In the online networked environment, individuals are able to create their own technocultures and form virtual communities. Virtual communities are described by Bruns (2008) as a way of gaining feelings of membership, feelings of influence, integration and fulfilment of needs and shared emotional connection. An example of an online community that I regard as successful is Facebook. Facebook is a successful form of online community as it achieves the purpose and the benefits of virtual communities. These are stated by Bruns (2008) to include:
- new forms of personal and community identity independent of physical attributes or geographic location
- communities of interest collecting information and developing a shared understanding of the world
- new forms of collaboration and social organisation, an opportunity for active, participatory membership/citizenship
- active user participation as content creators, lowering barriers to cultural and social participation
- ability to operate in fields of interest neglected by mainstream media, business, politics, research
- ability to build cooperative networks with other communities, move from participatory culture to collective intelligence
Amongst these many benefits, the main reason why people join the Facebook community is the convenience of keeping in touch with friends, and to expand and enhance their personal social network. However, the traditional connotation of ‘friends’ on Facebook does not apply, with different degrees of friendships all categorised within the broad term of ‘friends’. So if one of the main reasons of joining Facebook is to enlarge and enhance ones personal social network, does that mean the more friends one has, the ‘better’? After research into this phenomenon, it has been found that emerging research shows that there is a point of diminishing returns in terms of the associations related to the number of friends and interpersonal perceptions.
What does it mean to be a "friend" on Facebook?" It can mean several things. First, it often reflects that individuals have some form of acquaintance that is based in offline interactions. Social networking systems can facilitate mixed-mode relationships. Walther and Parks (2002) defined mixed mode relationships as those which move from an electronic context to a face-to-face setting or vice-versa. In the case of social networking systems we may see many relationships that hover between the virtual and physical quite frequently. Donath and Boyd (2004) argue that online social networking systems can help individuals to maintain a larger number of close ties than people can typically maintain without such technology. This may be reflected through the ability for people to ‘check up’ on others page and keep in touch through random wall postings, brief verbal exchanges through the form of photo comments, short messages as well as status updates.
- new forms of personal and community identity independent of physical attributes or geographic location
- communities of interest collecting information and developing a shared understanding of the world
- new forms of collaboration and social organisation, an opportunity for active, participatory membership/citizenship
- active user participation as content creators, lowering barriers to cultural and social participation
- ability to operate in fields of interest neglected by mainstream media, business, politics, research
- ability to build cooperative networks with other communities, move from participatory culture to collective intelligence
Amongst these many benefits, the main reason why people join the Facebook community is the convenience of keeping in touch with friends, and to expand and enhance their personal social network. However, the traditional connotation of ‘friends’ on Facebook does not apply, with different degrees of friendships all categorised within the broad term of ‘friends’. So if one of the main reasons of joining Facebook is to enlarge and enhance ones personal social network, does that mean the more friends one has, the ‘better’? After research into this phenomenon, it has been found that emerging research shows that there is a point of diminishing returns in terms of the associations related to the number of friends and interpersonal perceptions.
What does it mean to be a "friend" on Facebook?" It can mean several things. First, it often reflects that individuals have some form of acquaintance that is based in offline interactions. Social networking systems can facilitate mixed-mode relationships. Walther and Parks (2002) defined mixed mode relationships as those which move from an electronic context to a face-to-face setting or vice-versa. In the case of social networking systems we may see many relationships that hover between the virtual and physical quite frequently. Donath and Boyd (2004) argue that online social networking systems can help individuals to maintain a larger number of close ties than people can typically maintain without such technology. This may be reflected through the ability for people to ‘check up’ on others page and keep in touch through random wall postings, brief verbal exchanges through the form of photo comments, short messages as well as status updates.
‘Friends’ on Facebook may not equate to what we may define as ‘friend’ in the offline world. This is the difference; however, that inflates the potential size of friend networks. Adding people (everyone that the user knows) as friends are the primary activity on Facebook, having a large network of ‘friends’ despite weak social ties, is a source of social capital. Although most of the ‘friends’ on Facebook are either just neutral friends or acquaintances (Boogart 2006, 4), the number of friends that a user has is often the first point of reference when making social judgments about a person.
Also, it is socially inappropriate to refuse a friend request from someone who is familiar (Boyd 2007), with the other party possibly feeling offended. Thus, the size of one’s apparent friend network on a system such as Facebook can easily become much larger than traditional offline networks due to technology facilitating greater connection at some level, and because social norms inhibit refusals to friend requests.
Despite this casual relationship of friend association, judgments are still made based on the number of friends a user has. Traditionally, in the offline environment, the common assumption is that the more friends one has, the better the attributes they possess. For example, ‘Daniel has so many friends; he must be so nice, kind, friendly and sociable etc’. However, on the online environment, this has been found not to be the case, as reflected in many research case studies.
After a certain point, too many connections may result in negative judgments about the user. O’Murchu, Breslin, and Decker (2004, 6) notes that ‘over exposure on these sites can also at times equate to a popularity contest based on status of how many friends or friends of friends one has’. Donath and Boyd (2004) adds that this has been similarly noted in social networking site, Friendster, where users who had a large group of superficial, acquaintance level friends became known as ‘Friendster whores’. This term is used when the person that is added realises that they have been added not because they are genuinely regarded as a friend, but as part of a collection, to increase their number of friends. This suggests that there is a point where too many ‘friends’ on such online social networking sites becomes ‘too much of a good thing’.
Another negative connotation from having an extremely high friend count is that the user spends an excessive amount of time on social networking sites in order to achieve the friend count. Therefore, may appear to be superficial and shallow.
Therefore, Facebook as an online community is successful in achieving feelings of membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs and shared emotional connection for the user. However, excessiveness in these areas may lead to a point where these online communities achieve negative results and perceptions for the user. Thus, while successful as an online community, sometimes, Facebook can be too much of a good thing.
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