A recent article on the BBC website about social networks which Cambridge university investigated on how Facebook can improve social skills contradicts my own belief. Having teenage children who communicate with me in a series of grunts, and minimal inforrmation I found it hard to believe that Facebook can help improve communication skills. However, when entering the study on an evening, I find said children engaged with any number of conversations with “friends”, chatting and sharing photographs, clips etc. Generally being nosy looking at people’s profiles and finding out information about them – amazing what some people will post about themselves. It seems virtual communication is easy, they do not feel inhibited chatting and striking up friendships with complete strangers. Compare that with putting them in a room of strangers (called relatives at Christmas get togethers) and they can barely string two words together!!
Online Social communities have a place in today’s society. A positive spinoff was my daughter starting Northumbria University in September went onto Facebook and found a Northumbria University Freshers online community. Through this she managed to locate fellow students she would be sharing a flat with when she started. The transition from home to student life with her new found friends and flatmates was easy .
A research paper publised in October 2008 by the Government regarding Online Social Networks quotes ” Instead of being limited to a network amongst peers within the schoolyard or workplace, social networking sites are increasingly allowing relationships to be built up with people right across the globe and from all walks of life. Inside these networks, people are now actively collaborating, creating new content and finding a global voice for themselves”
However, there are warnings to heed, how many parents are aware of just who their children are communicating with? There are serious lurkers out there who are only too charming and waiting to groom them into unwanted relationships. The Guardian published an article in April about this and The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre has drawn up legislation to make social sites highlight safety messages in a prominent position.
Like all communities they are made up of every level of humanity. The online social community may be virtual but it is a short step away from reality and making that step in “real time” communicatin.
Hello and Happy New Year
On line communities have there place in society but the actual need for humans to get together will always be a driving force.
Research has shown that people undertaking training and/or education on line have more chance of failing to complete when compared to those that have to meet up for their education/training.
I am sure that the use of facebook by students has brought about a change to their lives but is that change actually for the best or is it just another way for them to get lost in a world where they do not have to formally communicate with others.
The world is such a complex place that my fear is that we will lose the art of communication.
My first thoughts on “Online Social Communities” to me have always meant increased potential to introduce a virus onto my computer! Basically, because I have always viewed the computer as a “working tool”, and not my first preference for socialising.
However, in response to this blog, I decided to ask the question”why” to avid facebook users. The question was posed to a close friend who has moved to Nairn and has had very little involvement with computers. Facebook to her means global communication with relatives in Australia, where pictures and family news is shared, as well as re-gaining contact with old friends which otherwise would never have been found.
Both daughters are regular users of facebook. My eldest daughter and her partner cannot commute to the “roots” of their social community, as they do not have transport. However, she still feels part of that community through facebook as she is included in on all the news and “gossip”.
My youngest daughter who lives in America and misses home, actually speaks of facebook as more of a “life line”. She is living in a completely different culture and sometimes loses touch with her own identity. Old school friends on facebook who invite her to be “friends” bring England closer. Telecommunication and face to face meetings are not an option, but facebook connects her to a familiar part in her life that she does not want to lose touch with, and offers comfort when she is thousands of miles away.
It seems that I may have done facebook a great injustice as believing it to be a threat, when to possibly thousands of people that are spread all over the world it is a way of still feeling “part” of a family or community. And for some, an introduction after many years where life has taken them on opposite paths, a way to reunite friendships.
A network of support comes in many forms, and from only asking the question “why”, it seems that “facebook” is a bridge to a place they may not always be able to be in physically.
It would be a shame if facebook was misused by those few whose intentions are not sincere.
Like you I view online communities with suspicion but find I am gradually changing my mind through use of various communities on line such as Linked In a business network site and Facebook which enables me to keep in touch with all my children’s friends who are now spread the full length of the country at university. I am finding its a case of you can’t beat them join them and be part of a new global community communicating through these social networks.