The focus of this post is online communites with a more direct focus on social networking. The three specific sites below will be looked at more indepth:
www.facebook.com
www.twitter.com
www.bebo.com
These social networking sites have a main focus of encouraging interaction between people around the globe. However there are some differences between the sites too.
Facebook:
Facebook is a site which allows people to have a profile about themselves, providing their basic details and their interests. It allows people to get in touch with friends all around the globe, chat directly with friends who are online and post comments or photos on what they have been doing.
Twitter:
Twitter is a site which allows you to 'follow' people, this can be friends, businesses, celebrities, basically anyone who interests you, as well as posting your own comments and updates if you wish.
Bebo:
Bebo is similar Facebook as it is again more centred around each individual having a profile about themselves and sharing images and conversations.
Each of these sites are about people keeping contact around the globe so it is easy to see that they are all very interactive sites. Facebook and Bebo are very similar in the way that people merely contribute information about themselves and their interests whereas Twitter can also have businesses advertising their latest deals and offers.
Majority of people use these website communities in order to keep in touch with friends or family, or even meet new people. The main reason why people contribute is as it is a form of free communication when perhaps there is no other alternative. People are generally just seeking contact with other people, usually friends or family. Information on Facebook and Bebo can be considered reciprocal as most comments are between 2 or more people. However, with Twitter the idea is more about 'following' a person, business etc and therefore it can be considered less reciprocal as the information is generally given without reply from followers.
Examples of content shared on Facebook, Bebo and Twitter are provied below
This was a post on Facebook from a friend of mine, it is a great example of how people can let their friends know what they have been doing:
"has been just been offered the opportuninty of a life time and is rather excited to be leaving new zealand in 10 days and heading for belgium :) roll on some good times"
Similarly to the above post this is a post from one friend to another in a Bebo conversation, this is a great example of how social networking can keep people in touch:
"Hey havnt seen u in ages, will be in Invercargill this weekend if u wna catch up."
Lastly, this is a post on Twitter of the celebrity Britney Spears to keep her fans updated on what she has been doing and her latest work.
"Love this promo created by LaceLProductionz. What do you guys think? -Brit"
It is easy to see that there are ethical issues with sites like these as information can be taken from the sites and added to other places on the internet, or people can create fake identities and illicit information from people through those identities.
Online communities such as the three communities looked at above do provide some benefits in comparison to traditional geographical communities. Firstly, online communities can actually compliment traditional communities as it can provide furthur communication between members of that community. It can also allow contact of people living large distances away from each other, and allows people to connect with those who share common interests but may have otherwise never met each other. These are the main benefits however there are many other underlying benefits also.
Despite the benefits we have described above it is also important to note that there are disadvantages to online communites too, perhaps an important one to note is that not all people have access to internet and therefore are not given the opportunity to use these sites. Also, as talked about earlier, people can misuse these communities with or without other people knowing e.g creation of fake identities. Lastly, people can often begin to rely on these online communities which means they begin to interact less in their geographical community.
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