Chapter 5: Social has a Shape
I have always been interested in the concept of "Six Degrees of Separation," aka the theory that everyone on earth is only six connections away from everyone else. The scariest thing about this concept is that a) it is widely accepted as fact, and b) with the help of social media, it's almost inevitable. Tying into that, one the of the most incredible things that I read in chapter 5 was that people I do not personally know could have a statistical influence on my life. Rheingold cites facts that reveal that "friends of friends have about one-third as much influence as people you know directly. The surprising implication is that at least part of your happiness might depend on people you never met" (198). Rheingold stipulates that this is based on fairly recent research, and so it is only "tentatively" true, but the researchers do make a good case for it to be a viable hypothesis. Frightening as this was to read, I can see it being true. After all, it is not uncommon to lust after the beautiful, photogenic lives that are portrayed both by friends, and by those we don't know. However, it's pretty scary to hear that something as big as overall happiness can be swayed by people we may never meet in real life.
Later in the chapter, I attempted to do as Rheingold suggested and I googled "Visualize Facebook social network," but I learned something interesting. This may have once been a lot easier, but Facebook has cracked down. I found a 2009 Mashable.com article that offered several different apps that allowed people to visualize their Facebook network and I was excited to try them out, only to find that the majority of them have been shut down. After some more research, I learned that the Facebook API (Application Programming Interface) is no longer making it easy to access such information-- personally, I would guess that this is due to privacy issues, but I was unable to find a concise answer. I found some external apps that seemed to find ways around this rule but, as I'm not interested in viruses, I decided against testing them out. Regardless, that's an interesting development since the book has been published!
My rabbit trail aside, the concept of Social Network Analysis (SNA) is fascinating. I'm sure many of us have had the experience of finding a mutual friend with just about the last person you'd expect. What a small world we live in. SNA has also provided the interesting information that our concept of "the ties that bind" is shifting. Although people still widely prefer and turn to friends with whom they have established strong ties, the weak ties are also valuable. Rheingold cites Granovetter who noted that the weak ties are the ones that "can be important in seeking new information or stimulating innovation" (206). I can attest to that in a way: Recently I bought clothing from the online store of a girl who I met my freshman year of college, with whom I had maintained only the slighest Facebook friendship with. However, a bond was formed! That would never have happened fifteen years ago. Also, in regard to the concept of "being a bridge" via social media, just today I found out about an apartment for rent through a friend of a friend. I would consider the girl I am friends with on Facebook to be "weak bond" amongst my friends, as we don't know each other too well. However, although we aren't personal friends, I would trust her opinion. If I were apartment-hunting, I would certainly have followed up with the advertisement. She acted as a bridge!
I have responded to this sort of thing in previous blogs, but I will say it again, I appreciate what Rheingold has to say about the merit of social capital, and the idea of "paying it forward." In this instance, he mentioned his relationship with a man called "Philcat," who he met in a chatroom online years ago, but who resurfaced in his life to help him out when he battled cancer. Although the online world can be troublesome, this is a great example of the good that can come from online interaction, not just between people you know in real life, but with people you don't. Of course, a degree of discretion is crucial, but a great deal of good can come from being a conscientious contributor to the online world.
I found Rheingold's concluding discussion of Facebook to be timely, because it touched upon concerns that I am having at this exact point in my life. I made my account in 2007, when I was entering high school. While it is fun for my high school friends and I to look back on so many years ago, it is also a little awkward to know that everyone can see those pictures. Because there is so much of it, it is hard to know what to pick and choose to hide. What I consider memories of my childhood are out there for every one of my connections to see. It's certainly something to consider.
Chapter 6: How (Using) the Web (Mindfully) Can Make You Smarter*
*Excellent use of parentheses.
The public sphere is certainly something to face with care and consideration, especially now that so much can be thrown out into the ether and revived at any point. As was the case throughout the book, Rheingold approaches this fact with reflection, and gives some validity to the cons, as well praising the pros. It's scary that we are living in such a new age, where everyone is struggling to know how to handle the new media we are faced with. How can we dub things legal or illegal if the law has never faced such developments in the past? And who are most equipped to make these decisions? The generation who grew up with the technology? Or the older generation who knew a world before it?
Additionally, a problem that I know I will one day have to face is, how is a parent to advise their children to navigate this new world? New media has gone a lot further than it was when I was growing up. I thought that what boyd had to say on the matter was poignant, "Create a dialogue...Just because [challenges] are complicated in new ways that are baked into [your children's] lives doesn't mean that they are so radically different" (246).
I am very happy to have experienced this book, and to have gotten the opportunity to Skype with Howard Rheingold. I was skeptical at first, because I didn't know the perspective or tone that he was going to take in the book, but I am pleased with the results. As he concludes, it is up to us to make the effort with the tools we have been given, and he has certainly given me quite a bit to think about.
-------
To conclude this post, I have thought about what I want to take from this class, and have decided that I want to use the tools that I have learned about in order to create something really interesting with code. Mozilla's activities made an impact, and I would love to explore the site further. I know it might be a large undertaking, but I am very interested in code, and would love to use that toward the final project. I think that the programming languages are incredibly interesting, and I have always wanted to learn more about the different kinds that are out there-- right now I only have the most vague knowledge of HTML, C++, and Java. I want to learn more.
No comments:
Post a Comment