The other socializing

This essay would focus on the question- “What is it to be social in the digital era?”
Focusing on social networking sites, specifically ‘facebook’. It raises questions for individuals and the so called society or communities to question our basic notions of them(?) and how they have gradually changed and we have become immune to them since “the digital” has entered in our lives.

1:need to communicate and what communication means to humans.

There is always a need to communicate; especially for human beings since and hence societies have developed. Without communication, nothing seems possible. “Communication is one of the centres of the information era because it is a ‘structural’ component of today’s society”-by Maia Engdi (digital stories -the poetics of communication19, 1999-2000)
This is an unstoppable trend. The question to be asked is ‘how’. This requires an enormous degree of awareness. As per Kelvin Kelly there is something called coevolution. According to that, learning is a cultural process and therefore, communication is a fundamental mechanism for learning and cultural development of society.
Now we understand why facebook is so popular among the existing social networking sites. Facebook has created an open platform receiving its visitors from all over the globe, who would never gather in the same physical space. This space is created and occupied through communication.

2:how to say something about these phenomena, which is as real as real world

“Computing is not about computers anymore. Its about living”-(Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital, 1995)
Internet is no longer a technical phenomenon. It is a real world. It superimposes on our environment lots of information in the form of texts, images, sounds and videos that are in reality a part of our environment, which also create our environment, which is why it has become very important. Internet coverage is an item in 2011 census including ‘roti’,‘kapda’ and ‘makan’. Internet has become our identity. We keep feeling our lives are being tracked online.The other aspect to be looked upon, is how we are getting lost in this information bombarded space.In this fascinating and addictive system, I am curious to know why and how this phenomena called ‘facebook’ is so much popular and accepted.

For that, let us understand what ‘being social’ means.


3:being "social" and "the other socializing"


Social |ˈsō sh əl|
Adjective
1 [attrib.] of or relating to society or its organization
• needing companionship and therefore best suited to living in communities
• Relating to or designed for activities in which people meet each other for pleasure.

ORIGIN late Middle English: from Old French, or from Latin socialis ‘allied,’ from socius ‘friend.’

-Oxford dictionary

Lets have a look into the origin of this word. It derives its meaning from ‘friend’. Other words like, ‘society’, ‘community’, and ’communication’ and ‘culture’ all are interrelated. And they all share meaning like fellowship, companionship, friendliness, relationship. It can of course be argued that individual words should never be isolated, since they depend for their meanings on their actual contexts. Yet the problem of meaning can never be wholly dissolved into context[Raymond Williams 1976,1983, key words’-a vocabulary of culture and society]

Humans need to communicate, be together; they need companionship. We need to meet. And ‘to meet’ means a lot for us than its literal meaning. Lots of sharing and exchange happens which also include emotions, touch etcetera. Exchange of feelings, which cannot be felt through just words. There is lot more than that. Therefore being ‘social’ means a lot to us.

Brenda Laurel says that it is important to give control to those who understand human beings, human interaction, communication, pleasure and pain To shape the new media. (Laurel, 1991)
Being social in the digital era means being on face book. And having most numbers of friends.
‘The other socializing’ is just recent practice which is being seen worldwide. Socializing on Internet. Here while talking about this phenomenon I would concentrate on social networking sites. Specially focusing on face book.

It’s just the reality as we said. Its a whole world in its’ self. Face book is a huge network. Communication networks like face book have turned global interconnectivity into a popular theme.

Why is it so popular? The big problem with these social networking systems like twitter and face book is that they require active and deliberate participation on the part of individual human modes. Basically we humans like to peep into other‘s lives, character, make friends etcetera. And face book is the platform. Every one is on it. So the duration of interaction is sustained and you stay in touch constantly. You get updated. You get an everyday check.

But here we are also looking at the quality of the socializing experience
Are we able to measure that, in anyway? May be we can, looking through some lenses.

1.ease with which you get started or ease of navigation

How easily one can get hold of the interface in comparison to orkut and other social networking systems on Internet.

2.trust and safety

You could suggest your friends whom they could add. You can also choose to share specific things with certain people.

3. Space to express

Lots of things you can express on the ‘wall’- Very simple things. (1) And discussion topics, which can be educative. (2)
There are so many posts, which are just for fun (3) some are cathartic. (4)

4. Social and cultural divides

Rich and poor are the divides in terms of information here. Our idea of family has changed. Our idea of love, friendship, food and time has changed.
Now your network is your family. Here, You do not inherit them, you actually chose your family. You control what you want to share and what you do not want to.
The idea of love has changed. Now you measure your love ratings on computer (5) and feel happy and sad about it. You express your love sending chocolates ‘lovely hearts’, bouquets, perfume and ‘lucky animals’ (6). how do you feel having virtual cup cakes? can one smell it? can one get even a pinch of hint of its taste ever this way?(7)

You can also raise cows and pigs and farm at ‘Farmville (8)
To get rid of some one from your friends is not easy. But on face book you just need to remove someone from your friends’ list on face book. For that There is a term called ‘unfriend’ but is it actually that easy?
I am not blaming Internet or facebook for this. Even in our actual life we behave very virtually. But we have to be aware how image making of stereotypes happens and our lives just become restricted to these expressions only.

5.response and mediums of expression

Machine does not understand the meaning of interaction in the way humans do. It cannot understand what text we are typing is saying or what the images mean. Rather people create the space.
It has limitations as it is totally depends on text, symbols etcetera. So no tangible feelings or no body involvement is there to express. It’s like almost just ‘description’ of your feelings. Which we do in physical world also, but it still leaves a scope that you can involve touch in it. For example, if you post something like “I am depressed” on your wall, people almost immediately respond asking you ‘what’s happening?’ or any other sorts of things. But silent understanding, which can develop when the person is in front of you, is not so possible on facebook wall. If the person is there, without words also many things can be handled.

Through our education, we are conditioned to believe that text is the most trust worthy means of representing knowledge but there are some possibilities beyond that which can be explored in the idea of a community.

6.where do you draw the line?

In one of her interviews Drew Barrymore stated that she hates face book because whenever you meet people, he /she knows about each and everything. Prejudicing happens. No element of surprise is left.It depends on you, whether you want to remain the silent observer or participant, depending on your perspective. Because it distracts your image even when you are not online.---is this what you meant?


4:possible communities - communities possible


Learning is a cultural process. We learn from each other, talking to people, sharing things and communicating. That is why how the communities are built. We understand when we meet physically but what about virtual communities?
facebook is so widely spread that we can think now, how it can be used. It depends on our purpose of networking. Each medium influences the way the message can be formulated and received. An understanding of these implications is an important precondition for making effective use of the possibilities. Rather than being addicted to it for the time pass or just to check the relationship statuses, we can make a better use of this system. We can make actual communities work using its popularity. We can learn to use the contributions of others creatively, we learn to share our own ideas and find new ways of identifying with our work, we can learn to take responsibility for the environment we are taking part of. Lots of people can share a mutual understanding and similar norms as well as different opinions about one thing. We can post debates, exchange arts. We can share images, videos, and other kind of works through this widely spread phenomenon. Images are not just pictures of a digital model, they fulfil a higher task. Which is to transmit selected information to the spirit, the soul and the body of the reader. Because after all, we are not expressing to computers. We ‘the actual beings’ are creating this world. For that, we need to look carefully what we actually want from this phenomenon.

6:conclusion


The purpose of this essay is to look for the possibilities further within this digital era, which is inevitable. This is an attempt to understand how heavy use of digital devices and other technologies have changed the way we think and behave. These networks (socializing) are overwhelmingly challenging. We need to go back and analyze it carefully to achieve the ‘real socializing’ in a human way.