The Fragility of Social Networking

04.28.08

By John C. Dvorak

The history of online social networking would make for an interesting book. It's all the rage nowadays as if it were something new, but in fact social networking was already in play everywhere in the early 1980s, when the Web was dominated by the Source, CompuServe, and various homebrew BBS systems.

Although the form was somewhat different than it is today, there is still one common factor linking the social networks of 1980 and 2008: fragility. Fragility has always been the real threat to social networks of any sort, especially when they claim to create a community.

I just joined Twitter and was reminded of its fragility when I posted a comment (or "Tweet") that said if Britney Spears began to use such a network she would bring it down. Someone responded that if the system actually became popular, the current group of users would all have already moved on to the next big thing. He was right.

User fickleness is a big player and contributes to a social network's fragility, but almost anything can blow up one of these online "communities."

And so we come to my tale of social networking circa 1980 or so. The Source had a pioneering social network called PARTI, short for "participate." More like a newsgroup than a chat room, it centered around the creation of early virtual communities. This was during the formative years of social networking, when chat rooms like CompuServe's were modeled after CB radio. CompuServe even named its chat service "CB Simulator," and users would routinely chat in CB truck driver lingo. Everything was an experiment.

PARTI had a large and lively community of virtual pals not unlike those communities that exist on Second Life today. One of these groups was particularly active and jacked up. Most of the group's membership was from the San Francisco Bay Area, and one of its leaders was a woman who called herself Deedub—a not uncommon name in online circles for some reason or other. Her real name was used, too, and one day that name emerged in the local papers in connection with some illegal activity. This caused a stir in the virtual community, but she was defended without question because she was their friend. They knew her, after all, if only online.

One or two group members remained skeptical, though, hounding the group with news reports that indicated that this Deedub was some sort of criminal and that her persona on the PARTI group was a pack of lies. The group quickly split into two factions: a huge alliance of supporters and a very small minority who were critical of her, and critical of the group for being blinded by her malarkey and fake friendship.

It didn't take long for what was once a community of well-wishers and pals to evaporate almost overnight as this Deedub person, as I recall, was about to end up in jail. And the reports in the paper were clear: She was not who they thought she was. This small betrayal was all it took for the entire group to fall apart fast.

Somewhere I still have the entire transcript of this mess as it unfolded. I could just see the underpinnings give way, and I got the immediate sense that this so-called community was a sham to begin with. Over time I've concluded that all these online communities are weak in this way.

Sure, maybe you actually do get to know a few people, and it's certainly true that people do meet through online chats and even get married. I know at least four couples personally who met online and got married. But hooking up is not a community. I'm of the opinion that there is no such thing as a real community online. It's a "pretend" community that we like to feel we're a part of, but it's composed of users who could jump ship at any moment, and often do.

Thus LiveJournal becomes MySpace, which morphs into Facebook, which will morph into something else yet again. That's less apparent with this trio, since they also act as vanity Web sites and serve other noncommunity purposes. But everyone knows that these systems are flaky and their users fickle.

So their real value is transitory. A social network might have 50 million users, and those users are worth something, but that 50 million can fall to 10,000 just as easily as it can zoom to 100 million.

With this in mind, how valuable are any of these social networking sites? I can assure you that fragility is never factored in. And of course this has never been studied, and nobody even wants to talk about it.

A good online community, whether it's Second Life, Twitter, or something new, is indeed fun to belong to if you have the time or inclination. But please do not take it seriously, and never believe that you're part of a true community. Get out of your house, and you'll find the community out there in the street. That's real.

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Cordially,
Rush

elrushbo2@theobviousgmail.com
Remove the obvious...

Gee.......in my day it was called 'bowling'.......ever roll a '300'?

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

Not sure your point here..any community can behave that way..online or not..people can be wrong about people anywhere. It's just a little easier to pretend to be something you are not over the internet.

..for some reason I was reminded of the jolly italian man who owned the deli next to my dad's shop for many years. He looked like Super Mario and often fed scraps to my dad's dog. He was so jolly and nice.

Then one day he was arrested because he was actually an armed robber on the run from the Italian police for murder.

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Reality Internet Personality

It's just a little easier to pretend to be something you're are not over the internet.

You can dress a bum in a suit, but he will still behave like a bum... ;)

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It may not be 1984 but George Orwell sure did see the future . . .

It's just a little easier to pretend to be something you're are not over the internet.

You can dress a bum in a suit, but he will still behave like a bum... ;)

Hey.......don't bust my Kittyman cover..........

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

It's just a little easier to pretend to be something you're are not over the internet.

You can dress a bum in a suit, but he will still behave like a bum... ;)

If you or I try to dress a so called "bum" in a suit then I am sure they will continue to be a "bum"..

... but if they dress themselves in a suit....

then you will see the difference...


People say 'beggars should not be choosers'..
. (They should just accept what they are given.)

... but if beggars are not choosers how will they become something different?



On the internet communication is complex and not so easy but we do it here on SETI.

It's a different form of conversation. Different rules to a degree.

... but here we are communicating.


.

It's just a little easier to pretend to be something you're are not over the internet.

You can dress a bum in a suit, but he will still behave like a bum... ;)

If you or I try to dress a so called "bum" in a suit then I am sure they will continue to be a "bum"..

... but if they dress themselves in a suit....

then you will see the difference...


People say 'beggars should not be choosers'..
. (They should just accept what they are given.)

... but if beggars are not choosers how will they become something different?



On the internet communication is complex and not so easy but we do it here on SETI.

It's a different form of conversation. Different rules to a degree.

... but here we are communicating.


.

And that's a good thing........we got a lotta bums in nice suits in office....

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster

we got a lotta bums in nice suits in office....

That was my point! No offense was intended towards 'bums'...

As I watch my life dwindle into oblivion at the hands of others, I would NEVER blame a 'bum' for their misfortune... ;)

(I'm sure when they find me dead in a ditch, they will all ask themselves 'could we have done more?'... WELL YES! HOW ABOUT A JOB!)

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It may not be 1984 but George Orwell sure did see the future . . .

And relations created in cyberspace are fragile as well. Real commitment can only be created in real life.

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"I'm trying to maintain a shred of dignity in this world." - Me

And relations created in cyberspace are fragile as well. Real commitment can only be created in real life.

I have to agree... though my best friends in real life are people I first met online.

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Account frozen...

And relations created in cyberspace are fragile as well. Real commitment can only be created in real life.

I think I'll just stick to being screwed in cyberspace... ;)

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It may not be 1984 but George Orwell sure did see the future . . .

Well you are so very good at it!

Don't get too attached, the funds are dwindling, and the communities of america have cut me off... ;)

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It may not be 1984 but George Orwell sure did see the future . . .

Well you are so very good at it!

Don't get too attached, the funds are dwindling, and the communities of america have cut me off... ;)

Time to go somewhere else?

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Reality Internet Personality

Time to go somewhere else?

Naw, I'm way too tired for that... Not to mention, I've already seen enough to know what the future holds... I thought about prancing down the streets of Baghdad after curfew with a Bible in one hand and a Qur'an in the other just to see who will shoot me first... Might as well at least let some lucky soldier get a medal of honor out of the event... ;)

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It may not be 1984 but George Orwell sure did see the future . . .

I just lluuuuvbs how people that advocate 'anarchism' simultaneously advocate statism.

It gives me giggles over breakfast when I'm perplexed why mankind ever invented egg cups in the first place.

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!

Speak of the devil! ;)

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It may not be 1984 but George Orwell sure did see the future . . .

Speak of the devil! ;)

I won't speak for you, Jeffrey.......

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Founder of BOINC team Objectivists. Oh the humanity! Rational people crunching data!
I did NOT authorize this belly writing!