Has social networking sites made it easier or harder to loose touch with people?
We have all read how MySpace and Bebo bring people together, its the new “watering hole” of the digital era where it allows groups of people to communicate quickly with their peers, but has it introduced a new affect, where its in fact harder to contact people?
You might be wondering “what the fuck is he talking about?” but there is a key point here, its the method of communication used. Back in the dawn of time of the internet (post-ARPA) there was E-Mail, then came Internet Relay Chat, then Forums, Instant messaging (which continues to grow today) and now Bebo. The forms of communication has changed drastically in these years to what is now common to being “bite-size” remarks, and has coined remarks like BMB (Bebo Me Back)
E-mails were always long-winded detailed accounts of actions and remarks of events. Forums made it a more public form of communications with friends and peers.
Instant Messaging and IRC made it smaller and quicker, and a faster response to almost instantaneous communications. This made people slim down their discussions to make it more reactive with the other person
Bebo has reduced the communication down to essentially shout-outs between people and groups and its effective communication, where the reaction to the message published is much like the initial where its a shout-out and remark over something.
Bebo has also created the E-Peen existence, where friends will strive to get more friends or “Luv” than their peers on the site, just to have boasting rights. In this effect you can have people with over 50 friends (and sometimes over 100) on their lists. So how can someone keep in contact with over 50 people on a single website?
This leads to the “bite-size” communications, you end up giving out “shouts” to people and not communicating effectively with people you would normally talk to at length because you have more people to talk to. This is where electronic communication lets you down. Early communications was a discussion, Bebo is like shouting to someone as you pass in the street.
The biggest benefit of Bebo? In my eyes it is the affect of bringing long-lost friends back together via the “friends” of others, There was an experiment done many years ago where they discovered that within one group of friends, there is 6 degrees of separation between one individual and anyone else. People seem to forget how inter-connected societies really are, and by using the Internet it increases the effective communications of individuals. Recently I had two old friends and an acquaintance add me to Bebo, one of which I wasn’t aware was on-line.
I hardly use my Bebo, its my choice not to use it purely as having another “place” to look at regularly. I already have this site, my emails, forums I frequent, IRC and even MSn to keep in contact with (as well as mobile phones and SMS messaging). By adding Bebo to my communications list, I have to effectively stop communicating with other friends…
Which means its making it easier for me to loose touch with friends I have.
Of course there’s a far easier way to solve this communications issue, its called unplugging 🙂 and sometimes the easiest option is also the most enjoyable, the social effect of being with friends far outweighs sitting posting comments and instant messaging.
All we need now is the good weather to return so we can all start enjoying the Barbeque’s 😀
