Whither the Individual?

Whither the Individual?

As we join groups and social networks from affinity sites to Facebook, are we extending and expanding  identities, or increasingly conforming to the cookie-cutter profiles demanded of these interfaces? Is the loss of "personal space" and "reflection" so many users complain of merely the necessary surrender of "ego" as we learn to participate as members of a more evolved "collective organism" of "hyper-people?"

As many people know, Facebook is the most popular social networking site available right now.  With over 500 million users Facebook has taken place of Myspace and AIM.  Even though some people say that social media sites make people conform to the “cookie-cutter” profile, I do not agree with that.  I believe that people are actually doing the opposite.  The Internet is medium, which allows users to say and do whatever they want.  It allows people to expand on their identities weather or not they are telling the truth about who they are or what they like.  I suppose in a way this can be conforming to a certain type of profile if someone may be posting interests that they believe are “cool” when in fact that it not their personality at all.

         In the documentary “Digital Nation”, David Rushkoff and Rachel Dreztin explore different types of media sites such as Second Life, Facebook and Youtube.  They are investigating to see weather or not these sites are forcing their users to conform, or be themselves.  On a site such as Second Life, people certainly are experimenting with different personalities.  People even have Second Life husbands and wives, which is where the use of the Internet gets very odd.  Even though Second Life’s purpose was to increase intimacy over the Internet, people take their experimenting of different personalities very far.  People use their Avatars to become someone they may not be comfortable with being in the real world. 

            

         Even though profiles on Facebook may all have the same layouts, each individual has a chance to customize their own profile by adding pictures, comments, statuses and more.  We all know that most of the population is “addicted” to Facebook or even Myspace and Twitter but Facebook is amongst the most popular social media site in the world.  People use Facebook for their own personal reasons.  One person may have no reason to lie on their profile about their interests whereas someone else may have many different profiles all with different personalities.  I do not think that this is Facebook’s fault.  Facebook certainly does not make anyone conform to the “cookie-cutter” profile at all, in fact the amount of freedom a lot of the social networking sites gives you, you can do anything you would like with your profiles, without any limits.

               

         This concept of “withering” the individual I believe to be not true.  In fact, people are about to expand on their existing identity.  Those who complain about the loss of “personal-space” would depend on what they are entering into their profiles.  You chose what goes on your profile and you have to be smart enough to not put anything on it that may be invading to your privacy.  Anything and everything pertaining to the Internet should be known that is out for the world to see.  People should understand that whatever they put on the Internet is public and always will be.              

Social Media and Web 2.0

1.  I do not think that this new "user-generated" televisions shows or advertisements will continue for much longer.  If they do the amount of them will not increase.  I personally would not be able to watch every movie or t.v show I watch in that sort of recording style. It may be personal preference but a commercial here and there is alright but I do not think it will catch on to every t.v show or movie.
2.  The obvious social media site that i find myself on the most is Facebook.  Facebook has really changed the way our generation communicates and shares information.  Facebook is the most successful media site because they were able to take all the different media sites such as yahoo, flickr, twitter and much more and put it all in one.  You are able to send messages which are similar to emails, share photos, share statuses and instant message all on one site.  Why should we use 4 different sites to do all of this when we can use Facebook to do it all?  Facebook also took on the ability to share music which is what Myspace is used for now.  I think myspace was outed by Facebook for that exact reason.  Facebook is also a lot more simple where as Myspace was more for a "homepage" where you can personalize it.  I don't see Facebook going anywhere because of all it has to offer.  I also use Twitter to follow celebrities I am interested in or even some stores who promote sales and coupons through their Twitter accounts.  I have always been against putting up a status on Facebook, for some reason, but that is all Twitter really is.  I feel Twitter is a more appropriate place to add status' because that is the sole purpose for Twitter.  Sometimes I get annoyed with people's status' on Facebook, because in a way, I don't care.  I don't go on Facebook to see what everyone is doing that second, I like to stay connected with my friends who go to school far away and share pictures but to know what people are doing every second gets very obnoxious.
3.  The concept of transparency is a fuzzy issue.  Receiving money to tweet or blog is where the complications come in.  Your accountability or credibility over a certain subject will lessen if you were to be getting paid to tweet something nice about a certain company or product etc.  I do not fully grasp the concept of transparency yet, but will add my personal ideas after researching more in depth.

For my project, I chose Flickr as my medium.  Flickr is a application available to anyone who has the internet to organize and share any or all of their personal photos.  Flickr is a easy way for families and friends to share photos and stay tuned in to their loved one's lives while not being there in person.  My project portrays "flickr" as a medium to help families stay together through the holidays if they are not able to actually be together in person.  A lot of families are unable to be together for each and every holiday and flickr is such a great application that people can "be there" with their families for each holiday.  

The content of flickr would be digital photographs, text, html links possibly to bring people to the individual's personal homepage or blog.  The message of flickr that McLuhan might say would be the ability to immediately share photos, and the ability to share experiences with people who are far away.  The concept of flickr is a great application that allows anyone to stay updated on what their loved ones are doing and be able to visually see the products of their experiences. 

New Mediums

Foursquare is a new Medium that was introduced to public not too long ago.  The content of Foursquare is pictures, text, maps, gps locations, and html links.  The message of Foursquare is, in my opinion, that everyone has instant communication to their friends.  The main message of Foursquare would be the gps locations and the "check-ins" that take place on Foursquare.  Friends can see where you "checked in" at and then they would know where you are at that moment.  Another purpose of Foursquare is to advertise.  Foursquare is used to advertise stores and sales and users of Foursquare get additional treatment because they are a part of the Foursquare network.

Skype and even more amazing, SkypeMobile, is an amazing medium we use to keep in touch with our loved ones while away.  The content would be digital video, text, html links, and digital photography because of the messaging feature within Skype.  The message would also be instant communication.  This is as close as you can get to person to person communication without actually being there with the person. This does not necessarily eliminate the use of phones because usually Skype would be used somewhat sporadically.  It just allows people to communicate with people far away and is really the only Medium that allows people to have real-time chat with someone far away.

Facetime is becoming big as iPhones and other Smartphones are coming out with this feature.  The content of Facetime would be real time digital video and audio.  It is similar to SkypeMobile but this is a feature that is integrated into the Smartphone so it is just like having a computer right in your hand.  The message would again be instant communication but, similar to Skype it is to see and hear people you may not have a chance to see for a while.  It has definitely increased the time spent on phones because instead of being on a computer to Skype, people are able to Facetime each other straight from their phones.  Some people may use it instead of a phone call or text to show a friend something because you can show them through video instead of a picture and they do not need to wait for a response they will instantly be able to get feedback.