So over the past week I decided to track my facebook use along with the students I assigned the task to. It was interesting to hear their responses to their tracking and compare it to my own experiences. Several students keep facebook open while they are at work, most use the status updates and chat functions and it is really a tool that extends their social networks. I have found these experiences to be similar to my own. Over the past seven days I spent a grand total of 4 hours and 40 minutes on facebook. Most of my use is in 10-15 minute increments, or the occasional 30 minutes when I happen to catch up with an old friend and IM, or rat hole on pictures of old friends, their new babies, and the occasional update on ex's (pretend like you don't do it).
For the most part, I agree with the quantitative study "The benefits of facebook 'friends'". I believe social networking sites are used to increase social capital and can act as extensions to empower our relational selves. On the other hand, however, I have to ask how authentic these relationships on facebook really are. I have gotten into the habit of simply reading my friends' status updates, profiles, and posted pictures and feel like I am "maintaining our relationship" by simply keeping up with what is going on in their life through facebook. So, are these relationships authentic?
I suppose it is helpful to understand what exactly authenticity is and more importantly, how it works in interpersonal relationships. Authenticity in interpersonal relationships is often equated with genuine care, kinship, and "realness". So, how real are relationships that require less interaction and depend more on the avowed self than on shared and lived experiences. Furthermore, are authentic relationships even possible when consciousness is split between online and face to face interaction. As Bugeja notes, our identity and consciousness is split between two places therefore never allowing us to be fully present in one or the other. For example, as I sit here writing this blog, I am also watching television, texting a friend, and I have facebook open to read random comments and status updates. Is authenticity contingent on being "present"? Or are the makeup of relationships changing to the point where it is expected that you will be divided between "worlds"?
Ultimately, my biggest question is in how this dual consciousness influences community involvement. If I am split consciously between spaces - which communities should I identify with, and how connected can I ultimately be to one or the other?
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The New PostSecret Book
10 years ago
Tracking my facebook use I found that I use it an average of 30 min a day or more on days with more time between classes. What I found most interesting was what I was looking up and doing.
ReplyDeleteI e-mailed a friend or two about upcoming events and commented on friends status' which is ok. But I found that what I mainly did was guiltily send those hundrends upon hundreds of lame gifts to people who sent them to me.
I don't know what it is but when someone sends you a cute puppy picture you just feel guilty if you don't send one back. So I send them one back only to recieve another one and the maddness continues until one us finally stops or finds something new to send.
There is no real authenticity to the relationship when the only actual contact on the site is lame little gifts you send to someone you went to high school with and haven't seen since then.
I think authenticity doesn't neccesarily have to do with face to face communcation all the time but also in what form the communication is given. Because an e-mail to a friend about wedding plans is a lot different than sending them a virtual lollipop. There's no real connection or transmission of any real emotions.
For this assignment I found that I use facebook on average 20-40 minutes a day, whether I am at work, school, or at home. I love reading the newsfeed, status updates, and looking at my friends' pictures.
ReplyDeleteFor me, facebook is the main way that I keep in touch with old friends from high school, that I don't get the chance to talk to as much as I would like.
When it comes to authenticity of friendship I don't think that a face to face interaction has to happen. I have found that is easier to talk to some of my friends who I haven't talked to in a while because of facebook. I feel more up to date on what is going on in their life. I have more subjects and other things to talk about with them, and there isn't that akward silence of what should we talk about.
I think that when trying to connect oneself with communities whether they are virtual or in the real world that when it is on Facebook the communities are usually a part of our real world. We may not connect with some of the "community" in the real world on a daily, weekly, or even yearly basis, but they are a part of a real community in our lives. It can be tough to draw the lines, but usually online the community mostly involves text based ideas from our real daily communities. I feel that virtual communities make it easier to deal with our communities in the real world, and keep us updated with what is important to us on a minimal time frame.
ReplyDeleteI think that the dual consciousness issue is becoming something that you see very often these days. I myself have began to notice it a lot. Very often I find myself hanging out with some friends, talking on Facebook, watching TV, using my phone, and sometimes even doing homework all at once. Doing 6 things at once, I am surprised that I can keep up with these different tasks all at once without getting confused and texting my friend my homework. I hope that we are not moving to a world where we are expected to be divided... it is nice to have peoples full attention once in awhile.
I love your comments. They are always so thought provoking and perhaps it is because you are continually asking questions. Prior to this class, I had never heard of the phrase, "rat holing" it came as a completely new concept, yet it is something I have been doing since I first started using the Internet. I joke frequently about facebook "stalking" that you, as you say, begin rat holing and you find yourself sorting through all your facebook friends' latest picture uploads or status updates. The interesting thing that ties in with what you were saying, is that I always though that by me seeing, via facebook, what my friends had been up to recently that I was being a good friend in keeping up with what's going on in their lives. However, it's like you said, it's not very authentic. For that matter, just because I know what's going on in a friend's life doesn't mean they know that I know, which is actually what a friendship is all about; knowing and telling friends about what's going on in your life and having them reciprocate those details. I personally have noticed that I tend to sort my friends into categories of who am I actually closest to. Who are those friends that I should call up and verbally find out what's new in their life or those friends that in actuality we're simply just acquaintances and a simple overview of their profile will do on the off chance that I should run into them and would be able to regurgitate what I knew- course then it just comes off a tad creepy. I guess it's a good reminder for me to stop and think how much do I value my friendships?
ReplyDelete