The topic of this session’s readings is community and relationships. I think communication is key when talking about why we use the Internet. It’s the main purpose! We are constantly communicating with other people, whether it’s for shopping, contacting friends and family, working, and the list goes on and on. The question is posed if the Internet has a positive or negative social impact. I definitely agree with a point mentioned in the “Internet Paradox Revisited” article: the answer to that important question may depend upon the quality of people’s on-line relationships and what people give up in order to spend time on-line. Obviously stronger social ties lead to better social outcomes than weaker ties do. The next article about MySpace also brings up this subject.
I enjoyed reading the article on MySpace by Boyd because I have an account there and I utilize it several times on a weekly basis. I found that most of the reasons he listed as attractions to the site were valid. Although, I found it interesting that he placed much emphasis on "youth" when I know so many grown people such as myself use it as well. I don’t think that it’s primarily for teens. If it was in the past, it’s definitely not so much anymore. For me personally, social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace along with AIM are alternative ways to contact with friends when we can’t be together for various reasons. It enhances these social relationships because it allows me to interact with them when I would otherwise not be able to. It is definitely second resort though, because if I had a choice, I would definitely choose to interact with my friends face to face out in the real world. It this regard, the Internet definitely poses as a positive social impact. I think it’s when people start to rely solely on the Internet and shut themselves out from society, it can become unhealthy. Especially in cases where people don’t have “real world” friends, but they opt to constantly forming new on-line relationships with people they don’t really know; you shouldn't rely on that for your sole means of interaction with others.
Here's a little news article from Tuesday called "Generation MySpace" which speaks about how social networking sites are here for the long haul: http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/teach/story/0,,2095035,00.html
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While it's certainly the case that people our age do use MySpace, you'd be surprised at the number of teens who also have accounts there. MySpace started while we were just finishing up High School, so we were teens getting into it, and as we grew, as did our friends and our social network. So yes, there are 20somethings on myspace, and that's sortof how it started out.
I'm a moderator for a myspace page linking to the fansite www.betchslap.com and I'm always surprised to see the number of users friending the account who are under the age of 18. Even the people who started betchslap.com are in highschool themselves. They don't really like people knowing it, though. haha!
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