Evolving Relationship of Facebook Users:
Justin Tuma's response to:
http://csmt11.posterous.com/taking-a-sobering-sip-from-the-firehouseAri’s post made me consider the evolving relationship users have with facebook, as well as differences between generations.
As we mentioned in class, a great deal of our experience with social media has been in our adolescence. A great deal of this may be the fact that it historically overlapped with our coming of age. But our struggling with identity and understanding ones social sphere really stood out when he wrote of his experiences “impersonating various classmates over AIM.” The idea that we can both understand and mimic memes of human interaction has transfered over from the physical to digital. The way one might respond to an uncomfortable situation with a facial expression has its counter-parting digital meme. Maybe a :/ or :S exemplifies this. Contrastingly, it seems to me that older generations of users, my mom and her co-workers for instance, don’t seem to use these behaviors or signals nearly as frequently. Despite our mockery of this (http://myparentsjoinedfacebook.com/), it makes me wonder if younger generations will be impeded in face-to-face interactions. Older generations may be lacking in social media skills, but maybe their face-to-face skills will be contrastingly stronger.
Considering both the ‘domestication’ factor of social-media, as well as the aging and maturing of our generation who has grown up along side it, it is interesting to note the personal developments many seem to be making en masse: “I’ve taken more of a backseat ‘lurker’ approach to many of the sites that I now frequent, posting or otherwise adding content at a rate that seems to have dropped off significantly from my early use.” One aspect of what makes social media unique is the transformation of media from ‘one-to-many,’ to ‘many-to-many,’ both producing and consuming content. One can’t help but wonder if the the ‘natural’ state of social media users leans heavily toward the one side of consuming, rather than producing - or at least will in time.
It is indeed “more relaxing” of an experience to be passive when consuming media - there is no obligation to create content or appease subscribers to blogs and so forth. It seems to be that the pleasure of voyeurism is nearly universal, as is the inkling to maintain privacy from others. We hold back on what we put in, and it is so much easier to take out. As social media is domesticated, Ari’s post suggests that the novelty of the medium will wear off, such as the “can’t miss it” attitude for Twitter before giving up in frustration when I realized I had also unwittingly followed over 400 accounts.” Like sending mass chain-emails when emailing was first popularized, there is a desire to see how far one can stretch there arms in the new medium - as was the case with radio broadcasting. It is more than likely that the democratizing aspect of social media will still be its virtue in future years, but the fad of social media ‘addiction’ is already becoming a thing of the past.