About this article
This article appeared in the Guardian
on Tuesday September 11 2007 on p9 of the UK news section. It was last updated at 00:20 on September 11 2007.
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Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace do
not help you make more genuine close friends, according to a survey by
researchers who studied how the websites are changing the nature of
friendship networks. Although social networking on the internet helps
people to collect hundreds or even thousands of acquaintances, the
researchers believe that face to face contact is nearly always
necessary to form truly close friendships.
"Although the
numbers of friends people have on these sites can be massive, the
actual number of close friends is approximately the same in the face to
face real world," said psychologist Will Reader, from Sheffield Hallam
University.
Social networking websites such as Facebook, Bebo and
MySpace have taken off rapidly in recent years. Facebook was launched
initially in 2004 for Harvard University members but has since expanded
to more than 34 million users worldwide. MySpace, which was set up in
2003, has more than 200 million users and was bought by Rupert
Murdoch's News Corporation in 2005 for $580m (£285m).
Previous
research has suggested that a person's conventional friendship group
consists of around 150 people, with five very close friends but larger
numbers of people whom we keep in touch with less regularly.
This
figure is so consistent that scientists have suggested it is determined
by the cognitive constraints of keeping up with large numbers of
people.
But Dr Reader and his team have found that social networking sites do allow people to stretch this figure.
The
team asked more than 200 people to fill in questionnaires about their
online networking, asking for example how many online friends they had,
how many of these were close friends and how many they had met face to
face. The team found that although the sites allowed contact with
hundreds of acquaintances, as with conventional friendship networks,
people tend to have around five close friends.
Ninety per cent of contacts whom the subjects regarded as close friends were people they had met face to face.
"People
see face to face contact as being absolutely imperative in forming
close friendships," added Dr Reader. He told the British Association
Festival of Science in York that social networking sites allow people
to broaden their list of nodding acquaintances because staying in touch
online is easy. "What social network sites can do is decrease the cost
of maintaining and forming these social networks because we can post
information to multiple people," he said.
But to develop a real
friendship we need to see that the other person is trustworthy, said Dr
Reader. "What we need is to be absolutely sure that a person is really
going to invest in us, is really going to be there for us when we need
them ... It's very easy to be deceptive on the internet."
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This has been on my mind for some weeks now, knowing that people join (especially on Yuwie, Narple or Rotatrix) in addition to get exposed (their business) or to earn money by hanging around.
I
must say I can relate to the point that the real friends I have here
(the ones I already knew and bring in not counted) are few. Out of the
hundreds of faces I got attached to a number of them that I can count
on one hand.
So
what is it, besides of the money part, that keeps us going with
meaningless comments (mostly ready made graphics), ratings, joining
clubs with nothing to learn from etc...? Do you forget me when I'm
offline, like I forget you when I don't see you online or go through my
list? You probably are, unless you are one of those I can count on one
hand.
What
is it, besides of the money part, that keeps us going reading blogs
which are more fun to the one who wrote them but leave no impression on
life. Do you read and reflect upon my blogs or do you go over them like
you're zapping through the stations on tv? I know I do with most of the
blogs I pass by here on Yuwie. And you probably do that too, unless you
are one of those I can count on one hand.
What
is it, besides of the money part, that keeps us going with posting
notices; cry outs to get some views, mostly meaningless (besides of the
money part) and not much telling about what really matters to others?
Is
Yuwie a mirror of real life, where you can hate, act as if, laugh,
joke, get frustrated about things, make yourself ridiculous.... without
the responsability or consequences you have with the same behavior you
may deal with when you do so in real life?
Do
you talk about me when you go on with life offline, about the things
you read on my profile? Or am I just another graphic or a page which
you can turn of the moment you return to your daily routine? I know you
don't give anything about me, or the things I write (which are part of
my real life btw), unless you are one of those that I can count on one
hand.
But
hey, that doesn't matter, really. We do have so much in common and,
unless you are one of those I can count on one hand, we can be perfect
businesspartners and quit playing around and faking the act. Let's get
to business!
Katia
BTW:
Since you managed to read this article all the way down, it looks like
I did catch some of your honest attention anyway. Or is that because
you're one of those I can count on one hand ;-)
Tags: Friends Social Networking Business
