Are Online Social Networks a Fad?
by Andy Carvin, 1:52PM
In a June 14 article for C|NET News, Stephanie Olsen examines whether online social networks like MySpace are here to stay or are a passing fad. The article, which looks at the issue mostly from a business perspective, suggests the jury is still out. But from a human perspective, history suggests otherwise.
The Internet has always been about community. Sure, when it was developed in the late 60s, the idea was to have a decentralized computer network that could survive a nuclear holocaust. But even when the very first computer network was set up, there was at least one person behind each of those computers. And when you connect two people together, you have the minimal requirements for forming a new community. And in this case, the more the merrier: as Metcalfe’s Law suggests, the value of a network is intrinsically connected to the number of people communicating over it. More people, bigger network. Bigger network, bigger community. Bigger doesn’t always mean better, of course, but it does help you reach critical mass.
Of course, for many years the Internet didn’t seem like a community because it was so research-oriented, but that didn’t stop people from using the technology to forge bonds with each other. As Ethan Zuckerman recently pointed out in his lightning-fast history of the Internet at the Harvard Beyond Broadcast conference, the first email discussion list was created more than 30 years ago, in 1975. By the late 70s, we had USENET bulletin board discussions, which continue today in the form of Google Groups. And in 1982, France introduced the Minitel interactive TV system - which just happened to have a chat feature, presaging the development of instant messaging.
In fact, if the Internet and other computer networks hadn’t allowed people to form their own online communities, I doubt I’d be doing what I’m doing today. Back in 1984, when I was a wee 13-year-old, I went online for the first time, using a computer that didn’t even have a monitor. The text output appeared on a scrolling sheet of thermal paper. (I’d love to know what the heck that thing was called.) My friend Brad Topol and I would use it for connecting to local BBSes - bulletin board systems - run by NASA engineers and other geeks living near us along the Space Coast of central Florida. These BBSes often had a fantasy theme, not unlike Dungeons & Dragons. (Boy, that dates me.) People would use their 300-baud acoustic coupler modems to dial into the BBS and play games. But mostly we would just talk - about games, computers, rockets, whatever came to mind.
By the time I was in college, I was using the Internet to participate in bulletin boards about - surprise - homebrew beer. Mostly it was just exchanging recipes, but it was a strong community with distinct participants and personalities. As the Web came along in the early/mid 90s, it was clear from the start that it would be used to form communities of interest. Even geographic communities were setting up shop online, creating Web-based “community networks” that allowed residents to have a virtual representation of themselves and their organizations. When the Association for Community Networking was formed 10 years ago, no one in the room thought they were buying into a fad. These activists, including pioneering online educators like Frank Odasz of Big Sky Telegraph, had spent years exploring the potential of online social networks for educating people and promoting positive community change. No one was calling them “online social networks” at the time, but they were the precursors to the MySpaces and Facebooks of today. The early 90s also saw the birth of some of the first education discussion groups, including EDTECH, K12ADMIN, LM_NET, EDNET and my own WWWEDU group.
Now, of course, you can barely turn on the TV news (or check your RSS feed) without hearing about an online social network. They’re certainly the “big thing” in many circles, which is why venture capitalists are debating their future, as is the case in the aforementioned C|NET article. Whether or not they continue to be the darling of investors remains to be seen. But their fundamental purpose - giving people a platform for congregating, interacting and creating new things - isn’t going to go away when the fad is over. That’s because congregating, interacting and creating new things is what the Internet is all about. It’s what communities are all about. And pioneering educators, like always, are right in the middle of it. The question, though, remains whether the rest of the K12 community will embrace these tools or shun them.
From email lists to BBSes to community networks to online social networks, the virtual quest for human contact continues, so let’s make the most out of it. Just because we’re educators doesn’t mean we should be the last to figure out the best ways to use these tools.
Online social networks: No fear. They’re here. Get used to it. -andy
Filed under : Social Networking
Responses
Yes, social networks are here to stay, but the current format is just the Model A version of what is to come. As technology improves, the interactions will go real time and live. People will still communicate asyncronously, but there will be live interactions in small and large groups.
Avatar worlds of this type are in existance today and are going to be the next big thing on the horizon. Communication is still text based but VOIP is being tested and is just around the corner. I’m sure it’s just a bandwidth question of how to handle the load of thousands of people interacting, because in 1998 I was a beta tester for Online Traveler, a VOIP avatar world that is still around using the same technology that it was using then.
For some reason, it was never updated, but the interactions we had as testers were fun, interesting, and sometimes a bit strange.
I can remember on time when five of us were in online together. Two of the techs were kidding around. One of them was complaining about an incident earlier in the day. All of a sudden, one of the other testers started playing Achey Breaky Heart. The next thing you know the five of us were doing a country line dance.
Now these avatars were just talking heads with lips that were synchronized with the voice. It was fun. However thinking about the prospect of full body avatars that are anatomically correct and completely controlable will probably send chills down the spines of more then a few people.
Art
By Art Wolinsky 3:34PM on 16 Jun 06
I believe that social web software is the next-biggest “killer app” (or, at least, killer philosophy) since email.
Like yourself, my experience of the Internet goes back over a decade, and my career in web, e-learning, and multimedia development has allowed me to closely monitor social trends and perceptions of the web.
Web issues such as usability, accessibility, connectivity, and functionality have led us to this point, and there’s no going back. The success of social web tools has been driven by a demand for these web-based services: nobody’s forcing users to use them in the open web, so users only come back to these tools because they’re actually useful.
In addition to providing valuable tools and resources for users, social web sites provide everyday web users with an opportunity to express ourselves in all our myriad variety, and establish networks and linkages to other people and information. These links nurture and validate us, both as individuals, and as members of various groups or cultures… and every human being wants to be validated - they want to be recognised for their uniqueness, and feel part of one or more collectives.
By Leonard Low 7:35PM on 16 Jul 06