CA2 RJ

Q1: What do you think are the two most influential factors that have contributed to Facebook’s success today? Reflect on the impact (both positive and negative) that Facebook or any other social networking tool has on your daily life in relation to these two factors. For each factor, provide at least one appropriate example to support your answer. (10 marks)

Factor #1: Facebook Gone Mobile!

Mobility has to be one of the two most influential factors that have contributed to Facebook’s success today. From the statistics shown on Facebook, they have more than 500 million active users. And more than 200 million users out of that bunch are currently accessing Facebook through their Mobile devices.  It is also known that people who use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.

How does did that have contributed to Facebook success?

Well, to begin with, to keep a Social Networking site going the people and the social connections are the driving force. The users being connected more means there is more interaction going on the site. Facebook going mobile has enabled mobile users to be connected to it more hours in a day than non-mobile users.

The mobility function has definitely changed the way users use Facebook and other social networking tools/platforms in general. In a simple tap or scroll to the applications on our mobile devices and we can instantly update our statuses on the go. We can even upload photos, tag those photos, search, add or even delete a friend. What’s not to love about the convenience to be hooked onto it more than ever?

Here’s an (personal and possibly reasonable) equation to sum it up:

Being more connected=More time spent on the network=More active users on the site at any one time=Higher traffic=Social interactions on the site has continuity=Driving force keeps running=Popularity sustained/Number of active users constantly increasing=SUCCESS!

Twitter as another example

 Twitter has also brought the word socialising to a different level. Updating tweets on the go, anywhere and everywhere, and at anytime. This is what people are doing and what their followers want to know and want to see. Replying tweets, re-tweeting and even direct messaging have also been made more instantaneous and convenient with the increase in the various social networks’ mobility.

Mobility and Tweeting (and its impact on me)

Before I owned a Smartphone, I was very much less connected to my Twitter friends and followers. I only get to check my friends’ status updates and reply to their mentions only when I have access to the computer (which is usually during class or at home at the end of the day). But it wasn’t much of an impact anyway, since most people then have not started using Smartphone and was not wired-up either.

However since the period where Smartphones like the iPhone, BlackBerry and Android have become increasingly popular and third party programmes for twitter (and other tools like Facebook) are being readily available for downloads, I realised that to be involved in that networking scene. I had to be connected on the go too. Twitter has become my main mode of communication with my friends. We tweet each other instead of texting. We arrange meet-ups on twitter. We send each other links on twitter rather than e-mail. We talk about anything we tweet. It could be just about what I ate for lunch. And yes there are the perks but of course the bad side as well.

Be sure that there is to be as much negative impact as there are positive ones

The most identifiable one has to be part of the users being over reliant on these tools that they tend to neglect face-to-face interactions. I check my phone every at least 10 times in an hour and as long as I am awake. I’m so hooked onto my phone. I’d rather be on my phone than to listen in a boring lecture (sometimes!). I’m on my phone so much it disrupts my work. (As I type this RJ out, I have already checked my phone a couple of times for tweet update already)

Factor #2: Constant improvement

Improvement in features and interface

I personally like changes. Changes make things less boring. Be it changing for the better or sometimes, worst, change is what keeps things from being stagnant. Just like Facebook. The constant improvements in the features they offer is the crucial factor that is keeping user from joining other similar and newer sites.

Take Friendster for example. It was very much similar to Facebook in terms of its functionality. It was meant to be a social networking tool to help people stay connected but offering them a profile space to add friends, upload photos, state their interests, leave comments and testimonials. But why did they lose a large portion of their users to Facebook? For one simple reason: Facebook offers better. And that was something Friendster could not keep up with. Friendster could not offer better. They could not offer the cutting edge features that Facebook could.

Hence, it is fair to say that the improvement of features was very much a strong factor that influenced Facebook’s success.

User-Friendly Interface

With constant increase in the features they offer and improvement in them, something has to be done to ensure that the site/space remain useful for the users. The Facebook team handles this well but constantly updating their user interface when necessary.

By now, I think we have all gotten used to logging on to the Facebook page one day and actually notice changes in the interface. Facebook constantly tries to improve its user interface to make it more convenient for their users to navigate about their own network.

Having many functions and applications available on the site itself, we as users do want to explore but sometimes it is just too much things to confuse us. By clearing up and sorting out from time to time, Facebook do help make the site a much more user-friendly and comfortable space to be in.

Pros and cons do exist too. Though the “clean up” or “improvements” made to the interface do make it easier for users to navigate about the site (or why do the Facebook team even think of making changes in the first place), many people are often not happy about the change. Maybe it is just people’s unwillingness to try new things and be exposed to a new environment (online environment in this case).

But still, at the end of the day. People want new and fresh because they are never contented with what they have. By updating the interface from time to time, it’s like keeping up with interface “fashion” to offer what make them have the upper hand over others. This does get people to stay (though with a bit of different reactions sometimes, change is what will keep users coming back) because people do not like stagnant things.

It’s what keeps me coming back

The above stated reasons are the exact reasons why I’m still loyal to Facebook till this day. Despite other social networking tools sprouting out with the social media craze, Facebook is still able to beat all the other “new and fresh” tools and platforms to secure the constant growth of active users on their sites.

Q2: The movie focuses a lot on ethical issues and responsible use of social networking tools. Briefly describe any one example of unethical/irresponsible use of Facebook in the movie and discuss your views on it. Prove one example of how you can engage an online community ethically on any one social networking tool of your choice. (10 marks)

Facemash & Hacking=Unethical

As per what was shown the in the movie, the Facebook we know of today started out as Facemash, which was written by Mark Zuckerberg after conceptualising the idea of comparing two people together. And to make this happen, he actually had to hack into the private records of the various Harvard dormitories to obtain photographs.

Firstly, what is ethical?

Dictionary.com defines ethical as “Pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to the right and wrong in conduct.” Or “In accordance with principles of conduct that are considered correct, especially those of a given profession or group”

Put into simpler words, anything ethically wrong is anything that is against the principles of the moral values we are taught.

In the movie, hacking was used to attain unauthorised materials that did not belong to Mark and these friends. It is a violation of the network security of the hacked networks and in my opinion, is a form of theft.

If theft in the “real” world is considered to be against our morals or “unethical”, so is theft on the net.

As much as I would have admired Mark’s courage and his wonderful creation of Facemash for the pure purpose of entertainment for his fellow schoolmates at Harvard (looking at things from my view as a student), this act of his was surely and with no doubt, an irresponsible act. Firstly it would have been a great insult to those whose photos or their friends’ photos have been put up the web to be “judged” by people. Secondly, theft of those photos was unforgivable.

I will not like the idea of my photo being taken and put up on a website for other people to judge if I was better looking than the girl in the other photo or not.

Good thing Facebook became (and is still) as success

Good thing for Mark and his friends that Facebook was a success and such a hit with the rest of the world that people are so hooked on it, they don’t consider the “past of Facebook” as to be of any influence to their use of the site.

There’s definitely something we can do to change the behaviours as mentioned above and promote ethical and responsible use of the net.

Start a movement!

To engage the online community ethically can be done by spreading a message. Being so connected, if the message is strong enough and is spread by the right “seeding channels”, it will spread like wild fire in no time.

Have a huge online movement made on ethical issues. Make it fun and engaging. Make it comfortable for people to share about.

Have a short online tutorial to teach regular users like you and me to help spread the message too. Do it ethically AND responsibility!

But of course, let all these happen for a reason. We have to make it clear that at the end of the day, this movement is not just about fun. It’s about teaching us to be ethical and responsible in our online conversations; it’s about allowing us to realise that what is to adhere to offline applies in the online scene as well. Respect other people, respect other users, respect the community and do what’s right.

And as for which social networking tools to use, Twitter, I feel will be a great tool to start this movement. Reason?

The Twitter penetration rate in Singapore is considerably high. If we are sure that the masses of people online are increasingly getting involved in the Twitter scene, then it will be a great way to spread the message while keeping it short and sweet in 140 characters.