Major Studio: Adieu to you

My final project for all to enjoy….below is the abstract and below that the link for the pdf.

ABSTRACT
Online social networks are useful tools in terms of building and maintaining social connections and exchanging information in an online arena. This paper outlines the journey of a false Facebook profile from conception to eventual banishment. The project’s initial goals sought to gain popularity through the creation of a fake profile for rain boots, and based on the connections formed, draw comparisons between friendships online versus offline. The latter part of the paper focuses on the technicalities of Facebook user politics and network policies, as well as criticism of the aforementioned.

to read the whole paper…majorstudio_finalpaper.pdf

works-cited.pdf

Major Studio: Final Project, part three

Write a narrative description of the project(s). What is it, who is it designed for, what is it designed to do, what kind of technology does it explore, why should we care about it, where will we see or what is the project’s life beyond the classroom, how does it make a difference?

Social networks allow users to create profiles, exchange information, and connect to other users on the network. Each network has it’s own set of rules (i.e. permissions to view profiles), and specific unwritten social dynamics. In fact, it is not uncommon for a person to have and maintain profiles on more than one social network site. Despite the information exchange and other features of these sites, many people use these networks to “friend” other users by connecting to them, essentially creating a personalized web of connections, or a digital network of real life friends and acquaintances.

I was interested in how and why these connections are made. Three hours after creating my account, I received a friend request from a girl I had attended high school with, and had not seen since graduation. We were not friendly then, and we are not friends now, at least not in the real world. It seems bizarre that I can be friends with someone on facebook, and just having that connection gives me access to the intimate details of their life: relationship status, religious views, private photographs, etc. However, outside the realm of the digital world, that kind of exchange of information would never occur.

Perhaps “friending” people on facebook is less about the actual meaning of the connection, and more about making as many connections to acquaintances as possible. It begins to take on a hunt and gather mentality, where “friends” are made, and connections forged for the sake of building a network that supplies a user with endless opportunities to obtain information. After all, humans are social creatures, and it is an innate desire to belong to a group or community; the need to have connections with others is nothing new.

However, maybe it is more than forming a connection. I think it is also a way of gaining attention, as in hey, look at my profile, come see what I’ve been up to. Essentially the profiles people make for themselves on these social networks are carefully edited versions of their real world selves, a representation. This means that social networks should technically be a representation of the way friendship works in the real world.

But how much like the real world are these social networks? I’ve already stated that there are people in my friend pool that I would not consider an actual friend, or someone I would spend any time with in the real world. And, if I bumped into one of these people on the street, I certainly would not go into whom I am dating or show them pictures that I had recently taken. From there, the person would not be able to select a person from one of those photos and immediately “click-through” to get their bio and information.

With the invention of the online profile came the invention of the online self. The Internet has become a place where 60% of the content is created and driven by personal users. This means that not only are we are editing the content of the web, but we also have begun to edit ourselves as well. These online selves are caricatures, mere snapshots, but they are nonetheless a powerful form of self-representation.

Ultimately what I want from my project is to explore the nature of these online friendships and their meaning in relation to offline, real world connections. In a digital world where the social network rules, and anyone can be famous or popular simply by hunting and gathering friends on the Internet, how does one begin to gauge the authenticity and meaningfulness of these click-through friendships? As digital friendships become the social norm, how do those connections translate into the real world, and how does that, if at all, affect non-digital friendships? How far are people willing to go to gain friends or popularity on these websites? What determines the kinds of “people” that users are willing to friend? How does one not only obtain, but also maintain popularity? What aspect of the profile is the most important: wittiness, photos, interests, number of other friends?

I plan to create two MySpace profiles: one for my red rain boots, and one for a person. In order to make friends, I intend to take the same approach: requesting and accepting all friends. I want to see which profile is more successful in terms of popularity; the person versus the inanimate object. There is already an ample amount of pseudo-profiles for non-real people, either promotional characters, objects, or famous historical figures such as Albert Einstein, so I know the rain boots have a good chance at gaining friends.

It will be designed for users of that specific social network to see what makes someone a desirable friend. Because the social network already exists, all I have to do is take photos, set up, and maintain both profiles. I hope the project will help me understand the relation between online and offline relationships, more specifically the legitimacy of online connections, and popularity online versus offline.

Major Studio: Final Project, part one

Explore Personal Motivations/Interests

Questions and/or Motivations:Make a list of 2-4 primary questions that explain what it is that you are trying to discover. OR, illustrate the primary motivations for your work with design and technology. Your primary questions or motivations may contain a set of sub-questions/motivations as well.

With the invention of the online profile came the invention of the online self. The internet has become a place where 60% of the content is created and driven by personal users. When applied to my topic, this essentially means that we are no longer editing content on the web, but ultimately we have begun to edit ourselves as well. These online selves are caricatures, mere snapshots, but they are nonetheless a powerful form of self representation.

1. In a digital world where the social network rules, and anyone can be famous or popular simply by hunting and gathering friends on the internet, how does one begin to gauge the authenticity and meaningfulness of these click-through friendships?

2. As digital friendships on social networks (especially those between people who will never meet in real life, but share personal info via the internet) such as mySpace become the social norm, what happens, if anything, to the value of non-digital friendships?

3. How far are people willing to go to gain friends or popularity on these websites? What determines the kinds of “people” that users are willing to friend?How does one not only obtain, but also maintain popularity?

4. What aspect of the profile is the most important: wittiness, photos, interests, number of other friends?

Domains: What are the domains/fields with which your project engages? List keywords, terms, phrases, concepts, industry-jargon, tags that illustrate these domains. What relationships exist between these domains? Illustrate the domains your project deals with in a venn diagram.

Major Studio: The death of me (part two)

And secondly…

Part II: Research and Analysis
Find, read, and analysis 3-5 online articles which discuss
innovations, triangulations, or cultural shifts cause or employed by
social networks. Summarize your findings into a 4-6 paragraph response
that captures points in the articles and your criticism of these
points. Focus on one or two networks in specific, not on “social
networking in general.”

Social networks are not a new thing, but they certainly are becoming increasingly more popular as it becomes more socially acceptable to surrender ones private life altogether.

However, social networks today extend beyond the social aspects of facebook and myspace. Upon closer examination of the social network phenomenon, one begins to see an extreme movement in the niche direction. Joining a social network is no longer about how many friends one has, or the desire to have the most entertaining profile, or the pressure to appear cool and worthy of a digital friendship, but rather, meeting and linking up with people who share them same interests. This includes for example, sites like dogster.com, motortopia.com, and sneakerplay.com. It’s seen as a way for people with a common passion to get in touch, form less shallow connections, and stay informed about what is going on in say the world of sneakers. Because the sites are smaller, it actually makes it easier to meet people and form meaningful bonds.

The niche realm has even begun to reflect the non-digital cutlure of all things celebrity…enter fafarazzi.com. It is a site that functions like a fantasy football league, but instead of drafting and trading pro athletes, members pick and choose among a list of ranked celebrites (think Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Paris Hilton), and points are given not based on touchdowns, but instead how many times their name appears in a blog entry. By bringing the love of the celebrity culture off the pages of a magazine and onto the internet in the form of a game solidifies the idea behind social networks like myspace: see and be seen. People do things on the internet with the intention of gaining attention, whether it be good or bad.

Large corporations are now jumping on the social network bandwagon, like Wachovia, which is planning on itroducing a social network for employees only. The network will be set up to create a database of all things Wachovia, from who works with who, who is responsible for what, and people’s location and status within the corporation. Wachovia believes that employees will be on personal social networks during the day, so why not introduce the idea of the social network into work. Ultimately, Wachovia hopes this will “boost top and botom lines by …making it easy for people to get together online and off, and harnessing the energy and information…is supposed to advance core business tasks including, sales, marketing and knowledge management.” If this social network does in fact come into fruition, then it would mean great changes in the way corporate companies operate day to day. Not only would they have a more complete picture or flow of information for workers to utilize, but it would be built the more and more the employees used it, so the only thing that would really need to be done is the construction of the actual site skeleton.What this kind of social network also creates, is the opportunity for workers to provide employers with the perfect opportunity to keep an eye on their every movement within the company.

What does this all mean though? In creating these completely open and non-private social networks, personal and work related, are internet users providing limitless entry into not only their friendships and whereabouts, but also their innermost thoughts? How is it beneficial to have no sort of private life? If everything is on the internet, then what happens to the meaning of friendship and real interaction in the non-digital world. Also, if people are known on the internet via their profile, a carefully edited version of themselves, the version they want other people to buy into, then what happens if the online self is challenged in the offline world? How will that effect job interviews who thought they were hiring your online profile?

articles:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdpcm/is_200709/ai_n20530504

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdpcm/is_200708/ai_n19463732

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BNG/is_2007_Jan_5/ai_n17095067

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20061017/ai_n16780166

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb337/is_200611/ai_n18831882

Major Studio: The death of me (part one)

As per this homework assignment, I have actually joined facebook…if you look my status should say that I’m currently looking for my dignity while you read this blog entry…… 

Part 1: Observation
Pick an interactive (online or mobile) social network that you are a part of. Or, pick a social network that you are not a part of but are curious about. Using observation, find parts of the interface or experience-design that promotes triangulation among individuals or groups online. Look for non-obvious observations.
List 4-8 examples.
Provide a screen-capture of each interface when possible.

1. While actually confirming frienships online, users are given the opportunity to specify how they met. One such option is the, “we met through facebook,” which means that people do in fact look at the profiles of people they don’t know and form friendships that way.

2. I love this example…Ariel, my best friend since childhood, met Drew, my friend from graduate school, once, for five minutes….and now they’re friends on facebook. Also below..a friend of mine posted photos from a recent dinner outing. I don’t know the people in his photos, but I can look at their profiles and request friendship.

3. One can choose a network they belong to and browse the network to link up to, or view the profiles of other people in that network.

4. Facebook gives people the option to determine how much information they want to post, such as contact: I can give out my phone number, email, aim, address, and website…..ew

5. The news feeds allow friends to see recent facebook activity, and I actually had a girl from high school request me as a friend after she saw that I friended another girl from high school.

6. A&B…In A, you can see that there are groups that strangers join to promote certain political, social, religious, etc. beliefs…this one is for Stephen Colbert..it has over a million members, and I’m pretty sure not all of them know each other…B shows that you can look at friends groups and join those and meet other people in the group that way as well.

7. Members of facebook can look up events to attend and meet other people from their network.