"Facebook beats Google for Visitors"
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/technologynews/view/1044234/1/.html
Facebook is undoubtedly one of the leading websites amongst millions of other websites that prevail the world wide web. It is however, not surprising at all to know that the number of visitors frequenting Facebook beat that of Google ones. For every computer user that i spot in school or anywhere else, at least 8 out of 10 have their Facebook pages up on their browsers. However, i do not blame them for patronising their Facebook pages so often. I myself have turned into what they call a Facebook addict; I am on it every minute of my life that I am logged on to the internet; which is pretty much 4 hours of a day at the least (while the most could go up to 14). Who can blame us though? Facebook at present is the most effective,popular, well-connected and exciting source of Computer Mediated Communication(CMC) which acts as an awesome socialising network database.
Perhaps one of the reasons for its popularity is,ironically, its credibility. Unlike dubious chatrooms like IRC that was the "in" thing of the 1980s-1990s, Facebook does NOT cause a shift in the basic definition of self. Unlike IRC chat where you do not have to reveal who you are while attaining your anonymity, Facebook users mostly put up real pictures of themselves and have to be honest about who they really are. If they do not, there might be a chance that their pages could be 'flagged', or rather, reported as spam or fraudery. If they do not put real pictures of themselves however, their chances of socialising would be slim. Either way, it ends up in a lose-lose situation.
It is true that users still differentiate their VL(virtual life) and RL(real life) to a certain extent, and that it enables those who have not been able to find acceptance because of their physical characteristics in RL to be themselves online. However, these concepts are only applicable to a small extent. Facebook is more of a social networking site that ENCOURAGES you to portray who you really are in real life via pictures and information. If you do try to bluff your way through, there are many connections you would have already owned, such as your friends or family who would know about it- and that would only bring you shame of desperation. Also, on Facebook, gender bending is not very possible. First of all, it would mean putting up a photo of someone else, and that itself could lead to your profile being reported for fraudery, or worse- being sued by the owner of the photo. The other option would be not putting a photo at all, but gender bending at the same time- which would just backfire because no one would want to be friends with you if you didn't have a picture of yourself anyways.
Due to this, i partially believe that the theories that apply to CMCs might not be applicable to the techonological advances of social networking at present- it might even be a little backdated. What do you think?
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Facebook by far is the most successful CMC i have yet to witness. It beats friendster hands down. Heck , even my aunts and uncles have facebook accounts . :)
ReplyDeletecome to think of it,the social networks at present have changed from the ones of the pastdrastically.gone are the days you could be at risk of being chatted-up by strangers whom you have no idea of whatsoever.thank goodness
ReplyDeletei'd say that some sort of anonimity/fraudery etc caN still happen on FB. gender-bending is abit harder to do by urself unless a group of ppl are already in on the secret/joke - my brother and a few friends set up an FB accnt a few months ago pretending to be a Caucasian girl and they got away with it. this sad boy befriended the 'girl' and even asked 'her' out. but of course the whole guise ended when my brother and friends told the boy the truth and had a big laugh about it.
ReplyDeletefraudery cases do get uncovered faster though, but this is entirely up to the netizen community to report them. in this case, FB has been effective in providing the community with necessary tools to take action against abusers. it is up to the netizens to take on a proactive role in self-policing the FB scene.
within a social circle, i do agree that FB encourages u to show the real side of u. unless ur entire community of friends can tolerate the chockful of albums of ur heavily-photoshopped images, u will either get ppl talking behind ur back or receive comments dissing the sharper-nosed, 10-kg slimmer version of urself on FB. more often than not, i personally find that FB allows ppl to find out more about u than u necessarily want them to know. like let's say if ur mum decides to add u on FB. hehe.
Facebook is indeed a very effective tool that helps us communicate. We tend to be more selective when accepting Facebook "friends" as it is viewed as a highly personal space. It does away with the characteristics of CMC being highly anonymous. In a sense, Facebook is a special case of CMC as it can be used in many different ways, be it for social, formal networking or work.
ReplyDeleteWell there are cases of fraudery that i have actually seen..apparently previously in Friendster, my friend had someone copy her account to make another one under her name and her pictures. In this case, it was difficult to report it and shut it down..my friend did not seem to be able to do so..so the account is still running. However, in facebook, i think it is possible to do so in an efficient manner..perhaps this problem has been prevalent
ReplyDeletewow..seriously?ur friend must be popular/ hot for someone to do something like that.lols. Sad to hear it has not been closed down though. I used to hate Friendster...clooged up with spam. but then again..so is FB nowadays :s
ReplyDeletehi, my name is Hidayah and i am a facebook addict. And i think most people who spend most of their spare time surfing then net have turned into one...it's probably the most popular CFC around..wonder how long it will last..Friendster used to be it but is dead now
ReplyDeletei think facebook is way better then friendster..its more interesting n stuff. And somehow, everyone has a facebook, as compared to friendster. Friendster was more for youngsters; and it was not so popular amongst the westerners as compared to the Asians
ReplyDeletetrue. i have to block out some of my family members like my parents and my aunties n uncles.it feels so odd that everyone has an FB these days...you really have to make it private
ReplyDeleteOmg same. its so damn annoying.never had that problem with friendster. everyone probably privatises their fb accs to a certain extent..u nev er know whos looking. well, unless you have a totally clean image on ur fb acc la.
ReplyDeleteew i used to be so into IRC chat back when i was in primary schooll..hahhaa..then my parents found out about it and were extremely mad, afraid that i would eventually meet with a dodgy character and get rabed or something.the anonymity of IRC is gross,looking back
ReplyDeletewell actually i still put super-photoshopped photos of myself and ppl dun really say much. i think most of them dun dare to say much and its myY fb space anyway. i mean, if they dun like it, they dn have to see it right?? i like the way i look on fb and this is how i'd like to express myself. it's an individual choice really.
ReplyDeletefacebook has become a sort of drug to some people it's a must for them to check on it everyday. some what they can leave without knowing about things, its like they're scared that facebook would somewhat dissappear. ahahha
ReplyDeletehahaha.like me :x
ReplyDelete