So through all of these readings I have been thinking about the friending process. I have also been thinking about how well I know the people in this class, SSP 402. And to be honest as soon as I friended someone on facebook and was able to finally see a picture, I was able to feel that I knew everyone a little bit better. For those who did not post pictures, somehow that equates to me still not feeling like I know you. I do not know why a picture makes that much of a difference. I think it has to do with the fact that with a picture I have at least some confidence that if I saw you randomly I would be able to pick you out of a crowd. But if I do not have a picture I could potentially have a whole interaction with you and not even realize that I had a class with you.
So then I start to think about why people do not want to post pictures. Boyd discusses in her Social Network sites articles the idea that your list of friends on a social network is your imagined audience. So then this makes me think that for some reason people do not want their imagined audience to see certain sides of them. I am also thinking that online I am more egocentric than most of the rest of the class. I am the only one to post a picture on this blog. I am not sure why, but as soon as I was setting up my profile that was one of the first things I thought of doing. But no one else did. What are the differences in how we are perceiving our 'imagined audiences?'
I was also trying to understand the differences between friends online and friends in RL. As I was searching the web I came across a site that talks about how making friends online is a lot easier than making friends in RL. Being friends online in a social network has less meaning and therefore it is easier to make that jump. This is backed up by Boyd's article on 'Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8.' She talks about how there are many different reasons that people make friends online. Some include actual friends, but others include simply trying to make as many friends as possible, and that its easier to accept someone than deny them [p. 8 of 20]. Anyway back to this site that I found. It is promoting the idea of making friends online over RL because it is easier. What do others think of this?
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Christina,
I definitely agree that it is much easier "friending" someone over Facebook than in RL because it minimizes the element of rejection. Throughout the course of this semester we have discussed ideas like the disinhibition effect in which people feel more bold online and will engage in behavior that they normally would not offline. However, it seems inaccurate to compare establishing friendships online and offline. It may be easier to acquire friends in Facebook because it is forced. In RL, we do not ask people to be our friends, that would seem desperate...we simply spend time with a person and gradually build a friendship. Since this is not necessary to cultivate a relationship on Facebook, it has less meaning attached to it. Therefore, it is both easier to request and accept friends.
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