Social networking and Social Capital

"Computer based technologies enable the processing of more communication in less time across larger distances." Stalder, 2006.

The internet can have a positive effect on social capital. The growth of social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace could show that we as individuals are creating a virtual network of both bonding and briding social capital. The positive thing with the internet is that we can connect instantly which is unlike face to face interaction. Of course there are critics of virtual communities and social networking and they believe that the internet replaces our 'real' strong bonds with weaker online bonds. They also believe that is could create a world of similarity where only people of the same race, gender or ideology will interact.

My first experience of a social networking site was when i was in about year 9. This was when i first came across Myspace. For the next 2 years i was obsessed with changing the background, text, and trying to update my profile section as much as possible. Then along came bebo .. which i never really got into. Then Facebook came along, at first i remember not liking it much as i couldn't decorate my page like i could in myspace. But eventually as more and more people 'converted' i became a facebook member aswell. I think facebook is a lot more grown up than myspace, there's no background ect. It's more about the communicating and connecting with other people rather than making yourself look good.

And now there possibly isn't a day that goes by in which i don't check facebook. It's not even the fact that i feel i have to, it's just when i find a moment in which i have nothing to do, i automatically check it.

Also now that me and my friends have each gone to different universities all over the UK it's the cheap and easy way to keep in touch; we have an on-going e-mail in which we can post and reply. I can refer this to what Jenkins says in his everyday section of the 8 traits; "cuts us off from the enviroment and isolates us from the people around us." This is because although i am on facebook to my friends from home, i am also in my room alone not with my friends at university. He also says that it allows me to have a "greater connection to more dispersed family members". My dad lives in Scotland so it's good to be able to keep in touch with him in a different way other than texting. As its really easy to forget to reply to somebodies text, Facebook is like a constant way of keeping in touch. Also my cousin that lives in spain who i don't really talk to much anymore still has a way of looking at my page and seeing what i'm up to and i can do the same with hers.

Social networking allows us to access knoledge and relationships like never before, this is because if i am looking through one of my friends albumns and like the look of somebody i could click their tag and go to their page and talk to them. Without facebook i wouldn't have been able to ever talk to this person.

In the article "Why youth (heart) social network sites: the role of networked publics in teenage social life" by Danah Boyd. http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:UveBv6NYGQIJ:www.danah.org/papers/WhyYouthHeart.pdf+why+youths+heart+social+networking&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgxfZKkOtjMXlzYL2tghpFIssELgclyA1o3ezZKJVq51xBPDvhQQxW3u7WkQTTz74nSdhilKW9G17gwFPheVVM4kzVaxkQxUou9MNcUDDWOj5IqU0amGOiGDs_xEdGVbKhDS-mL&sig=AHIEtbQkAtRiYuP71NSRuA3D26KUV1cAYA

When she asked teenagers why they use social networking and what they do there they gave vague answers such as "just hang out". It's a kind of voyeurism as you can look through anyones profile (unless private) and through their photos, you can see who's single, pretty much anything you want to know their facebook page gives an impression of them without even having to speak to them.

Of course the new phenonemon is Twitter, i have signed up to this although have not really gotten into it yet. I believe that the positives of facebook outweigh the negatives. Keeping in contact with friends all over the world, organising events which just would not get the same turn out using word of mouth, birthday reminders ECT. And the negatives, i agree if you spend too much time alone on facebook it is bad, but the majority of people keep a good balance and also facebook is a big distraction when you have university work to do!!!