Facebook Friends.

Anyways another thing that caught my eye was yesterdays 24 magazine. On the front cover it says "Text trumps talk". Studies show human contact takes back seat to technology. In this article it talks about how too many people are using chatting online and their cell phones rather than face to face conversations. According to 24 a new study shows that people connect 17 times per day electronically with others compared to only two face to face encounters. This is definately showing that we as a society are relying too much on our "new technology" to make our social connections.

Being on Facebook or MySpace all day is one thing, but actually spending that time with your friends is another. A relationship expert in the article talks about how people are losing out emotionally by not talking to people face to face. I have to agree with this. I have some friends on facebook who have over 1000 friends on thier list. Seriously are they really this person's friend or does this person just know of these people. Ok sure some of these people on his list might really be his friend but I have to say only about 10 of those people on his list he can call his true friends. This is the same for my page. I have around 500 friends but they are not what I would call "quality" friends. Maybe about 10 of those people on that list I would call my friend. The others are just peopel I know from school, work, team sport, or people i've met once or twice through other people. I would never call most of these people on my list and ask them if they want to come over and babysit my daughter, because I don't know them very well and trust them enough to be alone with my child. Or I would never ask them to go to a movie. We would probably have nothing to talk about because we don't know each other very well.

The ones that I actually call my friends are the ones that I don't even really talk to on facebook. Once in a while I may comment on a photo they posted or thier status. but these are the people that I talk to on the phone or hang-out with and go to dinner and a movie. The other 490 people on my friends list are people that I don't even want knowing that much information about me. I don't want them seeing pictures of me getting drunk at a party or of my family vacation. They do not need to know what I am doing or who I am doing it with. If I am having a bad day I am not going to post it on facebook for those people to see i am going to call one of my friends and go for a drink and talk.

Sometimes I think it is a competition to see who has the most friends!

Facebook vs MySpace

I don't even know where to begin. There is so much to say about these two social networking sites that I think I will have to start with me and my use for facebook and Myspace. It all began with me using Myspace to keep in contact with my family in California. Two summers ago I travelled down the a small town in Californa to visit my in-laws. My sister in-laws who are both years younger than me, spent very little time visiting with us when we were down there. They were always in thier rooms chatting on Messanger or Myspace. The youngest of the two was in her freshman year of highschool at the time was a pro at designing Myspace pages, people were coming over to the house to have her design thier pages for them. (I actually had her design my page for me too so that it wasn't so plain compared to most of the pages out there). NEways that was how I was introduced to myspace. I joined to keep in touch with them down there - it was cheaper than calling all the time and I could post pictures of us here and they would post pictures of them and the rest of the family down there. So now we were in contineous contact with one another through cyberspace. We still talk once or twice a week on the phone but this way they get to send me a picture of the prom dress they are going to be wearing and I can send them photo's of my daughter's birthday party that they couldn't make it to.

Facebook on the other hand there was no real reason why I joined the facebook banwagon, other than to be in contact with my friends. There is really no purpose for me to be on facebook but I still don't see myself closing my account anytime soon. I get to look at pictures of my friends and the events that I missed and comment on how I wish I was there with them, or how glad I am that I wasn't there with them!!! MY facebook is really low key compared to other people's who have to add every new application that comes out. mine has the basic: my name; a picture of me; photoalbums; the wall; groups; friends and the minifeed. I posted some pictures on thier for others too look at, ones of events that happened and I could tag others in them. I used to have pictures of my daughter on there with her name so that people who don't live close could see her but then I deleted those because I don't want strangers looking at her, who knows what types of creepy people are out there! I have tried to get my family in California to join facebook but they still refuse and they choose to stick with Myspace.

With this (what I thought was going to be) brief introduction of where I am with Facebook and Myspace I will have to leave you with this for now and come back and discuss my view of people showing to much information on these social networks.

TTYL

Introduction

My Name is Sarah Thomas, I am a student at Capilano University in my first year in the Communications Diploma Program. I hope that by fall 2009 CapilanoU will offer a Communications degree program so I wouldn't have to travel to SFU. After I am finished school I plan on finding a career in Public Relations or somewhere along those lines.

My blog is going to be about social networking (facebook & myspace).