Hi all, this is Eric and Tracy. We are going to present you the first reading of week 6, which is about the role of networked publics in teenage social life by Danah Boyd.
The author mainly uses the case of MySpace, one of the popular online social networks, to explain why these online platforms are so fascinating that teenagers prefer this kind of communication and peer to peer sociality.
The formation of networked publics, defined by Boyd, is “a linked set of social, cultural and technological developments that have accompanied the growing engagement with digitally networked media.” The mediated spaces create a virtual community with shared identity, cultural inclusiveness and consensus regards to collective interests.
There are 4 aspects presenting in mediated spaces but not in face to face public life, including persistence, searchability, replicability and invisible audiences, which will be further elaborated during tutorial session.
In the networked publics, construction of identity and status is practised and teenagers model their digital identities through network profiles. Impression management is involved during the process. People learn to write themselves into being through eg. text and images, and develop a virtual presence and digital bodies. The problem of deception may be resulted since virtual identity may not be equal to the offline one.
Anything people posted on networked publics is assumed to be viewed publicly. Watchful parents may easily stalk their children, while marketers promote goods far more easily than before because of the absence of structure to limit the audience. We will use Facebook as the example to discuss more about the privacy setting.
Online social networks provide an alternative way for us to communicate, hence we are no longer being limited in the offline community. But it also implies that our privacy is indeed disclosing in public through mediated spaces. In the tutorial, we are going to discuss more issues about how we, as the users, think of the social network. For example, is online network a good thing or just make the social communication more problematic? What is the new definition of “friend”? How can we strike a balance between online and offline relationship? Some videos are going to be shown to facilitate the discussion. See you tomorrow.
I think online social network is a good way for communication in some aspects. It is good because of no distance limited. If you have a friend who is living in another country, you can keep in touch with each other by online social network. However, this situation has become a popular use in the society. For me, I use social network such as facebook and MSN to talk with my brother even though we are at home together. Social network has made us lessen the face to face communication. This may make us lower our communication skills. So actually, online social network is not really a good thing.
ReplyDeleteSocial network gives us a new definition of “friend". Just like what we discuss in the class. Everyone we add "friend" on Facebook. But, are they really our friends? Of course some of them are not. We add them for many reasons. Just like my case, i don't know how to explain if i reject my relative. I think we all share the same experience. Some of you may add some colleagus to the friend list on Facebook. Thus, i think social netwok is not only affect our attitude towards friend, but also social skill in our real life.
ReplyDeleteI started using xanga during secondary school. That was my first time to use online social network. At that time, all of my friends were willing to share their daily life in xanga. It is because xanga has the function of sign in lock or friends lock, which means the bloggers can control who visit their blogs and may know who had visited. Although this online network is a “public” space, bloggers use it as “private” space.
ReplyDeleteDevelop so far to nowadays; I think the situation of online social network has reversed. Facebook, as an example, nearly becomes part of our daily life. Users use to adjust the privacy setting to “friends only” in order to protect their own photos. However, other visitors still can view it from other friends’ Facebook or another ways. Thus, Facebook is not a “private” space, but a “public” space. Thus, we can see the big change of privacy is inevitable through the development of online social network.
Michelle is right! Sometimes, we just have not idea on dealing with the "add/reject" friends invitations. However, I think all of us should not only be aware to the concept of "friends", public and private while surfing the internet ( cyperspace). It is worthwhile for us to pay attention in reality as well. These taught concepts are all applicable to reality ( the real world) as well. Q) What does "Friends" mean? Like, someone who have met you for few times which you may not even remember her/his name. Does it mean friend? I know the answer will alter according to different background or experience. However, it helps us to perform/behave better when we have the sense with the surrounding passes-by.
ReplyDeleteHi, here is Jess. I think cyberspace has no doubly make conversation more convenient. Communication no longer limited at time, space and one-to-one conversation. Also, the concept of ‘friends’ has been changed, as Michelle said, we might somehow adding people because of social reasons, we are not treat them as friends of us at all. Take Facebook as an example, with this platform, information travels easier, however privacy being attention of our mind, we enjoying sharing things with ‘friends’ but facing the danger of disposing personal details to others on the same time. As long as the technology develop, I think the communication pattern can have massive change in the future.
ReplyDelete