directed Blog post 2

Definition of social network:

social network service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or activities  (Ellison, Nicole 2007)

With this definition we see that social networks are supposed to build our relationships. Is social networking serving its purpose? On an average a facebook user has 300 friends (Stefanone, et al., 2008), with this statistic being 3 years old the average may have gone up tremendously since then. With this many friends are we able to be interpersonal with all of this, or possibly build a relationship completely based from an online relationship?

In the article “The value of online friends” users were put into an experiment to test user’s relationships that were considered “strong” relationships, (already developed outside of social networking, face-to-face), and weak relationships, (people never met face-to-face). The experiment showed that relationships already developed were more likely to respond and build through facebook, while online based relationships were less likely to respond. Even then, relationships that were newly developing offline were likely to strengthen with help from a online source such as Facebook. Therefore, Facebook is more likely to be used to keep in touch with old friends and help strengthen relationships with new friends.

So to answer our question, yes and no. Yes, social networking can build our relationships that were previous build from face-to-face interaction. This is being said, facebook is not all bad, it may serve the purpose of simply serving to our existing relationship, but in no means should it be our sole interaction with one another. This study showed me how real interaction is so important, because without that initial relationship there is barely anything to base off of online. Social networking should be used to keep up with old buds, and get to know new buds, but not to actually meet friends through the computer screen.

Warrant:Multitasking

Studies from many different universities have been noticing a trend. College students are less interested in their education and classes and more interested in their newsfeed. During lectures students are found on their on their Ipod rather than listening to the guest speaker, Facing Facebook.

In result of this, professors claim there is less "critical thinking" in their student's education. Although some universities encourage technology, is communicating with fellow classmates worth university money that could be used for research and facilities? During classes students tend to have several different windows aside from facebook up while listening during lecture. This causes a lack of focus and therefore students aren't able to create and learn as well as before. This isn't to say there wasn't distractions before, a hidden magazine in a book is a perfect example. The involvement of computer and technology inside of classrooms has definitely created very different habitsand therefore reducing quality.

In a classroom at the University of Colorado, students were asked in they read the New York Times, only a few raised their hands. They were then asked if they logged on facebook that day and all raised their hands, Facing Facebook. Facebook is beginning to be the main domain of college student's internet use. This could be dentrimental to our learning and academic society. With this information, should professional and teachers completely ban facebook in a professional setting? I propose we should simply be able to recognize the negative effects of the overuse of it, and find the appropiate setting to use Facebook.

25 Things I hate about Facebook.

This video is a great depiction of how we waste our time on Facebook. Although Julian makes us laugh, we should also listen to his message. Is it really necessary in our daily lives to have a poke war? We spend countless hours have a virtual life when we could have a real one.

Facebook and Twitter taking too much time.

Originally networks such as Facebook or Twitter were a place to reconnect with people you may not have in contact with otherwise, when going off to college or moving. Now facebook and Twitter are becoming a overwhelming time consuming network that users feel obligated to update even hourly. For some users it is starting to control their lives.

Celebrities such as Miley Cyrus are starting to recognize this and take action, Cyrus deleted her Twitter last fall. Since then the trend of freeing yourself from networking continues. "That desire to unplug has made an unexpected success out of websites such as Web 2.0 Suicide Machine and Seppukoo, free sites that automate and turbocharge the otherwise laborious manual process of scrapping your online self." -Some ditch social networks to reclaim time, privacy.

What I am realizing now is we are less worried about old friends, and now getting bombarded with people we don't know and information we don't need. Once in the digitial society it is hard to leave, feeling as if you're going to miss something. We are wasting our time updating our status about who we went to dinner with, then enjoying dinner with that actual person. We need to remember to take time from networks or we may soon be so exhausted and not have any motivation left for "real life" face-to-face connection.

Communication

On sites like Facebook and Twitter, the main focus is communication. Reaching old friends, posting clever statuses, posting events, but all of these things are digitial. More and more often we are communicating through these digital sources, to our boyfriends, our parents, down to talking with our professors. This is important, but it may not be what our main source for "talking" should be.

A large part of our face-to-face conversation is Body Language. Although you may say something, your body may be expressing something completely different. For example, if you are trying to impress a boss you don't get along with, you may say nice things to them but have your arms crossed. A person's body language is not limited to just physical movements, but eye contact, space, or the way someone may talk. This is very important to tune into with others to see how they are truly feeling.

With this we need to evaluate ditigal conversations. The only part of the conversation we are hearing are the preconcieved well thought out sentences scrolling across the screen. A person may be simply portraying what they want you to see. With face-to-face conversations it is all spontaneous with no time to set out what is said. Also they can't hide their body language behind  a computer screen.

Facebook may be a thriving new way to talk to people, but we seriously need to consider if this should be our primary source. We may be losing genuine conversation, and turning into an even more artificial society.