Conversation, Community, and Facebook

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by 3894

Can you handle clicking Love buttons?

You threw out this nugget just for me, didn't you? You're such a sweetie!

[3894]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

You threw out this nugget just for me, didn't you? You're such a sweetie!

[Alex]

Just last night I didn't comment on someone's post because it was going to make a comment about my grandmother I'd really rather her not see.

Now, I know there is no way my grandmother, or anybody else in my family would ever directly read that person's post but it being Facebook and me not knowing how this other person has their privacy set, I can't be sure that Facebook won't post on a family members' news feed directly to show them what I said.

That more than anything prevents me from being particularly open unless I am writing it directly on my own wall.

[scaeagles]

As if it isn't obvious, I'm rarely posting here any longer. I don't have a facebook account, I've never tweeted nor read a tweet, have heard of instagram but am not really sure what it is.....as others have posted in this thread I just don't have time for social media. I do come here and read but find I don't have much time to put together any coherent or relevant thoughts to the conversation. Except here, I suppose. And coherent and relevant are in the eye of the beholder anyway.

[lindyhop]

I like Twitter but I use it for following people I don't know who have interesting things to say. And so I can find out that the pope has resigned from Death Star PR.

Facebook basically sucks but it's where I can have some semblance of connection to a circle of acquaintances in the dance world. And see photos of my grandkids when their parents find time to post. But it's so hard to filter and see what you want to rather than every random bit of dreck to inhabit the internet.

I would like to use LoT to post things that I'm not comfortable posting on Facebook, for example whiny complaints about dancing that I'd prefer my dance friends not see. But I usually forget or decide no one wants to see all that anyway.

I really don't see Facebook (and especially not Twitter) as places for conversations. Do people have conversations? Look up from their smart phones and everything?

[Gn2Dlnd]

I'm glad to see this thread! I joined FB reluctantly back in September, so, only 7 months ago. Really good for quick hits on things, but I've missed the depth and breadth of the LoT social experience. FB is great for party invitations, and clever things George Takei is re-posting. In fact, in the spirit of the youtubery thread, I think I'll start a Takei Takeaway thread...

[Alex]

If I'm reading the main page correctly, this is the first post here in almost two days.

Somebody check Facebook to see if it is holding a bloody knife.

[Stan4dSteph]

Google+ has communities now.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Stan4dSteph

Google+ has communities now.

Still experimenting with that one...

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Wired UK has an article readers of this thread may find interesting.
Online disinhibition and the psychology of trolling

Here's just a small portion:

Common wisdom dictates that people are more aggressive, rude and forthright online because they're anonymous and can act as unpleasantly as they like without immediate consequence. If you're irritating in real life you risk at best social sanctions and at worst a physical assault. There's definitely evidence that points to anonymity as a factor, especially in the internet's early years when IRC, Usenet and message boards were the norm, but nowadays Facebook commenting has added a personal touch, seemingly without significantly curbing the aggression.

Psychologist John Suller wrote a paper on this in 2004, entitled "The Online Disinhibition Effect", where he explored six factors that could combine to change people's behaviour online. These are dissociative anonymity ("my actions can't be attributed to my person"); invisibility ("nobody can tell what I look like, or judge my tone"); asynchronicity ("my actions do not occur in real-time"); solipsistic Introjection ("I can't see these people, I have to guess at who they are and their intent"); dissociative imagination ("this is not the real world, these are not real people"); and minimising authority ("there are no authority figures here, I can act freely"). The combination of any number of these leads to people behaving in ways they wouldn't when away from the screen, often positively -- being more open, or honest -- but sometimes negatively, abusing their fellow internet users in ways they wouldn't dream of offline.

Internet psychologist Graham Jones believes that to a certain extent the kind of aggressive behaviour often seen online happens in the real world. "Having said that, there is a feature of the online world that makes such negative behaviour more likely than in the real world," he says. "In the real world people subconsciously monitor the behaviour of others around them and adapt their own behaviour accordingly... Online we do not have such feedback mechanisms."