Online Social Networking- A perspective

Everyone everywhere somehow wants to become famous. People are not always aware of this quintessential desire but somewhere inside all of us is the desire to be known, cared to begin with and admired, revered, craved and what not to go on. It is this nexus of narcissistic desire that drives the present man to do everything that he does. Blogging is one just weak outlet for some who otherwise cannot become so cool . Well, i seriously do not intend to judge or generalize all bloggers to this single thread driving their "fingers" but it seems that i could at least get into the insight of some bloggers though most of them wont admit it.
With the advent of social networking sites, it isn't a big deal for anyone to express..We are all just a "like" or a "wall" away from expression..I sometimes admire (hey i am actually being sarcastic) some of those wall posts to see that these days people write anything or everything on their own wall or someone's Else's wall and the thread of comments keep on following..

People write on anything virtually. Be it the new car they are driving, the new place they visited, the food they ate, the movie they liked to their present activity, location and immediate future goal to their achievements, failures, desires and turn-offs and if nothing else is possible, simply copying a 'famous' quote or a catchy piece of news from the web. But the question is why does people want to keep a bunch of friends, acquaintances or even strangers updated on every nook and corner of their mind, body or soul. It is difficult to gauge. We know amongst all the people we meet, there are some who are keen to talk and share a lot as opposed to others who are happy to listen and barely open their mouth. It is quite evident that people tend to lose their inhibitions, fears or anxiety more easily on social networking forums and come out more easily. So we generate a new set of people who create quite an identity for themselves without the fear of being ostracized by society which in turn acts as a detriment to their opening up in front of public. Thus in short, it is a great place in the virtual world where people can interact, communicate more freely and stay in touch with each other without any of the hassles which social interactions tend to pose.

However, there is an inherent problem which we may tend to overlook. Whenever something becomes quite as easy as this, people become good in it also quite soon. Naturally there is a tremendous sense of competitiveness which develops amongst the fellow users to outshine each other in terms of the quality of the information they share and the pieces of their daily lives that they bring out. Thus starts the process of reverse action. Instead of social sites being the place where people share their social lives, people start manipulating their social lives to be more appealing in the networking sites. Unconsciously the mind does things with the ulterior objective of being a stand out in some scale on these websites.

In terms of statistics, it seems 1 out of every 12 people in the world seems to be using these forums and this is in respect to just one of the many social sites that people use. So no way could we disregard that this has become the part and parcel of our daily lives and it impacts our daily lives in some sort of a way. Our behavioral patterns are constantly being modified in terms of the peer pressure generated from these sites and we have to constantly live up to the expectations.

I was discussing the aforesaid effect that these sites are having on human nature and behavior with a friend and we were concerned whether it is having a positive or an adverse effect on us. He completely discarded the possibility of no effect simply if we take into account the number of users and the average extent of usage of these users. We could not come towards a straightforward conclusion but it seems our social worlds which depended quite a lot on those parties and gatherings which we attended now solely rests on the shoulders of these magic websites which seems to be the answer for almost 10 % of all the people in the world.

Let us intuitively try to gauge what could happen but more so let us keep our eyes open on these sites and keep observing what people does and where humans are headed in the next generation or so.

Author's Note

This is a open discussion. Just to put people into thinking..Please feel free to comment and append to this discussion article

Reviews

[Zeitgeist Manifesto]

Life is definitely changing with fewer degrees of separation. I think the online communities have both good and bad. This seems to be the most positive community I've found, but there are others who misrepresent the population.

The dynamics of social interaction tend to be driven by the same derivatives.
Men and women will take photos that flatter the opposite sex. We see the same behavior in public gatherings where people dress to impress. Avatars can be paralleled to pop culture T-shirts. Some people project an image that is contrary to who they really are with their clothing. Many people talk the talk, but never walk the walk.

The only thing that rocks the boat now, is that a person does not have to be at the top of their peer group to be heard. Anyone can speak out with no regards to social status.

Sociologists may be troubled by the internet age...but I dont think that it is a huge problem in general. I think that in some areas such as online predators, we really need to make ourselves more aware as a society.....

But...We as human beings make the mistake of believing that we are some "next level" of life. We actually have the same forces driving our behavior as any other mammal. We are civilized, but the same primal urges shape our actions any time we interact.

The anonymity of the internet allows people to become characters of their own creation and act out fantasy lives from their imaginations. If we take that into consideration, it is hard to build a legitimate population of online personalities. The personality is too complex to even declare normalcy. We can only recognize a basic structure of patterns.

I think the Social experts are blowing things a little out of proportion. People Jockey for Social Status in life continuously in different ways. I think the online world is simply a different platform.

[Pax Analog]

Social networking tools represent the same double-edge as we humans do, amplified.

History is a litany of train wreck (so to speak) contradictions and intermittent inspirational highlights.

So of course social networking technology is going to simultaneously represent more useless noise and more opportunities for the studious creatives, interpersonally and professionally.

[Jamie S.]

Bravo! Awesome article, I was hooked with the title and reeled in quicky. I agree with you 100%. Im most concerned about our youngsters on these sites. Im seeing friends kids at 8 and 10 years old and it scares me. They are growing up too fast as it is, they dont need to read about what thier parents friends are doing on a friday night. Great topic, thank you for sharing :)

[Brian W. Hastings]

Once again just wanted to say this is a great read. It gives everyone something to think about; if not question the true motives to their actions.

[eL]

For my part, social networking is an illusion.

[gaurav roy]

This article of yours reminds of a very similar article regarding social network, the article stated somewhat like this " People on the social networking sites have 1000 of friends but you should consider yourself lucky even if 1 turns out during the time of need", we make have many friends but social network is just an outward thing, and the people who live a life based on facebook , need some serious introspection.
About your article, its a very good one.

[Brian W. Hastings]

That is a great read and only one point was left out. We have made all this most intimate of knowledge available to any and all who wish to look. We think we are safe in this cyber-world where people are just words on a screen. What we tend to forget is that nowadays a potential boss will google your name before ever wanting an interview and there is always that aspect of "Big Brother is watching you" because it has become both necessary and prudent to scour the internet for keywords or even numbers as a way to control things such as terrorism. This same system can be used for other things and we take it for granted that it isn't. We put every dirty piece of our lives out there with no regret while forgetting that the handle of a friend is not their real name and there is a real person on keyboard reading what you post.

[JulieNorell]

Alot of people who want to "get to know someone" on the internet are looking forsomthing other than friendly conversation.

[jazmin]

wow that was amazing. You write so beautifully:)

[KAREN]

I enjoy getting to know people through the inernet as long as we keep it friendly!

[Nothing Personal]

True Jen. Would have been impossible to know you outside this cafe. However, my concern stems not from sites like this which represents 40,000 people and most of whom are creative or driven by creative impulses but to those where half a billion roam around ( every other i see is on a Goal Seek program). Social behavior is facing two drastic effects-
One. Shy people are becoming expressive ( which is good) but vociferously expressive which is recognition driven.
Two. People lives are controlled by a computer. Sociologists are concerned..