Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Chapters 5 and 6 of Net Smart


Chapter five of Net Smart, “Social Has a Shape: Why Networks Matter”, begins with this idea of human social networks and how the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts because the group’s properties are different from the individual’s properties. According to Rheingold, we need to understand some things about how network nature affects us are: 1) Networks have structures that influence how we as individuals behave. 2) New forms of sociality are possible because technological networked communication extends the reach of traditional networks. 3) Online networks that support social networks share properties of general network structure and specific properties of human networks.

The theory of six degrees of separation is really interesting, and I found it fascinating that when the original study (Milgram and Travers study which involved letter forwarded by mail) was given digital framework and the number of participants greatly increased, the results remained similar. The study done by Milgram and Travers resulted in an average “path length” of 5.5. When Watts recreated the study using email in 2001, the average path length was again around 6, and a 2010 study also found that 98% of people on Twitter are only separated by 5 steps. Similar results were found in a 2007 study by Leskovec and Horvitz: the average path length of Microsoft Messenger users is 6.6. It made me start to wonder how this applies to me and the people I know…

Rheingold later talks about networked individualism, and how the focus of technology has shifted the center from community to the individual. Rheingold writes that in the early years of cell phones, many conversations began with “Where are you?” It made me think about how today, so many people think that everyone is always available just because of cell phones. Some people actually get offended if you don’t text or call back in a certain time frame, but we shouldn’t have to be available to everyone all of the time. It also made me think about disappearing landlines. How many people still have one at home? (I haven’t had one in over 5 years!)

The section on Facebook use was also really interesting and thought provoking. Rheingold begins the section by saying, “Keeping track of our social relationships is a serious piece of work”. He also mentions that Facebook has caused us to form a redefinition of what the word friend means. There is definitely an etiquette to using Facebook and handling friend requests. Like Rheingold writes, there is social pressure and reluctance to hurt people’s feelings. However, this leads, in many cases, to “friending” people that you may not really want to be friends with. Which is worse: denying a friend request or ultimately realizing that you made a horrible mistake by accepting and then unfriending them? I have a few friends that I wish I had never accepted…

My experiences with Facebook also came to mind when I was reading Rainie and Wellman’s description of people who will thrive in this environment in which networked individualism plays a strong role. One of the characteristics mentioned was, “Those who learn to manage their boundaries”. Rheingold asks, “Does a person want all 300 of her friends to know what she did last night?” The “overshare” is popular on Facebook. There have been many times that I have asked myself why my “friends” (those regrettable ones) would want to post some of the things that they are being seen or read by perhaps hundreds of people. I get that your ex-husband isn’t going to win father of the year, but do I really need to know that. Just today, one of my friends posted a close-up picture of her crying child because she wanted help identifying the rash-like marks around his mouth… Call the doctor.

Chapter six is titled, “How (Using) the Web (Mindfully) Can Make You Smarter”. Again, Rheingold notes the emerging divide between those who know how to use social media for individual advantage and collective action, and those who do not. The section on parents was relatable. Rheingold says that “teenagers need to experiment with who they are and play with different kinds of identities”. The problem is that now, everyone is watching. I don’t even remember how many “phases” I went though as teenager (but some of them are definitely mortifying to look back on). Boyd encourages parents to focus on the underlying issues that worry them as parents instead of focusing on the technology aspect. My son is only three, so I don’t yet know how I will react to his life online. (Actually, I don’t even want to think about this yet.)

Two quotes/ideas that stood out the most in these chapters:

--“Although the Web affords a large audience to only a few, that audience is quickly accessible to other publishers when the conditions are right.”

--Knowledge can spread through online networks as swiftly as any viral videos do.

As far as what I want to learn/take away from this class:

-Think more critically about digital interactions

-Use new tools/ learn how to work with digital tools

-Find new ways/ become more comfortable being creative in a digital context

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