aliencam dot net blog.

This essay was written for the Introduction to New Media class I am taking at ASU currently (FMS 110)
I release it under the same creative commons 3.0, attribution, share-alike license that this blog is under. You are free to quote, modify, repost, and do just about anything you like, as long as you give me credit for the original work and notify me.

Any comments on this would be appreciated, as I will be editing and significantly lengthening this essay for another assignment in the same class two weeks from now.

Before the popularization of the Internet, communication over long-distances for things such as friendships and relationships were limited to forms such as the telephone and the postal service. These methods of correspondence allowed for these relationships to exist, but only in limited form compared to what we have today. Writing letters takes time and dedication, and the message may take a mater of days or weeks before it is received on the other end. While the telephone is in many ways better than the forms of communication discussed in this paper (ability to better convey emotions, and one can hear the other person’s voice), it is used in a much more formal way than the methods discussed. This paper will not discuss email in depth, as it would require repetition of information that will be included in other sections. Likely the three most significant effectors of social change are online chat mediums, social networking, and personal websites.

One of the first online¹ social technologies that became popular to the masses is chatting. Online chats have existed since the beginning of the Internet, in forms similar to USENET (which was not implemented until 1979) and similar email lists and bulletin boards, however these traditionally were used by the technologically elite, who usually do not appreciate the mannerisms and behavior of new or casual users². The fist major online chat service, IRC brought dynamic chat rooms. These rooms allow people to chat in “realtime” with groups of people regarding nearly any subject. ICQ was the first Internet-wide chat service that had the chat rooms similar to IRC, but via it’s assignment of permanent UIN (identification) numbers, it promoted one one one chatting between users³. An online dating program being the driving force behind ICQ likely scared away many people who would have been users at the time, because of the negative popular opinion about online dating at the time. The next widely popular chat software after ICQ was AOL’s Instant Messenger, or AIM. This offered all of the features of ICQ, however with a focus more on talking to friends or people one might already know in the real world instead of on meeting new friends online.

These chat forms of communication allowed people to talk over long distances about anything they wanted to. The messages are transmitted and received instantly, however these mediums are less useful for archiving discussions (without extra software) than letters sent by post, or emails. Friends are able to have a “buddy list” of people they know, in order to see who is online and available to chat with at any time. This makes it possible to talk with people even if you may not necessarily know their schedule, and you can send a message without worrying about bothering somebody. Often, people activate instant messaging software every time they log onto a computer, making them available for long periods of time, and Some businesses use Jabber (now XMPP⁴) for on-site chat, because there is no centralized server. This allows for higher security, and makes for easier moderation of discussions.

The changes in social habits brought by personal websites are also evident. Many families and individuals have personal blogs. These blogs are websites where posts are made in a journal style, reverse-chronological order entries that are often about personal events. This type of communication was previously reserved for long letters to relatives or very close friends, and things like Christmas letters to friends. While neither of the previous two have been replaced by blogging, it allows for many more people to subscribe (this involves RSS feeds, which are beyond the scope of this paper) to your life and what is going on.

Similar regular blogging, but used to a different extent, is microblogging. Microblogging is similar to blogging, however it generally has character limits of approximately 140 characters. This is often used for small insignificant messages that would not be appropriate for a regular blog, or a phone conversation. However, there are many very useful things people have done with microblogging, such as tracking insulin shots, diet, exercise, appointments, and quick notes⁵. Frequent posting is usually achieved via SMS messaging. Because microblog posts can be done without being near a computer, they are an amazingly fast way to send news to a large group of people. The most popular microblogging website is Twitter.com⁶, which allows you to have a list of people you “follow” (similar to a instant message buddy list) and if you choose, those people’s updates, or “tweets”, will be forwarded to your mobile phone, via SMS, and twitter client.

Social networking websites have, out of those mentioned so far, the greatest affect on modern social practices. The most popular social networking websites in North America, Facebook and Myspace⁷, are also a good representation of features offered by the majority of this genre of site. The basic structure of these sites is that you add people as “friends” at which point you can see pictures of them (posted by themselves, or by others who know the person), read about their interests, what they are doing, and communicate with people. Much time is spent updating one’s own profile, posting pictures and changing things like current status (very similar to microblogging discussed above.) This structure makes for constant updates and changes on each page, which means there will be very high page view counts, making this a perfect market for advertising⁸. Advertisements are what support and make these social networking websites free to their users, and they generate a very high income considering that all content is user generated. Myspace and Facebook both have had different consequences on social interactions today. Myspace generally encourages adding as many people as possible as friends, which creates many more opportunities for advertisement and unsolicited messages. This has affected many people in that they are now more worried about the number of friends they have, instead of worrying about quality relationships like people have in the past. However, this means that people are able to interact with many hundreds of people on a daily basis, people that they may never have met under normal circumstances. Differently, Facebook encourages only adding people you know or have met in person as friends. While it is possible to add people you have not met, if one indicates that they have never met the person it asks: “then why are you adding them?” This makes Facebook a more personal social networking site than Myspace is. While generally social networking websites require you to know a name, or find in a search people that you wish to add as friends, some networks offer a “people you may know” feature. This suggests people you may want to add as friends based on attending high school at the same time, or if you have a high number of friends in common. This enables people to find and keep in touch with casual acquaintances who may not have been a significant part in one’s life previously, but can become so.

Overall, the many opportunities the Internet offers for new kinds of social interaction do effect our social lives today. Social networking, blogging, and instant messaging offer ways for people to stay in touch with those who would have been forgotten if only the previous methods of communication were available. However, on the downside, it dilutes a friendship to something that is only as involved as pressing a few buttons on a website. While it does not prevent the propagation of meaningful relationships, it may over time cause many to forget how it is appropriate to act with those you do not know in person.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 1:04 am and is filed under Life in General, School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.