Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Learning Statement

When trying to figure out how much people actually depend on facebook, it seems that although it is evident that everyone relies on it as an important aspect of their social life, people are not as willing to be completely honest about how much time they really do spend on it. I found surveying people a little difficult- some people would say one thing and put a completely different answer down just so they wouldn't seem "obsessed" with facebook regardless of the fact that the survey was anonymous. I found getting real information out of people the most difficult part of the research process.
Also, sifting through the information to get real or valuable data from the survey was hard too. The survey was supposed to be random and cover a wide range of people, but seeing as how everyone available for surveying was in the same age group, on the same campus of the same University- I dont feel as if the results are as general as they could be.

what i have learned...

In general, the most difficult part of this project is working together with a group. Although we get class time to work on it, there is still a barrier on getting everyone to agree on ideas and splitting up the work. It was also very difficult to find a time when all six people can meet outside of class, but because we assigned specific topics to every person, we only need to meet once outside of class to ensure that our presentation runs smoothly.
After some research, it seems that overall more people prefer Facebook over MySpace. Many people complained about the amount of spam that they receive from MySpace. There were also a lot of complaints from people about being friended by unwanted people on MySpace. Facebook seems to have more privacy restrictions. On the other hand, many people commented that MySpace gives you much more freedom to choose the appearance and layout of your site. This gives the opportunity for more personal expression. In contrast, every Facebook profile has the same white background with blue accents.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

some thoughts

Facebook has become so dominate that it seems like they can add whatever it wants and people will still use it. The beginning was adding high school to what many thought was a college social network. Most people were outraged at this. Next came mini-feeds, which seemed like nobody liked. Many groups popped up that wanted to get rid of them, and they had lots of support yet months later here we are and we still have mini-feeds. After that the door pretty much burst open. People from any network could join facebook and applications were popping up all over the place (myspace-like). The result? More people have joined facebook and the advertisements are popping up more than ever. How far can facebook push its users before people actually start to quit using it? Probably very, very far...

facebook vs. myspace

here's an article that a guy wrote about the pros and cons of facebook vs. myspace

http://www.bigdan.us/general-internet/myspace-vs-facebook.html

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

prospectus

We will be pursuing why Facebook came around meaning what was the social network like before Facebook, why was it created, and how did it become so popular so quickly? We will try to understand this from a student or user point of view as well as an intellectual point of view to see what each group thinks about the social network of our time. In understanding the importance of Facebook from this point of view, we must discover how it emerged. Once we understand why it came around, we will delve into why it is so popular, which will also involve information from intellectuals and peers. Finally we will examine why Facebook has stayed around for as long as it has. This will examine how Facebook differs from "reality" and again analyze user stories of why they use it. This information can be found in a variety of ways. Intellectuals have written journals about Facebook, which we can look up online using the library webpage. We have thousands of users all around us, so conducting interviews of how they think shouldn't be too difficult. We will have to find some journals concerning the origin of Facebook, but hopefully with enough digging we'll find this somewhere on the internet as well.

Our primary task is initially research. In order to find answers to questions and develop interesting theories to present, we have to start with research. After some preliminary research, we will brainstorm ideas on how we can present the material we gathered in an interesting and entertaining way. Different tasks will be split up and assigned by the project manager, Miranda. Nina has been appointed creative director and will be primarily responsible for coming up with ideas that we can all help elaborate on. Nathan, Furat, Shane and Doruk are responsible for doing most of the research, although Nina and Miranda will also be helping out. A week before our presentation, we will have developed a general outline on what we will be discussing in class. And finally, on October 24, we will present to the class everything that we have spent almost a month researching and putting together.

The first topic that interests us is what intellectuals have to say about Facebook. Many intellectuals are saying that Facebook is a great opportunity to interact with a diverse world of people. Not only is it a good interacting tool, but also a good scholarly tool. They are also saying that Facebook can teach you how to use the Internet to create relationships among people. Facebook can be seen as an introduction into the business world, especially by many of the world's entrepreneurs. Although Facebook is a good social tool it should not be used irresponsibly. There are 5 basic fundamentals to consider when using Facebook. The first is invincibility which refers to appropriately posting pictures on Facebook and neglecting inappropriate materials. The second is caching, which influences people to consider phrases or words they may post because even if they remove the material it will still be available for all internet users to view later. The next two are policies regarding a person’s freedom and responsibility. Since no one is designated to constantly monitor and remind people about posting rules and restrictions, it is up to that person to what they are putting online. The final recommendation is adhere to the law and always respect others privacy.

Another topic of interest is the contrast of Facebook vs. reality. Using Facebook one can become anonymous; one can create an entirely new persona different to real life. Personalities, characteristics, even interests can be made up or skewed in a way that makes one look more appealing to their peers. In all truth, one doesn’t even need to describe a single thing about themselves honestly. Friends can be added without ever meeting in real life, and thus a "virtual world" engulfs many people into cyberspace.

Our final topic is the comparison of past social networking to current social networking, as well as the drawbacks. Basically what Facebook allows us do is to connect with friends from various networks. The Facebook software then creates a "social graph" and makes it useful to you. The social graph helps you visualize the locations of your friends and allows you to search via general location, school, or even company. You can use this graph to see who your friends know as well as mutual friends. This allows your social graph to expand much faster and easier. Before there was an application such as this, it was very hard to see who your friends knew or who mutual friends were without contacting individuals and trying to coordinate and find out these details. An obvious drawback of this is that people rely too heavily on Facebook for their social networking. If Facebook were to suddenly disappear, all of the info would be lost and there would be no quick way of recreating your social network and recovering your social graph. It seems that Facebook has made everyone dependent on the technology and no longer knows how to network the "old-fashioned" way with writing down contact info because everything is done digitally these days.

Facebook Before/After/Drawbacks

I had a little bit of trouble finding some worthy information for life before facebook. Basically what facebook helps us do is to enter your friends from various networks or , including your own network. The facebook software then creates a "social graph" and makes it useful to you. The social graph helps you visualize the locations of your friends and allows you to search via general location, school, or even company. You can use this graph to see who your friends know as well as mutual friends. This allows your social graph to expand much faster and easier. Before there was an application such as this, it was very hard to see who your friends knew or who mutual friends were without contacting individuals and trying to coordinate and find out these details. An obvious drawback of this is that people rely too heavily on facebook for their social networking. If facebook were to suddenly disappear, all of the info would be lost and there would be no quick way of recreating your social network and recovering your social graph. It seems that facebook has made every one dependent on the technology and no longer knows how to network the "old-fashioned" way with writing down contact info and carrying a portfolio of business cards around with you, or even owning a Rolodex.

Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Project Plan Description

We will be persuing why facebook came around meaning what was the social network like before facebook, why was it created, and how did it become so popular so quickly?

We will try to understand this from a student or user point of view as well as an intellectual point of view to see what each group thinks about the social network of our time. In understanding the importance of facebook from these point of views, we must understand it's emergence. Once we understand why it came around, we will delve into why it is so popular, which will also involve information from intellectuals and peers. Finally we will examine why facebook has stayed around for as long as it has. This will examine how facebook differs from "reality" and again analyze users stories of why they use it.

This information can be found in a variety of ways. Intellectuals have written journals about facebook, which we can look up online using the library webpage. We have thousands of users all around us, so conducting interviews of how they think shouldn't be too difficult. We will have to find some journals concerning the origin of facebook, but hopefully with enough digging we'll find this on the internet somewhere as well.

Facebook vs. reality

Using Facebook one can become anonymous; one can create an entirely new persona different to real life. Personalities, characteristics, even interests can be made up or skewed in a way that makes one look more appealing to their peers.

In all truth, one doesnt even need to describe a single thing about themselves honestly. Friends can be added without ever meeting in real life, and thus a "virtual world" engulfs many people into cyberspace.

What are intellectuals saying about Facebook?

Many intellectuals are saying that facebook is a great opportunity to interact with a diverse world of people. Not only is it a good interacting tool but also a good scholarly tool. They are saying that facebook can also teach you how to use the Internet to create these many relationships among people. Facebook can also be seen as an introduction to business especially by many of the world's entrepreneurs. Intellectuals are also saying that although facebook is a good social tool it should not be used irresponsibly. There are 5 basic fundamentals to consider when using facebook. The first is invincibility which refers to appropraitely posting pictures on facebook and neglecting inappropriate materials. The second is caching which influences people to consider phrases or words they may post because even if they remove the material it will still be available for all the internet to view later. The next two are policies regarding a persons freedom and responsibility. Since no one is designated to constantly monitor and remind someone about their postings it is up to that person to adhere to what they are putting online. The final recommendation is to adhere to the law and to always respect anothers privacy.

Monday, October 1, 2007

project ideas

Themes:

1. how was social networking before facebook? what is it like now? how has facebook advanced social networking? what are its drawbacks? (nathan's research)

2. what are intellectuals saying about facebook? Who does that differ from what users are saying? (shane's research)

3. how does facebook differ from "reality"? (furat's research)

nina- intro

doruk- project plan description

I'll put everything together and do the project schedule.

Try to post your ideas either tonight or tomorrow so that I can put together a rough draft for class on wednesday!