social networking 2.0 in the news

A recent article published March 28, 2009 in the New York Times titled “Is Facebook Growing Up Too Fast? discusses many of the issues revolving around social networking that we discussed in class. The article focuses on the changing image of Facebook as it becomes less of a cool, trendy sight for teenagers and more of a social network to connect people of all ages across barriers.

According to the article, this changing nature of Facebook has caused unrest amongst the different social networks that look to Facebook for different purposes. For example, those adolescents and college-aged students who use Facebook purely for social purposes feel that there privacy is being invaded as more and more older adults begin creating Facebook accounts. I personally am relieved that my mom is far to computer illiterate to create a Facebook account because there is no way I would want her or any other adult/teacher/boss of mine having access to track my Facebook activity. And yet, if I did receive a Facebook friend request from a superior of mine, I would be very hesitant to accept it.

In contrast, those adults who use Facebook mostly to connect with relatives, distant family members or even business partners, feel that the new format of Facebook, with its constant Twitter-like status updates, is trivial and distracting. They don’t want to be bothered with round-the-clock updates about people and prefer to only use Facebook for very specific reasons.

Evidently, with a site that is expanding so rapidly and acquiring so many new users each day, it is hard to please all subscribers.  What one group values about Facebook, another group criticizes.  As a result, much turmoil has errupted amongst the Facebook community. Despite the dissenting opinions from Facebook users, the fact remains that Facebook is one of the top forms of social networking.

Another interesting article on the New York Times website was also relative to class material because it pertains to the topic of celebrities and political figures using Twitter as a means of communicating with the public.  Some controversy exists over whether or not those famous figures who use Twitter are actually the ones responsible for updating their “tweets”.  This New York Time’s article, “When Stars Twitter, a Ghost May Be Lurking”, discusses how some stars actually hire teams of people, who work closely with the celebrity, to manage their Twitter accounts whereas other stars feel that this is disloyal to their fans and will only update their Twitter account themselves.  While I would personally like to think that every Twitter update I read is coming directly from the source, I also understand that famous figures lead very busy lives and therefore it would be nearly impossible for them to respond to every Tweet they received.  By hiring a team of “ghost writers”, the celebrities can stay involved and keep their public updated, without having to do the work themselves…

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