"Sites like Facebook are failing us because they do not do the thing that social networks are designed to do, namely: network. Websessed students spend their Facebook time keeping up with the infintesimal details of their acquaintances' lives through the egomanically titled News Feeds. Call it stalking, procrastinating or friend collecting, it doesn't build real connections...the bigger problem with Facebook et all...is that current sites assume that everyone in your life is on one happy network.
"Part of the problem is a numberg game. Oft-cited anthropological research puts the maximum effective group size at 150, known as the Dunbar number. Some groups - religious congreations, books clubs - splinger off when their numbers get too high for members to bond. Facebook does not."
An Unmanageable Circle of Friends
by Monica Hesse
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082400481.html
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2 comments:
I think it all depends on the user. Most people have lots of numbers stores in their cellphones, lots of email addresses in the address books. But most people are not natural networkers. For someone who is a natural networker (like yours truly), tools like myspace and facebook are really helpful! There is no other way I'd be able to keep up with my friends all around the country.
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