quotes by me in salon

[from the connected selves blog]

Faking out Friendster is a new Salon article about the fake characters that emerge on Friendster. It’s a fun new slant, and well written. [Of course, i’ve loved Katharine Mieszkowski ever since she wrote that fabulous article on Netochka Nezvanova] In the article, Katherine quoted me in reference to the passing fake characters that i found after friends of mine created one.

I disagree with Jonathan’s sentiment that fake characters will go away naturally. [Well, when/if they go away, so will a huge chunk of *real* structure.] I do agree that “Some people find it amusing, but some find it annoying.” The trick is how to help both populations coexist as they do in most places in reality. I do agree that it’s only a fraction of the network that has created fake characters, but i would also argue that much of this fraction is what made it get the eye of the press and of the more mainstream culture. Remember Hush Puppies? Trendsetters (mavens) are often far outside of the mainstream, yet they drive the mainstream’s behavior.

Jonathan argues: “A small percentage of people don’t really get the point. The point is not to add a ton of people you don’t know.” What he doesn’t realize is that the problem is far more nuanced than that. How well must you know someone before adding them? People often add people to show social face. People add Friendsters because they recognize the person. Perhaps its not the point, but a real social network is not articulated; articulating it clouds everything from the getgo.

Additionally, people don’t just create fake characters for fun; some create them to connect real-life groups of people who are affiliated but not necessarily friends. For example, creating “the Lex” is creating a character that represents everything that goes to the Lexington Bar. Aren’t friends of the Lex perhaps people that other Lex members want to date?

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4 thoughts on “quotes by me in salon

  1. anonymous

    Have you made any connection between the tools for disembodied social networking you are researching on, and the Hikikomori? [http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/2000/0501/japan.essaymurakami.html].
    I have met many in my research (…) and fake characters will not go away unless tools are created to embody desire and confirm touch.

    I like your words.”*chunks of reality” made me smile.

  2. Sarah from Bluehouse

    Darlin’ I like the concept of the friends that are places… perhaps you could, in your networks create a something like a “node” a non friend that represents a place that you go, or have gone. eg. friends of wall drug node may be fond of kitch, and strange billboards… but because it’s something else, and not really a “friend” then you eliminate the networking problem if you can sort it out that way. That way you are maintaing a pure and impure network that way.

  3. Sarah From Bluehouse

    “node”=type of node. and How much of this ho-hah has to do with the concept of ‘friend’ and the individual constructs of what ‘friend’ means to people/users?

  4. Irina

    In my friendster network I am connected to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is also where I happen to live at the moment, but I am connected to it not directly but through three different people (total of 6 different connections). Pittsburgh has a total of 220 friendsters in its network – obviously its not a person, its a place. I am sure that if I were to request to become a Pittsburgh friendster I would, but I don’t want to. Why? I guess I just don’t feel affiliated enough with this city, or maybe I just don’t see the point.

    In my network, I am also connected to 10 different versions of God (or is it Gods?), a large number of Jesus’s, a couple of Lucifers… Of the four giant squids that I am connected to, 3 have had their accounts suspended.

    I’ve seen many articles talking about friendster, its popularity and the questions of fake characters. Why do people do it? Well, it IS amusing to say that a Giant Squid is one of your friendsters and you are also connected to Lucifer and God at the same time. Maybe it goes back to something that I haven’t really seen in Friendster articles – when new people start using friendster most often they ask me – so… what’s the point of this? Initially its amusing to browse around and look at profiles and add friends… but what is the point? the use? the utility?

    Maybe adding as many people as you can is one of the points of friendster? Maybe its a way to play in a social space – showing something to the world and showing something else off to the same world? Teenagers in Europe use the addressbooks of their mobile phones that way – they fill them to the brink and then show off to each other – measures of acceptance and social savvy. Teenagers in the US often use IM buddy-lists for the same purpose. I think sometimes we forget that communication is different from “who knows who”. The latter is a type of social stature and friendster makes this particular aspect of human society exceptionally obvious.

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