Social Networking: A Digital Scrapbook of Life

Some have wanted to read what I wrote for my essay, so I figured I'd post it and see what you guys think. 

> Jake 

Social Networking: A Digital Scrapbook of Life

Conversations: They have been a part of our daily life forever. From chats around the fireplace with grandpa about World War II, to sitting in cozy leather chairs at the downtown Starbucks with a boyfriend or girlfriend talking about their day. Conversations are something we as humans can hardly live without. As humans we are made to be social. In today’s society, our conversations are now taken at speeds sometimes faster than light, up to space in a satellite, back down to earth and projected either across town, across a nation, and even across the world. Conversations have taken to the internet. But you, the reader already know that, considering you’re more than likely reading this on a computer with an internet connection.

Since the start of the Internet in the mid-1990’s, lives have slowly progressed online.  It started with e-mail, which was originally conceived by Ray Tomlinson in the early 70’s, and later mass created by America Online and Delphi, in 1993. This gave us a version of the letter, which can be sent back and forth to each other online.  From there e-mail progressed to IM, or ‘Instant Messages’, and also on a group level expanded to ‘chat rooms’. These conversations are comparable to one on one conversations, to group conversations; both without seeing each other.

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Two gentlemen by the names Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson created MySpace in 2003.  This site was revolutionarily groundbreaking in the fact that you had your own ‘web page’, which gave you free room to spread your news to not just the one friend, but to ALL of your friends. Photos can be uploaded from last night’s party, you can post your mood, or you can even share a song. These things are a collection of you and your personality.

It is imperative for a company to find a way to keep their website fresh and on the cutting edge. If not, they can lose their ‘King of the Hill’ status.  Mid-2004 to 2008, a Harvard student by the name of Mark Zuckerberg started typing computer codes to create ’Facebook’ (at the time, titled ‘Thefacebook”).  This site still reigns as “King of the Hill”!  It appears that it will stay that way for quite some time.  Facebook is not just for music and entertainment.  It can encompass your entire online social life. A quote from the film inspired by this phenomenon explains what Facebook is.  “People want to go online and check out their friends, so why not build a website that offers that?  Friends, pictures, profiles, whatever you can visit, browse around; maybe it’s someone you just met at a party.  Eduardo, I’m not talking about a dating site. I’m talking about taking the entire social experience of college and putting it online.” – Mark Zuckerberg’s character, Social Network (2010).”

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Our world has become greatly advanced.  We can only assume that will all these advancements, made in such a relatively short period of time; some type of backlash would eventually spring up. Such backlash has included: security threats and higher rates of miscommunication.  Earlier this year, Facebook’s owner, Mark Zuckerberg, had his Fan page hacked.  This prompted two new security advancements to take effect.  One had users identify photos of their friends, and the other was an offer of ‘https’ connection, which is simply a more secure version of the original “http” add-on to the web address.  With the addition of these security advancements, the hackers have a much more difficult time getting into someone else’s account.   Having to figure out methods for prevention of such intrusions, is just one of the downfalls of social networking.

Not only is hacking an issue, as it has been for years, even outside the social sites, but cyber bullying has taken many tolls on lives. From catty girls posting comments on another girl’s photo about her weight, to jocks harassing homosexuals about who they are as a person, lives have been brutally altered. Some have even ended. The computer has given anyone a voice to harass and belittle someone without directly saying it to his or her face.

According to the website SignalNews.com, a study that was conducted by the Pew Research Center observed popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter to find who is being naughty or nice online. After the study, it was found that 69% of teens and their peers were neutrally nice to each other, a 20% of them said peers were mean, and 11% claimed that “it depends.” It goes on to state that nearly every teen that’s accessed the sites has witnessed others being mean or harassments taking place. This all translates

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from behind the illuminated screens into reality, simply because someone did not like what someone else posted. It escalates into gossip, and spreads like wildfire, because instead of just a group passing a single note, it is now a group text to not just within one school, but to friends in another school, and another, and yet another.  Soon enough, someone the victim doesn’t even know, thinks she is a skank for sleeping with the jock, or the gay guy has a crush for every other guy around.  Yet no one really knows this person, but thinks they do just because of hearsay. Events like this ruins reputations, and ultimately lives, because teenagers do not understand how to handle the stress of so much hatred and lack of compassion for who they are.

As this has taken a rise, groups have been forming to help teenagers, and even young adults cope with cyber bullying. Groups such as NoH8, and Britain’s beatbullying.org have started to give victims of cyber bullying a helping hand towards getting ‘back on their feet’. In BeatBullying’s ‘about us’ section, they believe in the following: “that bullying contradicts the basic British values of fair play, social justice, aspiration, opportunity, respect - it is something the whole nation must act collectively to eradicate, so we can really support the millions of young people who lie in bed at night terrified to go to school the next morning.” If the social networking world started to take these values to heart, it would severely decrease and exterminate cyber bullying and online harassment, making the World Wide Web a far nicer community than it is now.

           

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With how fast the world is moving forward technologically, social networking is something that is very hard to ignore anymore. It’s not just where lives are displayed, but it’s also where companies are advertising. It’s where media is beginning to dwell. (It’s projected that Facebook advertising in the US alone will top 5.7 billion in ad revenues this upcoming year). With Facebook ultimately being the ‘Google’ of social networking, the site is teaming up with news companies, movie streaming sites, and video games to develop ‘apps’ for Facebook, so users don’t even have to change sites. Just slide over to the Netflix app to watch a movie while chatting with your friend on the same Internet window. This is just the start of it all. The future is really unknown, and with the speed that things travel now, it’s only going to become more of an impact in daily lives. People will have to cope and understand how to fully use sites in order to live at a relative peace.