When
I hear the term social networking sites I am immediately inclined to think of
all of them as serving the same purpose- as a medium and facilitator for
communicating with others. Yet, each social networking site is not made
equal; each has developed its own particularities that set it apart from the
rest.
The
article "Who's Driving Twitter's Popularity? Not Teens" very
accurately defines Twitter to what I think it is. It states that Twitter
is best for broadcasting ideas or questions and answers to the outside world
rather than staying in touch with acquaintances. I signed up for Twitter
because this class required me to and instantly I began receiving emails with
news of what is being tweeted that might be of interest to me and what is popular.
Now, these suggestions come from what others are following, which can and can’t
be of any interest to me. Despite this, I noted that what dominates is
"a network where content is mostly public" whereas a social network
"is optimized for friend communication." Moreover, Twitter lets
you search keywords that turn up whatever is of your interest, whether it be a
job posting, a company anything really. Thus, one can join by tweeting or
follow. In addition, the concept of retweeting solidifies the notion that
Twitter is more for broadcasting and marketing. The mere fact that
communication happens at such a large scale and reach is made that much more
possible through retweets.
Unlike
Twitter, Facebook is of a different makeup. I think that Facebook is
better at keeping in touch with friends and acquaintances because it is more
private. When I say private I mean it in comparison to Twitter.
Facebook is structured completely differently, one doesn't follow, one
has friends/family. Moreover, although many people and corporations have
Facebook pages it does not have the same functionality that Twitter does.
Each medium can accomplish different things due to its structure. I
feel that Facebook is more "rooted", maybe a bit limited, and not as
quick as Twitter. However, this is how it was designed to be- somewhat
more meaningful and not passing.
On
the other hand, when I visited MySpace, something which I had not done for
years, I was reminded why I stopped using it. My profile remains the same
as when I first joined, empty and without a profile picture. I find that
MySpace simply lags and didn't achieve what Facebook was able to excel at-
optimizing friend communication. Now, the idea behind MySpace is somewhat
similar to that of Facebook, in fact, I don't know what the difference really
is. One has a profile, which is actually more customizable than that of
Facebook, who has a consistent unified "look". In addition, on
a MySpace page one can have more information about oneself visible.
Despite all this, I find it uninteresting and a poorer means of
communicating with others.
I
was inclined to create a hi5 account a few years ago and revisited it today.
Just as with my MySpace visit, I felt compelled to log off. Hi5 is
another social networking site more similar to Facebook than MySpace is.
I had never heard of it until I traveled back home and found out that in
order to keep up with my family back there I had to get one. To my
fortune, they have all "upgraded" to Facebook, but Twitter still is a
completely uncharted territory for them. Hi5 is like a mash up of My
Space and Facebook, but it too lacks the ease of use and doesn't function well
as a facilitator of communication. Yet, when I logged in I was noted one
aspect that made me think that hi5 was an early indicator of what Twitter is
now. This site encourages public exchange and communication; it also
makes completely random out of nowhere suggestions like MySpace does. I
believe this is because it sought to truly create a network amongst people.
Each
of these sites has a different structure and given it is better at it than
others. Although they are all social networking sites I feel that in a
sense, just like a corporation has a corporate culture, so to do these sites.
Moreover, as we have seen via Twitter, short hands have developed on
their own given the nature of how things occur in that website.
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