Facebook makes people more social, shows research of University of Texas, presented by S. Craig Watkins
Facebook makes people more social?
Social media websites such as Facebook do not weaken personal ties, they strengthen them in unique ways for different age groups, according to a new study.
“Our findings suggest that Facebook is not supplanting face-to-face interactions between friends, family and colleagues,” said S. Craig Watkins, an associate professor of radio, TV and film who headed the research team.
“In fact, we believe there is sufficient evidence that social media afford opportunities for new expressions of friendship, intimacy and community.
“There is a noteworthy difference in orientation in how to use a tool like Facebook. We found that for women the content tends to be more affectionate, and (they) are especially interested in using it for connection,”
“For men, it’s more functional,”
Watkins pointed out that, for example, women are more likely to post pictures of social gatherings with friends, while men are more likely to post pictures of hobbies, or post a political or pop-culture related link.
He added that increased use of Facebook brings additional challenges as young adults are forced to adapt their Facebook behavior to an increasingly large social circle.
“Facebook brings all our different networks and social scenes together. We present ourselves in different ways, whether to friends, co-workers, or family,” he said. “Facebook engagement is not uniform. It’s constantly evolving and in a state of flux, and that presents a challenge.”
source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6AM5VG20101123
Challenge? Of course, could not agree more. It is challenge in terms of adaptation and making right conclusions. I would just call the phrase of “sufficient evidence” of this 900 college students panel. I would say this data is accurate for students, people of certain age and social status. It would be diffrent for younger people, for people without higher education, for single parents etc. So it isn’t the research itself, it is panel, group of the people on which they have based their research. So yes, I would question this results, expecialy when they are published with headlines like “Facebook makes people more social”. People will not read what was the panel group, or what was researchers concerns, they will just read headlines and stop paying attention to any other issues rising together with social networks. Anything which couses people stop listening, stops the discussion, and that is, from the assumption, not beneficial to science. I do agree social networking sites are beneficial, especially for shy people, whom are finding difficult to socialize, but also at the same time it is addictive and dangerous area. At the same time it is rising new types of social issues which we haven’t learned yet, and we do not know how to handle them. So I would NOT definitely say it is good for all of us. It might be beneficial, but when such statement appears on news, it couses that people will ignore any other issues highlighted regarding social networking sites, as “they don’t have to worry about it”. It is simple problem of showing just a part of the story, and I can put 5 euro on that Mr Craig will agree with my opinion.
See related articles:
Narcissists+people with lower self-esteem=Facebook addicts
Tim Berners-Lee: The Web is threatened by Google and Facebook
Face-To-Face contact linked to biological changes in Humans
Online networking ‘harms health’
Negative impact of Internet on society
Lack of established conventions (1996)
Social consequence of Internet use (2002) by James E. Katz and Ronald E. Rice
The problem isn’t Internet; it’s what Internet helps us to do.
