Social Networking
August 14, 2007 at 9:24 AM
by Ashleigh
A few weeks ago I fell for the phenomenon that is Facebook. Yes, I know. I'm a few years late.
I felt I was way too old for the MySpace revolution, but Facebook seems a little bit more grown up somehow.
It took me a few weeks before I got settled into it, all the while thinking 'this is bullshit'.
But, hey, whaddya know, it's not so bad after all. It requires virtually no upkeep and despite all the silly application invites, it's quite interesting to see who is doing what.
Subsequently, I've managed to entangle myself in Hyves and LinkedIn.
LinkedIn actually makes me feel a little inferior. All my contacts are university educated, and here I am, no university education to speak of, and occupation of 'Florist & Writer'. Even that seems a little ... I don't know ... fabricated?
Hyves is fun for catching up with Dutch speaking contacts who aren't on Facebook. The interface is a little clunky. Very clunky actually. And I have a whole extravagant 7 contacts on there which makes it feel a little pointless. Oh, and the whole of Hyves seems to be populated with 30-something women, which tells you something either about 30-something women, or about Hyves ...
So, Dutch readers, how about making friends with me on Hyves?
The big question I have about all this social networking is where it's really taking us.
We're all looking for contacts, friends and people we used to know so that we can have everything on one page and see at a glance what our friends are doing, but is that really such a good idea? I know this question has been asked by people more erudite than me, but shouldn't we actually be outside, talking to people and making contacts?
I had some family and some old friends pop up on Facebook, and while I appreciate knowing whether they're spending time in the bathroom right this minute or not, there seems to be some boundary lines that applications like Facebook overstep.
Our online personas are supposed to reflect ourselves, but after 12 years online, I've come to realise that my online personality is probably just a little bit ahead of my real life personality.
Some things that I may be too afraid to do in real life get done online first, (like coming out and saying that I'm a writer), while in my day to day life I find it difficult to actually voice that.
It's almost like the internet is a testing ground, where you can try out things, see if they work, then apply them in reality.
Then you get something like Facebook, and because your anonymity is removed, suddenly everything in your test arena becomes your real life.
It can take some getting used to.
Comments
I been on LinkedIn since late 2004, and had my blog since mid 2005. I skipped MySpace, and I joined Facebook a few months ago, just before it hit BIG here in SA.
I am who I am, and have found that I used to be quite faceted, but now people get to see all of me. I am ok with it. I think it's part of the process of accepting yourself -being ok with sharing who you are with others.
I've recently joined Facebook and had some of these same thoughts! The nice thing is you can of course choose how much you want to share. No bathroom updates from me!
I, too, joined Facebook (and I do have a my space - to keep up with my teenage daughters. They kind of rolled their eyes when they heard I was on Facebook but I did it because of the camp I counseled this summer. Still learning. I found your blog looking for ways to preserve roasted red peppers. I'll let you know how they turn out. They sound outstanding!
One of my husband's cousins met the love her life on Facebook. Two years, thousands of exchanged e-mails, and many-trips-to-visit-each-other later, they just became engaged.
Ironically, they both studied at the same faculty at Erasmus University and were in the same graduating class, but never knew of each other until they met via a shared school alumnus contact on Facebook.
That is exactly why I don't want an online persona. I have the blog; Nothing is fake on there, it is who I am, although of course only a limited part of who I am. Daily life is not always about sunrises and photographing flowers. Unfortunately :p.
I feel that if I get into more things, like hyves and facebook and all of that, it will end up taking the place of a real-life social circle; I know myself too well to let myself get sucked in to it.
I'm on linkedin though, for my job. Find me :)
August 14, 2007 1:41 PM