Ask.fm - The Inside: Out of Reality.

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As of June 2010 Ask.fm was launched on android and iPhone in a few countries. 
Today there are over 65 million registered users in 150 countries that have access on mobile, desktop or tablet; keeping in mind an unregistered user can participate by solely asking questions and not having to answer any. (Henley, 2013)

What makes Ask.fm so popular and can we identify the space being created among users that is just so addictive and potentially destructive to the individual?!

Since joining the ask.fm forum a couple weeks before BA1002 started, I observed a number of events.  Over the last few weeks I spoke about my friend “Tim” who had agreed to meet me based on an anonymous conversation I had engaged him in.  That was just a slight reflection of how easy people are willing to trust on a social network and the potential risks involved when you carry social networking into a “real life” space. 

I believe that to really and truly understand how Ask.fm can be so addictive and destructive there need to be the correct conditions in place: you need to create a profile where content can be stored, reviewed and easily accessible.  You would also need to be following a collection of close friends, it is assumed that once you follow a friend the norm is that they will follow you in return.  This creates a little “community” within the forum where you can often see the activity of friends around you and how they interact with each other.

The social linguistics on Ask.fm is not always about the content of questions and responses but the effectiveness of speech that impacts on the individual when receiving personal questions, especially at a high volume. (Tuan, 2011, p. 685)  Some “Safety Tips” are available on Ask.fm as a guideline for users which states “Anonymity should never be used to ask questions that are mean or hurtful... This can be useful if you’re feeling shy or think that the recipient would be more comfortable answering a question without knowing who may have asked it.” (SIA, 2013). 

To what degree do you think that teenagers or anyone for that matter is going to refrain from using mean or hurtful language? They don’t.
By regularly browsing your “friends” profiles you may come across a question that was asked about you from an anonymous user, which ultimately installs a sense of paranoia and growing anxiety that you’re constantly being talked about.  This could be in a positive or negative light.  Some popular personal questions include “What are your thoughts on Tim/Sarah/Mr. White?”, “Who are the top 5 hottest girls/boys from high school?” or furthermore confronting questions that users still choose to answer such as “Are you a virgin? If so how many times have you had sex?”, “What is your annual income after tax?” or “What is your ultimate sexual fantasy?”. 

“If people have the power to build, they also have the power to destroy, and on the whole, it is easier to destroy than to build. It takes skill to put up even a modest house and little skill to deface or burn it down.” (Tuan, 2011, p. 693)  Based on the little “community” that I have formed on Ask.fm and the increasing time I’ve spent on it, there is a real sense of space and time that we are all back on the school playground telling fibs and passing on your best friends secrets to others.  We, the users are allowing and promoting the behavior that as a child, would consequently result in a lunch time detention.  We are not asking valuable questions, we are asking to be bullied, judged, have our personal beliefs questioned and lives being exploited for all to see.

Furthermore I would like to look at next week’s blog topic: ‘Genre and Identity’ where I will draw personally from the content of my perspective and how the narrative network can affect the individual. 

 Bibliography

1. Henley, J. (2013). Ask.fm: is there a way to make it safe? The Guardian.

2. SIA. (2013). Ask. Retrieved from www.ask.fm

3. Tuan, Y.-F. (2011). Languages and the Making of Place: N Narrative-Discriptive Approach. Explorers and Pioneers, p. 688.