When asked about the purpose of Facebook, founder and spokesperson Chris Hughes replied (and we paraphrase) that it was the first mass online forum that eschewed anonymity. For the first time, instead of people hiding behind fabricated aliases, Facebook created space for people who had a real connection to one another in life. This made the site a lot more “sticky”; people were more likely to check a website where all their friends participated, rather than one where lots of anonymous “no ones” lurked.
These days, its harder and harder to build a real, stable community in the three dimensional world. We’re bilingual, biracial, bicoastal, and we switch partners, jobs and houses with more frequency than ever before. How many friends from college do you still talk to? From uni? How many of your exes do you connect with regularly? Now– how many of those people use Facebook?
This brings us back to social media and our poll of the week: Does Facebook makes up for a lack of real community in our lives?
Take the survey, leave a comment.
I think it’s impossible for Facebook to really connect people because everyone on Facebook just puts up what they want people to see. Like they detag pics they don’t like, everyone’s profile pic looks gorgeous and everyone is adding as many friends as they can so they seem popular. It’s just people’s egos — at parties and on holiday. No one is really communicating on there.
Digital relationships will never replace the relationships that get established through real person-to-person interaction. People’s digital personas are still controlled fabrications (to some extent) and they never truly give away the full picture of the creator. Communicating with all your online ‘friends’ through one channel also cuts out so much of that magic personal touch we add when addressing people in person which may have a detrimental effect on how your message is interpreted and how much value is placed upon it by the reader.
I think Facebook is great for keeping in contact with people you dont see everyday. Although I find myself using more for looking at what people are up to (yes! Spying). oh and it’s acts as a legal stalking device…who can knock that!!!
I dont use facebook, but do agree that social media does bring people together as it makes it easier to connect. The way I see it the more communication tools out there the better!