I take joy in talking about an online community that I have finally got my head around - Facebook. In this discussion I will outline the focus of facebook, the services it offers and the many ethical issues surrounding it.
Focus: facebook is an online community that allows friends and family around the world to stay connected. It is free to join and it is a privately run community.
Services provided: Users can create profiles including photos and lists of personal interests, exchange private or public messages, and join groups of friends. Friends and family can challenge users to games, blogs and photos can be shared, and there is the capacity to partake in 'facebook' chat with another friend. People can write on one another's wall, send private messages or chat online to one another.
Facebook allows people from all over the world to stay in touch and feel connected to each other.
Kollock (1998) talks about people joining online communities searching for increased reciprocity, increased recognition, sense of efficacy and sense of community.
Ethical issues: Facebook like any online community has many ethical issues surrounding it such as privacy problems, authorized consent and the like. One can block people they do not want to have access to their site.
An example from my own Facebook wall: Hey cuz!! Hows OT going? When are you back in invercargill??!
Benefits over traditional ideas of community:
Facebook is able to provide connections over great distances instantly, it can connect people with similar interests together, is without monetary cost, has the ability to allow and block users, and has the capacity to share information at speed.
Benefits traditional ideas of community have in comparison: Traditional communities had the benefit of all the information that was shared was valid. Everyone understood how to access information and there was no digital divide.
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