(This is an online interview I did recently for a broadcaster in Sydney)
Your mission to “join every social network thingy” was brave; but I see that
you have around four or five main social network sites – did you find in the
end that joining a lot of sites overstretched you?
Yes, most social software sites takes a lot of time, but no one site seems to completely do the trick. I tend to divide my online time between my professional interests and my social interests; although occasionally they do overlap. Linkitin and my blog I mainly use for professional interests, although I am finding that facebook is increasingly becoming important for professional contacts as well. I have been a member of many social networking sites over the past few years; and some seem to work and some don’t. The main things that kills social networking sites are lack of use and lack of subscribers. And I wish that social software sites could inter-operate between one another a lot better; especially between logins and profiles and feature. I use facebook and a very London-specific site called outeverywhere.com for events and socialising, youtube for video, a blog for my research, linkitin for professional contacts (although admittedly very rarely), and a fantastic site called lastfm.com for music and musical-event networking. They all tend to do one thing really well; so it is difficult to just use one if you have varied interests. It is a problem is that they are all separate.
What benefits do social network sites offer?
Social software has numerous positive and negative benefits. For myself, I think that the best feature of facebook is its ‘events’ feature that promotes and invites you to real-world events. I have been to a number of events that have been promoted through facebook, or other social networking sites such as lastfm.com, and the best thing is that you can inform and invite your friends. Your friend know what you are up to so they can show up at the events that you will be attending if your paths haven’t crossed in a while.
Do you think there is any truth in the idea that, these days most people
are glued to computer screens, not just the social misfits?!!
People are working longer hours; so facebook and other networking applications become an easy way to arrange and participate in social events from your computer at work or at home. Good social networking sites should be capable of building communities and friendship in the real-world, otherwise they do look a bit sad.
Would this techno-driven life explain why social networking has become
popular?
More people are using computers; people are working longer hours, and sites such as facebook are becoming an effective way to manage aspects of your social life from your work desk or from home. The more people that use these sites, the more important they will become to people’s social lives (especially in the late-teens and early 20s generation). Once a land-line telephone at your home was seen as vital to connecting to the broader world of friend and neighbors; social software is sort-of an extension of this but on a much more complex scale.
What do you gain from it yourself?
In large crowded cities like London, it is difficult to meet your friends and acquaintances randomly, so meetings and events have to be arranged. Facebook is excellent at keeping in contact with your friends and arranging events. But still, I don’t like all the trivial applications on facebook; they waste so much time!
Any other comments at all or ideas, would be very welcome!
The main thing to remember about any social software application is that they are just an interpretations of the social world; they aren’t the whole social world. There are always people who aren’t going to have accounts on these systems or have logged on in a while. Often the ‘facebook’ social world can look very different or not quite fit with your real-social-world.
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