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New Google Research On Social Networks
mantis2009 writes "Paul Adams, a senior user experience researcher at Google, has posted a slideshow from a recent presentation that shows insightful research into how people use social networking technologies. The presentation describes several shortcomings of existing technology, and it highlights specific modalities that current technology (ahem, Facebook) gets wrong. Adams concludes that social networking applications are a 'crude approximation' of real-life social networks. 'People don't have one group of friends,' Adams research in several different countries shows that in reality, most people have between four to six groups of friends. He argues that social networking applications need to be built with that reality in mind."
I completely agree. I have to refuse friend requests from family and co-workers because I don't want them viewing my status/pictures. It would be great if I could post a status update to my "New York Friends Group", or share a picture album with my "Family Group".
You might say that facebook is killing independent george?
... girlfriends, wives.
Have gnu, will travel.
It goes beyond the problem of having different groups of friends. The problem is that in real life most people have many different personae. You would say and do things with your friends from college that you would never say or do in front of your boss, as the most obvious example.
IRL we put a lot of work into constructing and maintaining these different personae, and we do a lot of work to keep them separate.
With social networking as it is, that's all over. Even if you never participate in Facebook, you are probably tagged in dozens or even hundreds of photos, and the odds are pretty good that some of them show you doing things you wouldn't do in front of your boss.
So the question is, will we adapt the technology to allow the creation and maintenance of a variety of different personae, or will we adapt our own behavior so as to present one consistent, universally acceptable persona to the world?
I think many of us, particuarly the younger generation, are already doing the latter. In order to adapt to this, we have to adjust our expectations of people. Maybe as an employer, you just have to get used to being able to see pictures of your employees smoking weed at parties and so forth, and not let it bother you. However, until we adapt, it creates the problem that suddenly everything you say and do is potentially public (whether you participate in social media or not).
My site: Free Nature Pictures
Oh, and collectors. Lest I forget collectors. "Everyone in this department is on FB, so you need to join too". Thankfully not someone in management, so I could simply ignore him. Collectors can get aggressive. Think of how wild otherwise calm cool and collected old women can get when bidding at auctions for antiques. Same deal if you're related to someone or work with them and you've not friended them yet, how dare you.
Collectors are oddly enough closely related to the drama queens or sh!t stirrers or whatever you call them. They at least provide comic relief.
There is also a subset of very passive people on FB whom sign up and then refuse to use it, just accept all incoming friend requests and drive on. Not ready to toss it out, yet no longer willing to participate. The "hoarders" of the social networking scene. Can't use it, but can't throw it away either.
Last but not least I found some folks are on FB simply because they're crusaders in the worst sense, and they want to proselytize either religiously or politically. Doesn't matter if anyone cares or is offended, they're going to go on posting holy book quotes or fox news quotes until they get tired of doing it, which apparently takes years for some of them. Not really my cup of tea, but if it keeps them out of my face in real life, all the better.
With the exception of the folks I actually interact with outside of FB, I think I've now accurately categorized ALL of my ex-FB friends. It was fun, for awhile.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
The tool doesn't need to prompt you for "closeness level". It could just track who you post to, and then when you post a message or a photo, give you a list of contacts, and ask which ones you want to send to. It could sort the list based on frequency, and the people you are close to will filter to the top.
Share with (check all that apply):
[ ] Wife, Mary
[ ] Sister, Betty click here to check this one and everyone above
[ ] Dad, Bob click here to check this one and everyone above
[ ] Mom. Irma click here to check this one and everyone above
[ ] Cousin, Fred click here to check this one and everyone above
[ ] Distant Cousin, Joe click here to check this one and everyone above
Or for those of us with lots of friends/relatives it's a way to share information/gossip across a wider group of people than your immediate circle of people you see regularly, or people separated by distance, to find out what people have been up to, to see pictures of yours or others events. And then there's the fact that it makes organising social events a breeze, both mine or my friends and those by any of the dozens of club nights I might want to go out - people get an invitation, and only those who accept/say maybe get any of the further information that might be sent out.
Which I would imagine accounts for the vast majority of people using FB.
I don't want 'lists' of friends. I want an entire sandbox.
Right now I can say if friends can see my profile picture, albums, interests, or not.
I want to be able to set a profile picture, interests, etc for each group.
Right now the closest thing you're going to get is creating a whole new profile. My coworkers don't need to know I'm in an open relationship with my girlfriend or pictures of me on a Rugby tour.
That lame "interesting" mod should have been "insightful", IMO. Yes, I have circles of freinds. Ever notice that a joke which is hilarious in one circle sounds lame and stupid in another circle? Or, that one bit of data that seems very important to one group is meaningless to all your other freinds? Your wife couldn't care less about some mundane detail of your job, and your girlfriend cares even less. Whoops!!! Wife and girlfreind? You should have put them into two different groups to start with!!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br