Social Networking: is it making you anti-social?

Posted By: Max Zuckerman | Jan 31st, 2008 @ 8:16 AM | 3,069 Views | 17 Comments

Formats:

Are you on Facebook? MySpace? Live Spaces? imeem? LinkedIn? Meetup? Friendster? Orkut? Dodgeball? Twitter? Or maybe even Channel 8 Wink

?

I am. And as I read through Facebook’s live news feed about all my “friends,” I realized that as I am catching up on people’s lives around the world, there are many of which I have not spoken to in literally weeks, months, or even years! Yet I know so much about them such as the basics like where they live, what they look like wearing a toga, and what they are doing RIGHT THIS MINUTE!

So riddle me this, 8ers… do you believe that having all these social networking sites have better connected you with your fellow friends local and far, or has it created a curtain for you to hide behind and ironically distanced you from the very people you are reading about?

Bonus: +10 points to whoever can tell me first what percentage stake Microsoft has in Facebook (take a guess without looking it up).

Tags: Channel 8, dodgeball, Facebook, friendster, imeem, linkedin, live spaces, myspace, social networking, twitter

Rating:

Trix

I do not use social networking, unless you consider channel8 and 9 on10.net neowin.net and digg.com....

I think MS has a 15% stake. I think they also claimed facebook was wroth some random x billion dollars.

Edit: haha, I'm so wrong about these things, it was 15 billion dollars they rated them at , not 15% stake, so I know I'm wrong Wink

If it is 15 billion dollars, Microsoft's stake is x/15 billion, pretty small #. (x/15 000 000 000 000 000) x 100%

Spinfusor

I'm a member of four of those sites (not counting C8), but only actively use two.

I think social networking has done a little of both, but for me it's helped more than it's hurt.

I remember the Vole having somewhere between one and two percent... 1.5%?

Miguel

Nice question Christian. Smiley

I am in some of those networks (facebook, twitter, Live Spaces, LinkedIn...), but for me it is not that anti-social effect. In those networks most of my connections are not friends of mine living in my hometown.

So, for me it is not that bad effect, I can still switch between both worlds, hehe.

Max
Spaceman Spiff!

What did Christian say?? Did I miss something?

PS: as for me I like those sites and I think it has enhanced my connection to others, not hindered. Just my opinion, wanted to hear you guys Smiley

madd0

I move around quite a bit and even though e-mail used to make communication with my "distributed" friends easier, I have never been fond of letters or e-mails...

With "social networks" (and I'm putting WLM in there while I'm at it) I find that, not only can you keep up with your friend's lives in a I-don't-need-you-to-take-time-to-tell-me-what-you're-doing way (call it "non intrusive" if you like), but I can still IM, e-mail or even ring them on [your VoIP service here] if I want to know more. They have also made me "discoverable", allowing me to get back in touch with people I hadn't heard of in quite a while.

In the end, I still keep actively in touch with the people I want/need to be in touch with and get to know what my other friends (or acquaintances if you don't like throwing the term "friend" around) are doing and I get to meet new people. What's not to like?

As for Microsoft's stake in Facebook, I guess I can only say it's not yet enough to get them to switch from PHP or Apache Tongue Out

Rodfraga

Very cool question and observation!

I think just a specialist or psicologist can responde with facts, but in my opinion is true, this "social networking" has that effect, to become people anti-social, but not only antisocial, I notice (almost in Mexico) people use those services to collect people, Yes! use them as collection, I mean, they search in the "service" for cute faces, then send an invitation to be a "friend" but they never spoke with you, or just say: hey hello, bye im busy! you dont care them at all...just want to be "popular"...

The worst effect but also the most interesting is the capability of this services to "show" the real face of the people whom try to hidde them in a fake profile, for example: How many "profiles" can you identify where the picture is a Top Model or a girl with an awesome body, but obviously fake, then read the profile saying: I'm the best damn think you can find in the world, but you try to "get connection" but never responds... Is a massive "issue"; the actual people have the worst self-esteem, they are so materialist and hypocrite than forget the real meaning of "socialize" showing who you really are...

Finally, I guess Microsoft's stake is not yet enough.

Max
Spaceman Spiff!

Rodfraga: I agree some are fake... myspace feels that way to me. Facebook on the other hand seems pretty legit, no? I think it's even in their terms of service. I'll admit FB is my personal favorite (it's pretty popular in the US at least). I know Orkut has Brazil cornered... hah.

sriram
hello world

Without looking up.. Microsoft paid roughly 250 million dollars for a 1.5% stake in the company.. that puts facebook worth at about 15 billion dollars.. i read this sometime back, but i think the numbers might be slightly off.

As for me, i dont social network Big Smile

, i have a facebook account and an orkut account. Incidentally orkut was tremendously popular in dubai, but then the ISP decided to block the site "due to its content being inconsistent with the religious, cultural, political and moral values of the United Arab Emirates." So then now its all facebook madness here . I am yet to make sense of it. [call me old fashioned if you must].

for me its email for communication. and WLM/Mobile Phone(which is also old fashioned - a nokia 1600) for any instant communication Big Smile

littleguru
(microsoft student partnering)++

Great question, Max! This is actually so true. Some people have like tousands of "friends" in Facebook (and all the others). This doesn't make any sense anymore to me... that's also why I'm not in so many social networks and don't have many "friends" there...

I don't think that Channel 8 is a social network as Facebook is... The primary goal on Channel 8 is not to check the status and latest news of your friends!