This week, I'm focusing on Dr. Howard's chapter on significance. I want to first talk about exclusivity in Facebook (because I know Reed loves Facebook soooo much). Back when I first got on Facebook, there was that exclusivity - not even my old college was allowed on Facebook at that point in time. And that bothered me. Yeah, I was in the "in-crowd," but what good was it going to do me if my friends weren't in the "in-crowd" as well? Then that school was allowed to get on Facebook. Awesome! Except now my friends down in P&A can't get on Facebook. Well crap. Again, I'm in the "in-crowd" and my friends aren't. Oh look! They've opened up Facebook so EVERYONE can be part of the "in-crowd!" Score! Oh wait, that means there is no more "in-crowd" -- there's no more exclusivity. So now I'm back to wishing some people couldn't get on Facebook so there would that exclusivity again. Now, sure the entirety of Facebook is open to anyone and it doesn't have that all-encompassing exclusivity it used to have, but that's ok. Facebook still has that exclusivity within "groups" and "fan pages" on Facebook. There you are the first to know. You have that insider look. Maybe that's why I keep Facebook even though I don't feel its exclusivity anymore. Or maybe I'm just too lazy to keep up with my friends in the normal way of letters, emails, or phone calls...
The next part of Facebook I'd like to talk about is Howard's section on "quality vs. quantity." I don't know how many of you remembered advertisements in the early days of Facebook when they were just starting to use them. They were always the same regardless of who you were. It was the quantity they were trying to push. Nowadays, the advertisements on either side of your screen are aimed at you, more or less, and they change whenever you change something about your profile. For instance, when I actually had time to go do swing dancing and those kinds of updates were typical for me, I would see advertisements for swing dance shoes, lessons, outfits, you name it! If it was related to swing, it was in my advertisements. Now, however, I see lots of wedding related advertisements and that happened LITERALLY the day I changed my status to engaged. These advertisements are somewhat tailored to me as someone planning a wedding and they seem to be on rotation so I see the same 5 or 10 advertisements instead of a variety of advertisements that are not related in the least.
That's about all I can think of saying about significance in Facebook without going on a full-blown exposition that could take days to read, so I think here is a good place to stop.
Jessica...
ReplyDeleteThe paradox of exclusivity is an interesting phenomenon. I think finding just the right balance of things would be the key to success. Interestingly, the laws of economics say that the less something costs, the more in demand it will be. I think in some cases, like "club memberships", the laws of economics may be broken. Honestly, I tend to give more credibility to online communities that cost a little bit to join than I do the free ones. The free ones seem loaded with uninformed people and spam advertisements. However, the communities that have a modest fee for membership, seem to have a different type of persona. Maybe I'm prejudiced? Either way, human nature definitely seems to throw a wrench into the success/failure rate for online (or offline) communities.
I know it's snotty, but I felt much the same way when my colleagues from the English Dept. starting using Facebook after it was opened to the public. I've pretty much stopped using it except to keep up with my son & his wife. I've switched to LinkedIn and the groups there now.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how we want something to be more open and then, wait, it's too open. I like that Facebook is open because it means that I can connect with anyone I want without having to think about what country they're in, what their profession is, what school they went to. Because it is "social" I don't want any limitations, though I do appreciate the ability to hide or ignore people and applications if they get annoying. Without that, I probably wouldn't bother. However, I also don't want to see work connections and conference updates in this forum. For that, I want a different, more exclusive network.
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