After reading "Friends, Friendsters, and Top 8," I wanted to discuss my own opinion on friendship on and offline. Being friends with someone on a social network site is not the same as being friends with someone in person. Being friends with someone face to face requires a mutual feeling of respect and likeness whereas the Internet does not. Online, one does not have to put forth any effort in a "friendship" other than accepting, declining, or sending a friend request.
While this article is slightly outdated, most of us have experienced the MySpace phenomenon. Posting photos, posting bulletins, and making profile changes were all part of daily Internet life. But what about your Top 8 Friends? Did this affect you at all? Was there drama in your real life friend circle because of MySpace? Personally, I was not negatively affected by any Top 8 Friends drama, but I've certainly heard some stories. I find the idea of posting your Top 8 Friends to be ridiculous and find it even more ridiculous that people chose to get worked up about it. Why did it matter? This topic was taken far too seriously by many. Popular social networks today such as Facebook and Twitter have eliminated the idea of a Top Friends group. Regardless of this, many social network users, including myself, still are Internet Friends with people they do not speak with in person. I believe this is because just as the article suggests, "it is easier to say yes than no" when presented with an Internet Friend Request.
I like that you chose to talk about online versus offline friends. I am very picky when I choose who can and cannot be my friend on my Facebook. I sometimes wonder why people decide to be friends online with someone they never met. Maybe it is because they have mutual friends? It still seems odd to be willing to share personal information about yourself to people you've never met. However, if you look at the positive side, this is a way to make one's network much larger with people who live in areas that would be out of reach IRL.
ReplyDelete