Rachelle Kuehne – Dependency on Proprietary Platforms
Online Communities
Web 2.0 has drastically altered many parts of our daily lives. Today, so many things are dependent on the Internet. We use email to communicate, Etsy to sell products and Ebay to purchase them, blogs to stay up to date with current affairs and social networking sites to keep in contact with and make friends. Social networking sites and online communities are a major component of Web 2.0; Nielsen Online shows that “social networks are now the 4th most popular online activity ahead of personal email. Member communities are visited by 67% of the global online population. Time spent with social networking sites is growing at 3 times the overall internet rate, accounting for almost 10% of all Internet time.”
With 67% percent of the global population participating, it’s not surprising that virtual communities have become so influential and important. Politics have established Facebook, Myspace and Second Life accounts in order to sway the voting populations. Advertisement companies use product placement and create fan pages within social sites in order to draw attention and consumers to their products. Yes, people have developed a dependency on social networking sites, but its not only politics and big business’ being affected.
People are beginning to put so much into their online social networking sites and communities that it is changing the way they interact in their real life communities and how they represent themselves. An example of this occurs with the social networking site Second Life when an online affair between Avatars ends in real divorce. Guardian.co.uk reports, “Amy Taylor, who in Second Life is club DJ Laura Skye, said today that as far as she was concerned her husband, David Pollard, was having a real relationship with the human controlling her love rival.” The man in this relationship dedicated so much time and effort to the site and his virtual relationship that it ended up affecting his real life marriage, ultimately leading to divorce. With Web 2.0 being so common in our daily lives and social networking sites being such an important part of them, the line between online and real life is getting blurrier and blurrier.
*Video Vixens will break up your marriage!
Dependency on Proprietary Platforms
We know that social networking sites and online communities are very important and influential parts of our culture thanks to the advent of web 2.0, but how much is too much? In class we discussed this situation noting that “increased involvement in virtual communities via these social networking sites means that we’re investing our energy, resource, and emotion in them” (Lecture Slide 11). Because people are investing so much time and effort into social networking sites they become dependent on them. They depend on the community always being there, they depend that it won’t change, they depend that they can without fail be a part of it. Being so dependent on online communities has its risks; the slightest change to the programming or the user policy of a site can
have profound effect on a user.
Almost all major online communities are proprietary, meaning they are owned trademark and subject to change by the company. These changes can have devastating effects on a user who is emotionally invested in a site. This affects a person psychologically and emotionally; it can cause feelings of desertion if a site shuts down or a person may switch social networking sites if changes in the user policy make them feel uneasy.
Going even further is the idea that people are displaying too much of their selves on social networking sites, thus increasing their dependence. An article featured in The New York Times reads, “The more dependent we allow ourselves to become to something like Facebook — and Facebook does everything in its power to make you more dependent — the more Facebook can and does abuse us, it’s not ‘your’ Facebook profile. It is Facebook’s profile about you.” By giving too much of one’s self to a social networking site a person is giving that site the tools to make them dependent. In other words the more dependent you display yourself to be on a social networking site, the more dependent it will make you. And of course when you are a proprietary platform dependency is good for business.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/magazine/30FOB-medium-t.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=facebook%20exodus&st=cse
*Facebook Exodus!
Children Online
What does all this mean for the younger generation? Ultimately we see social communities as reserved for the mature and ‘of age.’ In actuality studies show that social networking is a habit for at least a quarter of all young people, ages 17 and below, (Forrester). There is an audience of children using social networking sites and these children can emotionally invest themselves in these proprietary platforms just as much as adult can. Thus, kids develop a dependency, and at their young age this can have profound effects.
Studies have shown that the amount of time a child spends with an online community can affect their brain development. The fear is that the brain of the child is infantilizing, making it so they are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, have a small attention span and live for the moment (dailymail.co.uk). Just as an infant needs the constant reassurance from their parents that they exist, so will pre-adolescents addicted to online communities need from their computers. Ultimately, neuroscientists fear too much use of social networking sites can rewire the child’s brain (dailymail.co.uk).
With children beginning to communicate and develop relationships online at such young ages, we may be watching the demise of all face-to-face conversation and connection. Real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitized and easier online screen dialogues (CNN.com). Children learn to make friends with online communities, hold dialogue in chat rooms and study each other’s backgrounds through personal profiles. In doing so the concept of face-to-face conversation may be fading fast. Why leave your home to meet someone when you can much more easily chat with them online? Why join a soccer team when you can be a part of an online club? Why take care of your physical appearance when your avatar can look as beautiful or ugly as you want online?
*Digital kids today
Club Penguin
A great example of an online community geared towards children is Disney’s Club Penguin. Club Penguin is a MMOG, Massively Multiplayer Online Game, which includes a virtual world and avatars shaped as penguins. It was designed by New Horizon Interactive in 2005 but purchased by The Walt Disney Company in 2007 for 350$ Million.
Club Penguin offers the option to play for free or to pay a membership fee and become a member. Members receive special amenities, such as the ability to make purchases and upgrades. The adolescent user creates an avatar penguin and username upon registration. Upon signing in you join a “server” (There are hundreds to select from) that are like different communities. In the server community penguins enjoy different amenities such as a pet shop, pizza shop and beach. Penguin’s can chat visibly with any other penguin at any time or, if they are “buddies” send them (pre-authored by the site) mess
ages. Games are offered in the servers and a player can win coins. The coins are a form of commerce, a paying member can save these coins to make purchases for their igloo, the penguin’s pet “Puffle” or their own penguin (Wikiepedia.com).
The site is designed for kids ages 6 – 14, so it comes with a lot of safety features. This includes chat filters preventing bullying, swearing and the sharing of any personal information amongst users, emails sent to parents providing information on the child’s profile and pop up notes reminding a user of the safest and smartest decisions to make while playing. Safety from online predators and bullies is not the problem with Club Penguin, but a child’s dependency on the site is. Children are more easily prone to developing dependency on virtual communities making them easy targets for these sites. It also means that changes in their policies can greatly affect a child’s more fragile psyche. Club penguin has thousands of kids depending on it, depending on it to stay the same.
http://www.clubpenguin.com
*Club Penguin
Case Study
My younger cousin, a male age 9, is an avid fan of online communities, especially Club Penguin. He has a Club Penguin, MySpace and Facebook account. I asked him a few questions about his favorite website to see if I could notice any effects it may have had on his brain development as well as how dependent and emotionally invested in the online community he was. Ultimately I noticed that social networking was a major part of this 9-year old’s life and that when he played (I observed him actually logged in to the sites) his shy demeanor dropped and gave way to a more confident youth.
What is your favorite site?
RESPONSE: Club Penguin is my favorite because all my friends are there and are very nice. Plus, my mom doesn’t know I have a Facebook account so
I have to be sneaky with it.
What if the rules on chatting with other “Penguins” went away and you could say whatever you want?
RESPONSE: I wouldn’t say anything mean to my friends. But I wouldn’t like it if other Penguins said mean things to me like some of the kids at school do. I like the way I can chat.
Are you in any groups or clubs outside of online?
RESPONSE: Yeah, I’m in gymnastics. But sometimes I don’t want to go and get in fights with my mom.
What if everyone on Club Penguin was allowed the benefits a paying member gets [buying accessories and items for their Penguin]?
RESPONSE: I wouldn’t want that. I only talk to members when I play [online you can see who is and isn’t a member] because they are paying like me.
What if Club Penguin shut down?
RESPONSE: I would be very sad. All of my best friends are on Club Penguin and I wouldn’t be able to talk to them. I would only have my Facebook friends left.
Works Cited
Nielson Report on Social Networkings New global Footprint:
Guardian.co.uk:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/nov/13/second-life-divorce
Forrester technographics media and marketing Study – How Are Young People Using Media?:
slideshare&doc=youngpeopleonline-1222465651470652-9
Lecture Slide Eleven:
https://www2.webvista.umn.edu/webct/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct
CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/02/kids.social.networks/index.html
Dailymail.co.uk:
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_penguin
Personal Bio
My name is Rachelle Kuehne and I am an English Major and New Media Studies Minor. I will be graduating in May and hope to pursue a career in Editing as it’s what I love to do!
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