People who don't use facebook?!

All of my research has focused around people who use social networking sites but I feel I have been neglecting members of our target audience that do not engage with them. As a form of personal research, I have contacted a friend who does not use facebook. His reason for not using it is:

" I don't use it for that fact it takes up too much time, and you also talk to bullshit people who aren't really friends. My sister made a bet that I couldn't go on it for a few years too so I did it for that reason too." (19 years old)

He uses twitter instead, but is not an excessive user, mainly for talking to people rather than leaving statuses about himself. He also had a friend that does not use facebook, twitter or any other social networking site. I was also told he has a phone without a camera. He said:

"I can't be arsed with the whole friend thing, when most people on there are idiots, everyone I want to talk too is in my phone book." (21 years old)

More research

From the same book as before (A Networked Self) I found some more information on online addiction and more facebook facts.

Online use and addiction:

- 75% of young adults online (16-24) have an online profile.

- Media habit (definition) A form of automaticity in media consumption that develops as people repeat media consumption behaviour in stable circumstances.

- 6% of US adults said a relationship suffered because of their internet use.

- Internet usage disorder is now classed as a category of mental-illness.

- 2 problematic media habits:

Problematic Internet Use: As compensation for social incompetence in the offline world. Dimensions are- mood alteration, social benefits, negative outcomes, compulsivity, excessive time, preoccupation and interpersonal control. Social benefits are an early positive but then people start missing real life events, so the cycle continues (go online for more social interaction). This accounts for 10% of cases.

Socio-cognitive model of unrelated media use: Describes how humans exercise or lose control of media behaviour. Their self- regulatory behaviour becomes impaired and self-control over media is diminished. Other symptoms lack of awareness and attention.

- Evidence to say that social networking is not for making new friends but to articulate and reflect offline relationships. 91% of teens in the US do it to connect with current friends.

Facebook:

- Female respondents, on average, visited facebook more often than males but once on the site, there was no difference between genders on how much time they spent on.

- From an experiment, females are more intense users of social networking sites.

- Students that do not live with their parents are more intensely engaged with social networking sites.

- College students consciously upload and tag displayed photographs, thus selecting certain subjects and events to emphasize.

- People are able to post that information which presents a desired image.

- Social networking sites are about establishing, presenting and negotiating identity, through the tastes and interests expressed, through applications we add and through pictures of us and friends. These identity presentations are supported by comments from other users.

- Most users do post pictures of themselves and friends, with females doing this more than males.

- Facebook in 2009 reported more than 1 billion photos were uploaded every month.

- “Recording an event has become part of that event- and perhaps the most important part.” Most subjects pose in front of the camera, looking down the lens and are highly aware of the camera. We therefore consciously and unconsciously transform ourselves before the camera.

Let the reading commence...

For the project to have substance, we decided that we need to look at more academic texts and to really understand the issues we are tackling. I took the social dynamics, specifically looking at online presences and theories as my topic of research. The first book I looked at was:

Identity in Britain: A cradle-to-grave atlas

Bethan Thomas and Daniel Dorling 2007

The Policy Press

Bristol

The identity chapter looked at how people are identified  in general:

People are normally identified by (in order):

gender

age

role (in families- mother, sister, daughter and in work- friend, colleague, boss or mate, lover, acquaintance)

nationality (English)

racial

social class

geographical location

occupation

religion

An interesting term found was The Human Mosaic. It looks at the different levels of humans and locations in the world, from an individual to a crowd to a stadium, to the city, to the area, to the country etc.

(“Each place is a story of thousands of stories, a composite, collage, collection, a human mosaic”)

This could be used for the name or just use this theory to help structure our project.

It's a starting point...

During our first workshop back after christmas, we received some feedback about our presentation. From the conversation our idea dramatically developed, we just needed a a starting point to go from.

The notes from the conversation went on the lines of social structures within society, but particularly with the modern age, such as uses of facebook/ internet and technology in general and how these structures are changing. We could go various ways with it, from how someone can change their whole presence and identity online and how they can erase their past, or how others perceive each other or how social structures are formed.

One of the most recent TV shows that I have seen (Black Mirror- The entire history of you) was an example that I cited, as their life is run by technology and they see people in a different way.

Here is the first section of the show