How Facebook is like a small town
I, for one, like Facebook’s return to the Live Feed. To me, Twitter is a mere advertising platform, where Facebook is a network (something far more valuable). I like watching the network at work. Friends who don’t post many status changes, because they don’t like to advertise themselves, can nevertheless be active on the site. I see them befriending people, even people I don’t know, and I smile to think they exist.
Indeed, these “network effects” were a big part of an essay I wrote last winter, before Facebook moved us all to the News Feed. Because to me the Facebook network, with its rippling circles of acquaintance and interaction, is just like a small town. Social networkers may prefer to think they’re up to something totally new, but I think they’re mimicking some of our oldest (and most cherished) social patterns.
Unfortunately, by the time the essay was published in July, the switch to the News Feed had made it seem a bit dated. Even more odd, from my perspective, was that many editors reversed the title. They must have feared that urbanites today are Internet-savvy but unfamiliar with small-town life. And so, instead of comparing this new phenomenon to an old social pattern, it was called “How a small town resembles Facebook.”
Somebody quick find an English/Math double major, who can discuss the transitive property of metaphor.
I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com
Indeed, these “network effects” were a big part of an essay I wrote last winter, before Facebook moved us all to the News Feed. Because to me the Facebook network, with its rippling circles of acquaintance and interaction, is just like a small town. Social networkers may prefer to think they’re up to something totally new, but I think they’re mimicking some of our oldest (and most cherished) social patterns.
Unfortunately, by the time the essay was published in July, the switch to the News Feed had made it seem a bit dated. Even more odd, from my perspective, was that many editors reversed the title. They must have feared that urbanites today are Internet-savvy but unfamiliar with small-town life. And so, instead of comparing this new phenomenon to an old social pattern, it was called “How a small town resembles Facebook.”
Somebody quick find an English/Math double major, who can discuss the transitive property of metaphor.
I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks dot com
