Facebook recently announced that it now has over 2 billion monthly users. That makes its “population” larger than that of China, the United States, Mexico, and Japan combined. Its popularity, along with the influence it exerts on society, is now undeniable.
But for too many people, the experience of actually using the site ranges somewhere between addictive and annoying. A new study suggests the reason for this is very simple.
Why:
What happens to other people concerns us, just as it concerns us how we feel about them.
For Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues, the ethos behind the social network is simple. It seeks to “empower people to build community and bring the world closer together.”.
Offering people the ability to connect with friends and share meaningful content aims to strengthen relationships and social bonds.
The fact that this is a rather idealistic picture of our society hasn't stopped the company from flourishing. However, looking at what people do on the site, how they interact with each other, and how they feel about the behavior of friends and acquaintances, shows that the truth is probably more complicated.
Silent observers
The research, which closely examined a select network of over 100 Facebook users, shows how we continue to use the site and stay connected to people through it, even though our “friends” often annoy or offend us.
The amazing thing is that whether we question or sever ties, we continue to use Facebook to silently monitor them – and so perhaps we can have the pleasure of judging them.
In other words, Facebook reflects the dynamics that lie at the heart of all real human relationships. Just as in offline life, people try to open up and connect with each other, while also having to deal with the everyday frictions of friendship.
One of the most notable things the survey shows is the large number of people who said they were often offended by what their friends posted. The posts that cause a feeling of injustice or offense concern extremist or strong political views (racism, homophobia, political views) and are made (bad lies) to overcome the daily routine but also for unintentional or intentional self-promotion.
Why are we doing this?
The reason all this happens is due to several factors inherent to the type of communications technology that Facebook represents. First, there is a certain type of diversity that exists in people's online networks. That is, a diversity of people from different walks of life come together in one space.
On Facebook, you write your message without knowing exactly who will read it, but knowing that the potential audience will include people from different walks of life who have a range of different values and beliefs.
In face-to-face conversations, you might talk to your father, work colleagues, or elementary school friends in separate settings, using different ways of communicating. Whereas on Facebook, everyone will see the same side of you, as well as read the opinions of those you connect with.
This means that people are engaging in personal conversations in a much more public space than before, and that the different value systems that all these different “friends” have can easily come into conflict.
But the nature of the connections people have on Facebook means they often can't simply escape those who find various posts annoying or offensive.
For example, if a colleague or relative offends you, there are likely some work-related or family responsibilities that mean you won't want to delete them from your friends list.
Thus, members of the social network make discreet changes to their settings on the website to limit publications they consider offensive from appearing in their news feed, without causing conflicts.
However, none of the survey samples reported reducing their Facebook use due to frequent confrontations… in the “pull me in and I’ll cry” style
The research was conducted by The Conversation
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