interaction that could not be found through former media such as e-mail or blogs.
Social networking sites give us more than just an opportunity to connect with friends and family. They allow us to form groups around common interests or causes. In the book Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky describes how social networking groups have caused revolutionary changes in our society. In the past there has been a large overhead cost in the creation of groups. Today the cost is virtually nil as it becomes easier and easier to from groups over the internet.
We need to remember that the internet is a tool. It can be used for good or bad and groups formed via the internet can be created for good or bad purposes. Shirky shared an example of teenage girls forming a group of anorexic youth. The group included tips on how to hide your anorexia from parents and displayed pictures meant to show to the need to be anorexic. On the other hand there have been groups created to bring about changes for good. We should always be mindful of the groups we are engaging in on the internet.
No comments:
Post a Comment