Social networking sites: pretty scary effects, when you think about it

05Sep08

Findings from a few recently-published academic papers (email me if you want the specifics):

Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, or SNS, can impact self-perception in ways not unlike that of the media influencing celebrities, creating an odd blend of narcissism and insecurity. Publicly displaying of a few areas of one’s life (a theme song and a few photos) are followed by amplified, speedy responses.

But the more reliant you are on this for your self-worth—using it to ‘brand’ yourself or rack up friends, for example—the more likely you are to fall victim to its whims.

Facebook, MySpace, cell phones, instant messaging are great for keeping in touch with people we already know. But because we only transmit a few aspects of ourselves online, and don’t have as many opportunities to reinforce those relationships, bonds we make with other people through technology aren’t as strong.

The size of one’s online social network is different than the number of one’s social ties, and today many teens, especially, seem to be confusing the two. (“But it says that I have 900 friends on the computer!”) Perceived support from significant others is not related to time spent online.

The trick is that while people rely on these venues for keeping in touch with friends, more people rely on those online relationships for support, the lonelier they feel. A glut of online friends can’t act as a buffer for an absence of real-life friends.

How they influence how we present ourselves: one online SNS trap is the drive to befriend as many people as possible. When you can directly compare your number of “friends” to the number of “friends” your favorite band has, a desire “which is underpinned by that hidden aspiration to meet their favourite band,” you lose sense of the actual social dynamics at play.

According to one author, “the distributed nature of on-line friendship networks… appears to reinforce conservatism and homogeneity in how young people express themselves. Our take on this is that if you want a big network you have to appeal to as many people as possible [which] creates a drive towards homogeneity.” So, in order to find our 15 minutes of fame, everyone takes the combination low road/middle ground and ends up looking like Paris Hilton. Because of the misuse of the word ‘friend’ on these sites, everyone runs the risk of blending the idea of fans, acquaintances, and friends.

Can we really become someone else? Yes and no. At the very least, we have to ground the identity of our online selves in our offline selves. While changing the details on one’s profile allows for experimentation of different forms of identity, “On-line communities are if anything more aggressive in challenging people’s identity. For example, when users change their profiles this is often followed by postings from friends offering teasing, mocking or straightforwardly critical remarks about the changes.” In a public forum, what may be intended as a loving tease takes on a different tone. And the size of one’s online network doesn’t have any bearing on the strength of someone’s actual social ties.

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Tags: Facebook, MySpace, personality, psychology, SNS, social