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Keeping Connected
The Internet has
graduated from being a simple place for straightforward
communication to a vast social milieu where people can put their
best face forward and keep tabs on friends from their past and
present. Maggie Tiojakin examines the cyber side of
social networking.
 If Alexander Graham
Bell were to rise from his grave for a quick look at today’s world,
the first place he would have to pay a visit to would be an Internet
cafe. Somewhere in the afterlife someone must have said to him, “You
know, it’s really cool and all that you invented the telephone. But
you’ve got to check out the Internet!”
At the beginning of the 20th century, when the world had
only just begun to adapt to the concept of border-crossing via
telephones and telegrams, the wall that separated one society from
another became significantly thinner. Nearly a century later, the same
borders are almost entirely erased — thanks to the Internet, which
allows people to connect and engage in relationships that used to take
months (or years) to build and more to preserve.
Kristina Gunawan, a freelance engineer who provides IT-solution
services to major telecommunication companies in Indonesia, believes
in her lifetime she is bound to see another revolution in information
technology that will bring the world into the next phase: virtual
reality.
“I can’t say whether it’s for the better or the worse,” she says.
“People have their own reservations about technology — some embrace
it, some don’t. If you’ve seen Spielberg’s movie, Artificial
Intelligence (AI), you may think we’re a long way away from
such a time. But I wouldn’t be so sure. I think we’re closer than we
care to admit.”
If the number of people who log onto the Internet on a daily basis is
any indication, we certainly are. Data released last September by
Internet World Stats show that a total of 1.244 billion people are
using Internet services. Whether it’s for commercial purposes or
otherwise, the above data suggest one-sixth of the world’s population
is connected to each other through the Internet.
But how does it fit into our global community? Has the Internet also
revolutionized the way we interact with one another, and therefore
changed the paradigm of human culture?
“Honestly, the answer is yes,” says Iwan Djatmoko, a guest lecturer at
Gajah Mada University who received his doctorate in social sciences
from Harvard
University in 1996.
“Twenty years ago, human relationships owed their longevity to mostly
physical contact. Long-distance relationships carried through
letter-writing, telegrams or telephones were possible, but quite
seldom survived the test of time.
“Today, all you have to do is click on a button and you can ‘hug’,
‘kiss’ or ‘tickle’ someone on the receiving end. Sure, it’s
unconventional, but it gets the message across.”
In cyberworld, these gestures are referred to as “emoticons” – graphic
images showing various facial expressions and character actions often
used in web forums and instant messages. What started off as a series
of initialisms (LOL, ROTFL, LMAO, etc.) have now evolved into
hundreds, if not thousands, of emoticons.
This particular development in computer-mediated communication shows a
growing demand among users to interact with each other as they do in
real life. It was only a matter of time before social networking sites
took on the heavy-duty task of sustaining or creating relationships
between users based on shared interests.
With the popularization of networking websites such as Friendster,
Flickr, MySpace and Facebook, sociologists and anthropologists are
scrambling for a logical explanation concerning the impacts these
sites have had upon participants. While earlier phenomenons like
chatrooms and search engines have gradually been moved to the
passenger’s seat, social networking sites are driving the “virtual”
straight into the arms of “reality”.
“It’s hard to calculate the impact these networks have on real life
society, because these are real people communicating in the real world
using real mediums,” says Iwan. “Online, we consume [advertised
products], make friends and expand our networks just as we do offline.
Frankly, this is what’s shocking to us [social scientists.] It turns
out that our value system in cyberspace runs parallel with the one in
real-life.”
Mark Zuckerberg, the Harvard graduate who founded Facebook, had the
same idea when he built the website from scratch.
“I’m … interested in how [Facebook] affects community. It’s a subpart
of culture,” he was quoted as saying in Harvard Magazine in
2004, when the site was still used exclusively by the university’s
students.
Three years later, Facebook draws 73 million users from all over the
world, coming in second after MySpace, which hosts more than 289
million profiles, followed by Xanga, Classmates.com, as well as
Windows Live Spaces, each with 40 million subscribers.
A large portion of registered users describe their experience on these
sites as “addictive” because of the intriguing features provided by
each website host.
On Facebook, for example, a user may “poke”, “send a round of drinks”
or “throw a ghost” at another user as a form of affection. On MySpace,
users are able to download as many photos, videos or songs as they
want to share with other users. Meanwhile, Friendster offers a
blogging experience that is neatly designed for professional or
personal use.
From these sites, new communities emerge and people-searching has
become that much easier. Some users find old friends with whom they’ve
lost touch and proceed to reconnect on the site.
“I was surprised to find my old classmates on MySpace,” says Yusuf
Hadi, owner of P4P3R, a printing company in
Jakarta
who graduated from UCLA eight years ago. “I didn’t think it was
possible to track their whereabouts now that I’m back in
Jakarta, but thank God for MySpace!”
He laughs. “Now I write them messages almost every day.”
A similar experience happened to Aymen Al-Safar, a native Egyptian who
went to school in Boston, Massachusetts, but has recently relocated to
Singapore.
“I’m a people person, I like to keep in touch,” he says. “Usually, I
would keep track of my friends through e-mails. But Facebook makes it
so much easier for me to reach them. I just ‘throw chickens’ at them
every now and again.”
Despite their popularity, social networking sites also have drawbacks.
Spending so many hours in front of a computer screen inevitably
reduces a person’s actual socializing time in the real world. Hardcore
users may say the Internet has changed their lives for the better, but
the skeptics remain unconvinced.
“I still don’t get how anyone could make friends or have relationships
on the Internet,” says Darmayanti Sukotjo, a marketing manager at one
of IndoFood’s subsidiary companies. “I see how e-mail can be useful,
and I use it for work. But chatrooms and Friendster?”
“I don’t know, maybe I’m a bit conservative,” she lets on. “For me,
the best part of friendship is when you hang out and do things
together.”
“Like I said, some embrace it and some don’t,” says Kristina a few
days later. “What’s phenomenal about the Internet is it brings people
together, whether in the virtual realm or the other way around. We
didn’t expect the way it would change the way we live, but it has and
it will again. This is nothing. We’ve only begun to graze the surface.
Ten, 20 years later—who knows?”
One can only imagine what Alexander Graham Bell would think of all
this. Perhaps, once his visit was over, he would go back to the
afterlife and say to whoever told him to check out the Internet,
“Dude, was that you I saw on Facebook?” Or maybe not.
Social Skills
Back in
prehistoric times (that is, the time when “mouse” only referred to a
rodent), social scientists used to joke about “gossip” being passed on
as credible “information” because the source came from the friend of a
friend (FOAF). Today, of course, it’s just a tad more complicated,
especially when there is a whole bundle of information widely
accessible at the click of a … well, mouse.
Sure, social network sites are fun and addictive, and can move the
toughest among us to shed a tear or two instance, when someone whom
you thought had forgotten you suddenly ‘poked’ you and added you in
their ‘top friend’ list). But the law enforcement agencies have spoken
against social networking sites which we all adore oh-so-much, and
they’re saying “watch your back.” Here’s why:
What’s
Yours is Mine …
Most users
never consider the problem of identity theft (a friend wouldn’t do
that, after all), because nobody would suspect friends to steal other
friends’ identities. However, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has
warned Internet users against posting too much personal information,
such as ID card numbers, home address, full name and bank or credit
card numbers, on the sites. You may be surprised to learn how easy it
is for other people to assume your identity. For more information, go
to FTC website at
www.OnGuardOnline.gov
Strange Strangers
The most
beautiful part about using social networking services is how you can
make friends without moving from your desk. Keep clicking on “add
friend”, and within the hour you’ll gain a whole stable of friends
from near and far. If it were a perfect world, the very distantly
connected people you add would turn out to be perfect strangers. Since
it isn’t a perfect world, it pays to be careful about new additions to
your friends. We all know the stories about those friends turning out
to be very unpleasant stalkers. For more information on safety issues
online, go to i-SAFE at
www.i-safe.org
All Our Children
No, you
can’t keep a protective eye on your kids all the time, especially,
when they’ve become touchy teenagers who can’t stop obsessing about
acne and boy/girl trouble. However, you can keep track of their
cyberfriends and make sure whoever is on their computer won’t come
lurking in at night or show up on the law enforcement’s “most wanted”
list. For more information on how to keep your children safe, go to
the Internet Keep Safe Coalition at
www.iKeepSafe.org
Spam Me, Spam You
Last but not least, beware of spamming. Listing your email address for
public viewing may be a great way to help long-lost friends reconnect,
but it also is convenient assistance for spammers to begin their
onslaught of computer viruses and junk mail. For more information on
constructive Internet use, go to GetNetWise at
www.getnetwise.org
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