Why all the fuss about Facebook?

BY KINETA KNIGHT

Facebook, Windows Live, MySpace, LinkedIn. Whether it's for keeping in contact with friends, networking with associates or blatant voyeurism all users have their own reasons for social networking.

During the past four years, using the internet to stay socially connected with people has become almost the normal and acceptable thing to do.

Where once we used to actually meet people for a drink, we now talk about it online; and where once we caught up with friends to chat about what we've been up to and show them tangible photos of where we've been, we now micro- blog our activities and post the pics on the net.

There are, however, stalwarts of human contact, who may be connected in some way to social media, and there are still people who stay as far away from this form of networking as they can.

Anthea Struthers, of Lyttelton, says personal interaction far outweighs the "impersonal relationships" that people form on social networking sites. "I also feel uncomfortable opening up even a small part of my personal life to the barely controlled scrutiny of the entire online community."

She says the less personal nature of social networking "encourages many users to interact with each other in ways they may not do when face-to-face. They may be more suggestive or flirtatious and this can cause actual harm to genuine offline relationships".

Struthers may have a point. Even the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said at a WEB 2.0 conference in November, that he expects the level of what we reveal online to soar.

"I would expect that next year, people will share twice as much information as they share this year, and next year, they will be sharing twice as much as they did the year before," he said.

"That means that people are using Facebook, and the applications and the ecosystem, more and more."

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Bebo, the list goes on. But how long will this medium of social interaction via a cyber community last? A report published in a January issue of The Economist, says social networking is changing the way people "communicate, work and play, and mostly for the better".

It used the example of the World Economic Forum in Davos and how delegates stayed in touch afterwards. The organisers have created a secure online forum, dubbed World Electronic Community (WELCOM), so the leaders can keep chatting after the conference and post information and links for its exclusive network of 5000 members.

This unequivocally suggests that social networking is not just for social contact. LinkedIn is another example of this. It is a site where business-orientated professionals can communicate and network and has more than 60 million members.

In today's society, the line between professional and personal life seems to have faded and merged into one. It has become acceptable to know a lot more about associates and colleagues than even just five years ago.

If you are "friends" with them on Facebook, for example, you can see everything they've been up to, even before they get to work on Monday. This is where privacy settings on social-networking sites becomes imperative.

Although it changed privacy settings recently, which has left a lot of profiles still open to whomever wants to view their page, Facebook has good privacy settings. Basically, it lets you decide what you want to share with whom, and this can all be done under the account's privacy settings.

Set correctly, it helps keep your personal information with whom you choose and can also steer you away from potentially embarrassing situations and photos you'd rather the world didn't see.

Social networking and the internet are also important tools for people living away from their home country, as it makes them feel "more connected". Rosey Arnold, a Christchurch school teacher who is now based in London says, Facebook is "extremely important. I feel completely disconnected without it. I like to keep up with everyone at home and it should make it less of a wrench to return".

Skype is another important connection point. While there are more job opportunities in Sydney for television production assistant Jonathan Cartmell, he keeps close contact with his family and friends in Christchurch through the online video phonecall and chat service.

"Skype is a great tool for keeping in touch and it's much cheaper than international calls. The video link means you can talk to a face. It's excellent for me to be able to chat to my nephew and see him growing up instead of just talking to him on the phone."

While networking sites such as Bebo and MySpace were the big phenomena in the mid-noughties, Facebook really took off in 2007, leaving the likes of Bebo behind. MySpace is now used predominantly by music lovers.

Christchurch singer/songwriter, Kim K, says MySpace is a "useful tool" for networking and a great space for new musicians who are starting out to get recognised. Kim K has been approached several times for support-gig opportunities because bands had the chance to sample her music online first.

Former Christchurch musician, now based in Melbourne, Mel Smith from The Greenmatics uses MySpace as a forum to get her band recognised and networking with other bands. "I gently promote the band to people who may like our music, but I don't shove it in their faces. I let them request to be our friend and I don't bug people by posting on their walls about how we have a gig coming up."

However, Cairo Knife Fight's Nick Gaffaney feels MySpace has been superseded by Facebook. "MySpace has the feel of an electronic billboard while Facebook is more like notes passed through a classroom. It feels immediate and almost intimate for a fan."

Facebook has more than twice as many active users as MySpace, 50 per cent of whom log into their accounts on any given day. Another drawcard for Facebook is its accessibility on mobile devices with more than 100 million people using this service.

Gaffaney says that when they toured with Them Crooked Vultures recently, he could update his Facebook status from backstage at Vector Arena and from the side of stage right before and after the show. "That kind of immediacy is lacking in all other social networking sites. It's a revolution in communication for musicians. It adds an element of realism and connection."

Twitter is another site which embraces the use of mobile phones. It promotes itself as a place to "share and discover what's happening right now, anywhere in the world" in a 140-character microblog. Its popularity soared once celebrities started "tweeting" about what they were up to and people discovered they could find out instantly what was happening in the world.

Take the death of Michael Jackson. News spread faster on Twitter than it would have on the top-of-the-hour news on the radio, or waiting for breaking news on television.

So, whether you are addicted to game applications on Facebook, dabble in a little "tweeting", or take part in the message forums on Trade Me, online communities and the way people interact is changing, and doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon.

- © Fairfax NZ News