Social Networking In Virtual Reality

The lure of social networking

The lure of social networking sites
 

    Technology makes it easy for everyone to connect with everyone. Now that virtual reality is all the rage, most people use it as a tool of social networking. The world is no longer separated by just 6 degrees of separation and I intend to show that the internet is a platform to forge connections with people from all walks of life. The social impact of this phenomenon and it’s implications for the future will also be looked at. My aim in choosing this topic is to show how technology has an impact on even something so close to us as humans; the friendships and relationships we have with others.

    Social networking websites are, for the most part, easy to use. Most sites are easy to navigate. In fact, many require little knowledge of the internet. In addition to being easy to navigate, social networking websites also make it easier to meet new people online. There are many internet users who would love to make new friends online; however, that can sometimes be difficult do. Without social networking websites, you would have to connect with internet users, often in chat rooms, and learn about their interests before deciding if you would like to consider them as someone you would like to forge a connection with. Social networking sites allow you to learn information about another internet user before ever having to make contact with them and this helps even the socially akward ones to make friends.
   

    Another one of the many reasons why social networking sites are popular is because many are free to use. In fact, the majority of social networking sites, such as MySpace and Yahoo! 360, are free to use. Despite being free to use, many websites require that you register with them. This registration will not only allow you to create your own profile or online webpage, but it will also allow you to contact other networking members.
 

    Although most social networking websites are free to use, there are some that are not. “Classmates” is one of those websites. Many of these websites give you a free trial period or a free membership. That membership can be used to help you determine whether or not the website is worth paying for. What is nice about paid online social networking websites is that many can be considered exclusive. Since most internet users would not want to pay for something that they can get for free, most paid social networking sites are limited on the number of members they have. This may work out to your advantage because it tends to eliminate those who create fake accounts or aim to cause controversy online.
 

    Social networking websites are also popular because they come in a wide variety of different formats. Websites like Yahoo! 360 and MySpace focus on a wide variety of different topics. This means that just about anyone can join. However, there are other social networking sites out there that have a particular focus. These focuses may be on a particular religion, political following, or hobby. Most specialty social networking sites restrict the individuals that can participate in their network; thus, making your experience more enjoyable.
 

    Finally, social networking websites focus on meeting new people, especially online, but over recent months, many have started including additional features only available to their online members. Many social networking members can receive their own free webpage, get free access to popular music videos, a free blog, and much more. Although social networking websites are popular enough to bring in members on their own, these additional features are, in a way, providing internet users with an incentive to join.
   

    I shall now proceed to do a case study of one of the more popular sites in Singapore to show how this technology works and it’s impact in changing the social landscape that is virtual reality.
 

FRIENDSTER

Some facts:

~Friendster is bigger today than ever before - there are over 50 million registered members visiting us from over 75 countries globally

~It is now the 14th largest website on the planet in terms of traffic

~ Friendster is a leading website in many Asian countries and is is now the #1 most visited site in the Philippines and the #2 most visited site in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia

~ Friendster is growing rapidly in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China

~ Over 45 thousand people have joined Friendster in the last 24 hours

~ Friendster continues to add new features and build a global community for friends to connect, share and network with one another

Friendster has recently launched:

- An all-new global Classifieds site

- Increased photo storage to 100 photos for every profile

- An easy way to "See Who's On" by checking your personal email address books

- Schools in over 10 NEW countries including: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, India, Malaysia, Norway, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, United Kingdom, and The United States

Social and technological implications of “Friendster"
 

    Headquartered in San Francisco, California, Friendster is backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Benchmark Capital, DAG Ventures and individual investors. Thus, this is not only a social networking tool but a business venture as well. This global phenomenon, which began in 2002 as a simple “social experiment” by entrepreneur Jonathan Abrams in Mountain View, California, has turned out to be the fastest-growing brand in Internet history by late 2003, it has become an integral part of the “Pinoy cyberculture” and contemporary pop culture.
 

    Such sites feel the pressure to constantly re-invent themselves to keep up to date with the daily improvements in technology. For example, some enhanced features of Friendster  include Customizable Profiles that lets users customize their profiles and express themselves through video, music, as well as Web languages like HTML or CSS; New Profile Page, an easy-to-use, re-designed profile page with a clean layout and advanced user interface; Featured Friends, which allows you to choose the top six friends you’d like to feature on your personalized profile image; Friend Tracker, A daily consolidated view of real-time updates about your friends, including birthdays, new photos, and other profile updates, shown right on your homepage; Subscriptions, to receive e-mail notifications about updates within your network; and Video, sharing video content with “one-click” from best-of-breed content providers including YouTube, Grouper and Sharkle.

    Friendster also introduces the fan profiles that allow real mavens to quickly and efficiently build their communities to promote celebrities, bands and other artists. This feature automatically sends several types of e-mails to fans, triggered by the fan profile owner’s activity. Friendster growing is also good for the entire Web 2.0 industry. There can be no downturn without a broad decline in user numbers across many sites. Friendster proves that despite strong, and some would argue superior competition, there’s still room for any Web 2.0 startup to grow, even in a crowded vertical marketplace. There is more Web 2.0 cake for everyone.        According to the statistics reflected on the chart, by May 07 the friendster page views have skyrocketed insinuating that although there might be some competition among the different sites, those who use friendster normally remain a regular patron of it even if they might have a “facebook” or a “myspace” account.

Comscore stats below:

The hazards: security and privacy concerns

    As MySpace and other social networking sites have grown new issiues have risen about Internet safety and privacy. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported more than 2,600 incidents of adults using the web to target children online in order to engage in sexual activity. In March, federal prosecutors in Connecticut charged two men with using MySpace to contact youths with whom they later had sexual contact. Following Congressional hearings about online sexual predators, MySpace hired a safety czar to improve the site's protections for young users.

    The popularity of social networking sites may also have unexpected consequences for users. A gay student attending a Christian college was expelled after administration officials viewed photos of the student in drag on Facebook. Twenty middle school students in California were suspended after participating in a MySpace group where one student allegedly threatened to kill another and made anti-Semitic remarks. In Kansas, authorities arrested five teenagers after one of the suspects used MySpace to outline plans for a Columbine-like attack on the boys' school.

    Gary Arlen, president of Arlen Communications, a Bethesda, Md., research and consulting firm, says MySpace users may also begin to shy away as they grasp the long-term consequences of putting up photos of wild parties or tales of sexual bravado. "This stuff may come back to haunt you 20 years from now. MySpace runs the risk of a social reaction, but that is part of being the pioneer."Despite those obstacles, he is enthusiastic about social networks' promise, although he says the sites' ultimate value is less clear-cut than other Internet successes, such as eBay and Amazon. "It may be that this is a very slow play because the existing sites, Friendster and now MySpace and Facebook, are building a habit among young users. It will become a part of how they operate in their 20s and 30s. This service will be part of the landscape."
 

Their fate in the future
 

Given their youthful fan base, social networking sites are vulnerable to being undermined by the next big thing in popular culture.

    However, there are strategies that social network sites can use to avoid becoming tomorrow's abandoned property. One way to retain a site's aura is to limit membership. For example, that when Diesel jeans faced the problem of losing marketing cachet by becoming too popular, the brand cut back on the number of outlets it would sell to. Facebook tries to limit itself to college students. Social networks seem to operate best when they strike a balance between heterogeneity, which provides large numbers of members, and selectivity, which keeps the hordes focused and engaged in the site. Social networking sites also should keep pace with technology and provide new features for example, fast downloads.
 

    As a web-based business, social networks do have some advantages over traditional companies in tracking user behavior in order to detect problems early. Some sites can measure and monitor the rate at which users join and as such can detect early warning signs, such as a drop off in the number of people interacting. This way they know when they need to re-invent their sites to keep their popularity up.
 

    Sites will need to remain subtle in their approach to marketing if they are to build on their current success. The word-of-mouth promotion is even more valuable than text ads. It could be that part of the popularity of these things is that they are more credible and not explicitly commercial. If people feel the networks are too corporate, that's a drawback.
Still, no matter how their future takes shape these types of networks are ingrained in Internet society. A comparison to this phenomenon would be “E-bay”. It has become embedded in the culture of society as such, the idea of joining online communities and being able to participate in them is not going to disappear.

 

SOURCES
 

Lifestyle - Hot

Face it, Facebook is hot

Hong Xinyi

868 words

19 August 2007

Straits Times

English

(c) 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

Lifestyle - Hot

Which site is the coolest?

224 words

19 August 2007

Straits Times

English

(c) 2007 Singapore Press Holdings Limited

http://au.biz.yahoo.com/070719/17/1bj0n.html

http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/?page=goodLife6_mar31_2007

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/25/friendster-up-40-more-web-20-cake-for-everyone/

http://mashable.com/2007/08/22/friendster/