Facebook

The social networking group that I will be using is Facebook. Facebook is an online social networking service which was founded in February 2004. It was made as a skill to help university students in America to connect with each other. It did not take long until Facebook was internationally known and used. Facebook has recently been ranked as the most used social networking service worldwide and in September 2012 Facebook was estimated to have 1 billion participants.  I being one of those members since 2009. Facebook has many features such as being able to group your friends into close, work, old ect. Also Facebook has a wall in which any of your friends are able to post on and see. Also the social networking service has private mail which is only seen from yourself and the other individual that you are messaging. Facebook allows you to upload your own personal photos and videos to your wall which sometimes can also be seen from people that are not your friend in the networking world. On Facebook the people in power have the say whether to follow up on report/abuse claims. They decide whether to deactivate or suspend the account for a period of time. The main purpose of this online virtual community is to connect with friends who share similar interests with you and get close with one another.

               

Facebook’s layout has been designed as an easy way to find people close to you. Firstly on the log in screen the opening page is a map showing the new users and recently active people that Facebook allows you to connect with anyone around the world. Facebook is also mapped out to your relations. For example, if setting your relationship status to single on Facebook, ads would randomly pop up into your news feed promoting dating sites. Also the social networking site maps out your interest and hobbies and friends and acknowledges the similarities with a random in the cyberspace world and connects you to each other, often encouraging to add each other as friends. Barnes describes cyber space as only existing as a cognitive map. He also explains the bewildering amount of data that exists in electronic space on storage devices constitutes a labyrinth that requires 'the inner map we make for ourselves, plus the layout of the software' in order to navigate our way through the information wilderness.

When traveling in cyberspace the only sense that is being used is site. Whereas traveling in real space you use 3 senses; touch, site and sounds. This is linked with being able to experience real emotions. When behind a computer screen one usually has to assume the emotion the other person is feeling. Where as in real life being able to experience their presents and body language helps understand the emotion. This concept has the users guessing; where is the truth behind this social network community.

Reference List

1.      Gaylene Barnes, Otago University, 1997. Passage of the Cyber-Flanuer.

14^TH August 2013. Author N/A. What is Facebook. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook