Social software is all software that allows its users to share data and interact with other users. Currently the most popular forms of this social software are Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Skype, MSN, and Blogger. It involves lots of different aspects from profile site to video sharing to instant messaging programs and blogs. In the last decade he use of these sites and programs has shot up drastically. Practically everyone with a computer has used at least one of these methods
It has so greatly affected the way communication happens that entire relationships and even business organizations run through this form of technology. No one is spared, everyone is exposed to addictiveness of these sites. The purpose of social software is to connect people with each other and provide another way to share what is on your mind. However, many problems have occurred to users of these programs.
Best friends can become the worst enemies because of the power of this communication technology. This computer mediated communication has its flaws. Twitter for example is a platform that allows users to update their status very often and tell other what they are doing. This communication can be hazardous because people often assume that the post is related to them and may take offence. Recently a couple friends of mine got into an argument because one posted “irritating person near me blithering nonsense”. The other automatically assumed that he was talking about her cause she was sitting next to him in class and they got into an argument…turns out that the post had nothing to do with her and was actually referring to the person sitting in front making annoying remarks to his friend.
The other problem faced with sites like Facebook and Myspace is false communication…the creep factor. Profile sites have long been unsafe with the potential stalkers and pedophiles hunting people down using this form of communication. It makes anonymity very simple and could have dangerous repercussions. For example “Hi my name is Ashley, we went to school together back in grade 1” the start of a conversation with a person you cannot remember but are trying to. Later turns out the person is an old man running under false labels and is just trying to get to you.
That’s not all, there are still more problems associated with communicating through social software. One of these issues is an addiction, Twitter, Facebook, and even Youtube is filled with addicts as they feel the need to keep everybody updated on their life minute to minute. I have one such friend who once went clubbing with me, he was busy updating his facebook status every couple minutes to the point where it began to irritate me. His posts were along the lines of:-
“in line outside Zouk”
“still in line outside Zouk”
“have moved closer to the entrance of Zouk”
“Phuture is already full so going to enter Zouk”
“just entered Zouk”
“waiting in line to get my free drink”
“saw hot babe while waiting in line for drink”
…you get the idea…
When social software becomes your primary means of communication you lose your grip on reality and you also lose the privacy that you had as people get into the habit of just posting everything without thinking of future consequences.
Over and all social software is the latest trend for communicating one on one as well as your thoughts to the general public. It is very efficient as many people are now on it, but it must be used with caution as there are many problems associated with it.
I couldnt agree more with your post and I think everyone feels that way to a certain extent as well, but it's hard to deviate from the norm.
ReplyDeleteFacebook really is good in some aspect, like for me, keeping in touch with friends overseas has really been made convenient with facebook. We can keep updated with what's going on in each others' lives.
But it really is a double edged sword.
One thing that really intrigues me is how being friends with someone now comes with different meanings. Being one's friend (as in actually knowing this person) as compared to being a facebook friends(Im introduced to you once and within seconds we're friends on facebook) really makes a difference.
I believe for many, if your entire facebook account of friends were to walk by, you would probably only say hi to 1/2 or 1/3 of those people.
There are two sides to everything i suppose.
I think social networking sites are a good method of keeping in touch with friends you do not interact with on a daily basis...they are especially helpful to keep in touch with and share pictures and videos with family members...But I think it is really stupid when people begin relationships with random people... Besides being extremely risky, these online relationships could also be a bad influence on minors using these social networking sites...
ReplyDeleteThese web-pages hold a vital chunk of personal information that can be stolen and put to bad use....besides with the latest progress technology had made...morphing pictures is becoming a common occurrence...so why take a chance...i think even having 50 friends on your facebook web page is FINE!!!
Twitter to me makes no sense...i mean; do people actually want to know that your eating or spending time with Joe...???
hence, though social networks like facebook may bring people close virtually...its counterparts like twitter turn out to be a sheer waste of time......
I think everything has its negative and positive sides. I have a similar experience to you which my friend keep updating status on Twitter and it irritates me a lot. Also, nowadays people depend heavily on Social Media. Web language are used often, such as "fd" for " friend" , "u" for "you" etc.......
ReplyDeleteWhether the effect is good or bad really depends on how you use these communication tools.
Search the person registered email on different platforms to do background checks before confirming the person as a friend..
ReplyDeleteI think that it is inevitable that people will switch to these applications to replace their day to day interactions.
ReplyDeleteThese days, in order to 'keep up' with the lives of your friends, one has to have Twitter, Facebook, a blog, follow trends on youtube and what not. All this, on top of the actual work you have to do for school or wherever else.
Hardly will you see a couple of friends meeting over a cup of coffee and not whip out their cell phones/PDAs/laptops and update the rest of the world about what they are doing. This is a sad thing, for the only time when cell phones do not come into a face-to-face conversation is when one party is very distraught over something going on in his/her life. Possibly not even then.
I agree with what you have brought up. Indeed we should wield this double edged sword with caution as on the negative note, such over reliance on social software is very much detrimental to the very foundation of communication. As mentioned in your post, perhaps as the ease of communicating and sharing of one's thoughts increases, it would be highly likely that one would fail to take into due care the impact of their choice of words etc.resulting in a chaotic environment whereby misunderstandings arise. Even E-lingo differs from individual to individual. I feel that it requires a tad of realization and tact for one to be able to harness such easy forms of communication without attempting on social suicide.
ReplyDeleteAlso,I cannot agree more that no one is spared from the explosion of social networks. It is prevalent in our society that businesses, big and small have harnessed on the exponential energy of new media of such. I believe that they have already identified that such social networks are able to provide them with the subscription form of service whereby information are targeted specifically to interested consumers,updated at real time, that traditional mass media cannot.That being said, the potential of such social networks is unthinkable and vast with the constant revolutionizing of the new media and Internet. Thus, all in all, it is the wielder of such tools that determine what effects it may carry. (positive/negative).
In this era, noone can escape from social networking. There are so many different platforms for them. As you mentioned. the popular ones include Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Skype, MSN, and Blogger. Even my parents are on facebook! Not something which i agree to. They are not my friends on facebook haha.
ReplyDeleteI think privacy is a major issue in such social networking sites. You bascially are able to 'stalk' a stranger with him/her knowing. You get to know who are his/her friends, his/her hang out place etc... Basically, you are able to find out quite alot about a person via such sites. It all boils down to how much of you are you willing to reveal to strangers and whether you are comfortable with random people finding out about your daily life. Hence, if one person realise that she/he is being stalked, he also no right to blame to stalker for his actions, for he is the one that allow such stalking activities to happen.
I agree with what you said about the negative aspects of these networking sites. Personally i feel that they have created more negatives than positives and are slowly erasing away traditional communication. However i guess this is a change that has to occur as we should not forget that the world is constantly changing.
ReplyDeletei totally agree with your post. it's kind of sad that all these things have become our primary mode of communication. i guess that is just what we have to accept as technology advances.
ReplyDeletebut as we say that, i feel that technology has brought a lot of convenience for us too. for example, we can see people like one thousand miles away through a free program called skype.
there are pros can cons in everything, and this is not an exception. i guess we just got to accept and focus on the pros rather the cons.
The Internet alone was the start of a new online society in today's realm of the technological age. For myself, these communication platforms are not only time consuming and falsified towards human interaction, but it also imperceptibly deteriorates an individual bit by bit without the person knowing it.
ReplyDeleteLet's illustrate this phenomena,
As we speak, 15 mins of my time is spent reading and typing out this particular comment, not that I am against this. More to the point, imagine doing this for the next 30years of my life, constantly plugged into the Internet for 4-5hours a day and going hey my friends updated their social networking sites, let's go have a look and perve at their updates.
What then would my life be called? The Internet age that's my life? Honestly, it's called NO LIFE, and for that, everyone who is addicted to the Internet (more than 6hrs a day), let this blog post be a warning for you to GET A LIFE!!!!
Gone are the days where kids used to go cycling or run around corridors or street corners of their homes, i did those, and grew up with these wonderful memories to share.
Sadly, you get fined for cycling on the road or pavements at present. How are kids going to experience life outside and away from the Internet? They don't have a life...neither do we....very sad.
For me, life was never about the Internet.
On a final note, we are all under the notion of the Spiral of silence....we abide...we are controlled, governed, and silenced.
You and me are dragged into these social networking sites.
ReplyDeleteLike Zombies...we follow.
According to me "Social Networking" is just a bridge that helps individuals to connect at broader spectrum. I believe the benefits provided by "Social Networking" sites like Facebook etc. have made us better off as individuals and more importantly have made us a bit more Social. It is obvious with new technologies emerging every second, such sites will be adopted by more and more diverse populations.
ReplyDeleteBut it is also a known fact that one's privacy is of utmost importance. One should realize that it is only a mode of keeping in touch with people you "Know", if you abide by it, then I feel you wont fall a victim of being into a relationship, that too online, it just sounds so stupid and immature and I wonder how people fall for it.
Just to have a few friends on your profile also solves the purpose instead of adding some stranger to your profile and then being Stalked by some one. One just cannot shoot the blame on the stalker, coz you are actually part of it as you are the one who allowed him to go ahead with it.
Its just a "Double-edged Sword" or a coin which has two sides.
haha, nicholas!! YOU GUYS DRAGGED ME INTO FACEBOOK TOO!! remember after the sentosa outing and the bbq for the foreign exchange students? you guys dragged me into this! and now im hooked on! but i dont constantly update my statuses. =) but i do bug people using fb to comment on my blog. haha!!
ReplyDeleteanyway, i think facebook is awesome. i can find even my primary school friends via facebook! for me, i dont worry about pseudo people stalking me and all cos i dont accept friend requests from random people. =) i guess it's all good as long as we use it in our own discretion. =D DONT GO TELLING PEOPLE WHAT YOU'RE DOING ALL THE TIME! IT'S IRRITATING! dont need the whole world to know what you're doing right? well yeapp. i'll end here. =)
Dude that Tweeting bit is just sad.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that I've noticed about Facebook is that it's starting to become a source of social reassurance for people. There's an increasing number of groups created around a certain quirk or habit. Such groups include "I Hate It When I Accidentally Cancel My Super Long Text", "When I turn my lights off I take a five foot jump into my bed", "When I was young, I would sit on the top deck of a bus & pretend to drive!" and "Typing "LOL", when actually your sitting there with the moodiest face ever".
Some people might not be sure that other people adhere to a particular behaviour, and might even be ashamed to admit it. Once they see the group, however, they instantly join, knowing that they aren't alone in this world when it comes to pretending to drive the bus, and that such behaviour is not that atypical. It does help certain people, but these days, groups are getting so trivial that it's a little annoying. ("Thanks Wind, you have totally raped my hair". Wow, seriously?
I believe that the current generation has is like a herd and we all are a part of it. Almost every second person is on either one of the social networking sites since it is the "trend" of the 21st century......We all are dependent or addicted to the internet in some or the other way....Since, it is a convenient way to keep in touch with our friends or have a global network, we cannot live without it..It is such an irony that we do not know what our neighbours do but have a report on what people in the other part of the globe are upto.There is some amount of social ignorance since the people today are literally controlled by the computer....Life has completely revolutionised and this trend will keep to exist in the near future also.....Even, I personally am addicted to Facebook and feel distressed if I do not check my account everyday.....I guess we all have succumbed to this new world of virtual relationships to some extent.......
ReplyDeletefacebook. damn those super rich founders! hahaha. man, the marney they make by coming up with one of the most revolutionizing platforms of our generation. i was quite stunned to read abt your account of friends getting into a quarrel because of sumthin posted on facebook. hmmm, all the continuous updates, and people saying stuff which you're not sure warrants a reply a not. i think it will be nice to switch off once in a while, shut out the world, and just drift off to lala land. (=
ReplyDeletethat said, social media is here to stay, and the way we live? it already has been changed.
Well there is always two sides to everything. We cannot deny that the internet has evolved to become a part of our lives. The internet has allowed us to greatly benefit mankind in myriads of ways. From being a great social networking tool to providing people with vast information, the internet seems to be a technology that produces benefits galore.
ReplyDeleteI guess when it comes to sites like facebook, twitter, blogspot etc it is all subjective. Like everything these sites have their pros and cons...I think it is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family overseas, to share pictures and update them about the happenings in your life..Businesses have also taken advantage of these sites to attract more attention and get feedback from different consumers.. When it comes to the disadvantages one point that stands out is the anonymity factor..which I must admit scares me! Also instances when people update their status or tweet every single thing they do! now that to me is just plain stupid. Then there's the privacy problem.... I guess it just depends on how you use it...if you know your limits, you should be fine..
I cannot agree more to you thoughts. The power of the internet and social networking sites are limitless. I agree with Cynera, there is always 2 sides to a coin. And in this case to the internet, the good and the not so good.
ReplyDeleteInitially was friendster, after that everyone started on facebook, twitter and then tumblr. I refused facebook when it first started but now I think it is addictive.
However, I must say that the internet and social networking sites, reaches out to a large mess of people. Aside from it's games and networking purposes, I think that it has evolved to becoming an awesome marketing tool that can be of great capacity.
Yeah, it's probably best to keep social networking sites to a minimum because of time waste and getting vitamin D from actual sun instead of vitamins. Keep in mind that it isn't as if these websites are the ones forcing their agenda onto us - it's us willingly using them for our own use.
ReplyDeleteFacebook is one powerful tool, it either makes or breaks a relationship. It has allowed many people to come forward to speak up and make new friends but it has also gave people alittle too much confidence about themselves that they forget how to value relationships.
ReplyDeleteI was a addicted facebook user and i am proud to say i have deleted my account for 5 months now and trust me it feels GREAT! At peace i am with myself and with people who are true to me. Those were the days where i spent an entire day flipping through peoples profiles and commenting. A complete waste of time and it is rather stressful cause you never fail to keep judging and comparing.
Facebook and Twitter came about and people forgot how to read books, all they read are comments about something so judgemental! I for one do not miss facebook, being off it has allowed me to value my true friends over a nice cup of coffee :) or if they are in a foreign country i simply pick up the phone to call or send a personal email. I think that's what i would appreciate most now.