Social Networks have been around since before the internet itself. Ever since computers could connect to each other, so did the users at each end. The social networking heavyweights of today such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ are just latest products of a long (and vicious) evolution of the genre. I’ve always had this sort of love-hate relationship with social media and as the products evolve so too are my feelings evolving into a love-to-hate attitude.
The Evolution of the Social Network
The roots of social media can be traced back to the late 70’s with the birth of the Usenet system which let users read and post messages/articles to one or more categories (newsgroups), similar to modern-day forums. Usenet systems sparked the development of newsreader clients which are themselves the precursors of today’s RSS feed readers.
Shortly after Usenet, the first Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) started coming online which were initially hosted on personal computers. Users could dial-in on the computer’s modem to gain access to the BBS and could leave messages or upload files on the host computer. A major drawback of these systems was the fact that the number of concurrent users accessing the BBS was limited by the number of phone lines available. This generally meant that only one user at a time could access the BBS.
Next came online services and Instant Messaging. The pioneer of instant messaging was the (initially) UNIX-based Internet Relay Chat (IRC), developed in 1988. Users could send messages and share files through IRC in real time, something which was not possible on BBSs. IRC also introduced the idea of chat ‘channels’ and private-messaging and is still somewhat in use today. Although IRC clients are now available for most platforms, the first instant messaging programs for PCs was ICQ which proved extremely popular when first released. SPAM and privacy issues however all but killed it off in the US and Western Europe, but despite its shortcomings, it remains popular in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Some consider dating sites as the birth of social networks but the first real modern-day social network was Six Degrees, launched in 1997. Unlike its contemporaries, Six Degrees allowed its users to create comprehensive profiles and add people as friends - essential features of a modern social network. There were/are numerous others: LiveJournal, Hi 5, LinkedIn, MySpace and of course FaceBook and Twitter. Google is also running beta tests of Google+, which promises to be the next big thing in social networking.
Why so many? From the outset it was apparent that social media was a powerful thing, but social media projects are also some of the most volatile out there. Six Degrees was launched in 1997 and perished in 2001, but went out of fashion even before that. In just 4 years, it went from launch to shut-down, such is the vicious nature of the social media phenomenon. Sites like Hi 5 and MySpace also lost most of their popularity. Why? Users are quick to switch from one system to the next just to gain that extra feature or keep with the latest trends. Loyalty means next to nothing in this environment, it's all about trends and the next big thing. Failure to stay ahead of the game (and keep users interested) spells the loss of your user-base in a matter of months if not weeks.
My Perspective
There's no denying Social Networks are great but I'm hardly what you could call a fan of the things. I don't have a facebook or twitter account and I only have a Google+ account because Google created it for me! Funny thing is it's hard for me to explain why I'm not inclined to have such accounts. It's got nothing to do with age, profession or social standing - social networks are made up of people from all walks of life. I guess privacy issues are a part of the problem. Personally, I never feel the need to share a photograph of myself with the rest of the world - no matter how 'private' a system portrays itself to be - but that is still something I can control, it's my choice. What gets me is the fact that you may feature in someone else's photograph, even in the background, someone recognizes you and suddenly you're tagged - which is something you have no control over. It's also hard to be sure who's on the other side unless of course chatting live using a web cam.
I'm also perplexed at how people can be so reserved in person but all inhibitions are out the window the minute they're on-line. This behavior begs another question. Why do we find it so easy (and feel so uninhibited) in sharing personal information on the net but then find it so hard to open up to people (in person) and build relationships?
Another issue that bothers me is the fact that these systems tend to become addictive. I have plenty of friends that cannot go an hour without checking their accounts let alone a day. I vividly remember an episode which at the time made me laugh: I was giving a course on web design to a class of teenage students some time ago. Come lunch time of the first day I simply said "You may go outside and have your lunch now" and the whole class instantly loaded up their browsers and logged onto Facebook. Some of them took out their lunch and to eat and when I pointed out that no food or drink was allowed in the lab, most of them just put their lunches back in their bags! This happened for the rest of the one-week course. Most of the class never bothered to eat.
It's not all bad however. Social networks are a great way of keeping in touch with distant loved ones for example or long lost friends. There is no denying that they take communication to a whole other level. But at what cost? Maybe I'm being paranoid but aren't these companies in a position to build complete profiles of their user base, habits, likes, dislikes, personal histories... personalities even? Given today's powerful data analysis methods it's not hard to imagine how these companies can exploit this data - which we are all too happy to supply - to their advantage. Personally, I find that invasive and too high a price for the sake of keeping in touch.
Conclusion
I guess it's just me against the world :)
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Your experience of students not leaving the class is so true. I am finding this a lot lately. Normally, when we stop for break, everyone runs out - now they just load up their browsers.
Interestingly, some of the more disruptive students are giving me less trouble because when they are bored and need attention they log into facebook and annoy the virtual world instead of my class....