Last week Facebook topped Google as the most visited site.
The theory going around is that Google is tipping the scales with an increasing audience of internet users.
The theories include
people use the internet for information
people use the internet to discover theology
people use the internet to learn
But this article seems to hammer home the point that people are beginning to socialize and develop a community online.
Will Facebook and virtual communication emerge as the new and only way of community? Will the value of face to face interaction be lost?
here is one theory....what say you?
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I think that google is doing...exactly what they want to do, without ever wanting the intentionality of being #1 on the hitlist. The reason I say that is because first of all they're expanding both in the software/internet realm and also in the hardware/phone realm. If they are really in the business of organizing the world, then they aren't looking to be visually the best, but consistently giving you the best. I also think the numbers may be a bit skewed, as your second link suggests. EVERYONE goes through google to find the link they want, and it is now convenient to do so with the google search bar in the browser. But other than that, there's no reason to stay at that website (which led me to my first point). Facebook on the other hand has hundreds of applications and your page is usually linked to hundreds of other friends where you can spend a great deal of time clicking links to see how they're doing. Facebook is good at what it does: linking to the people you know. Google is good at what it does: linking to the information you want. I call it a technological "apple" comparison to the "orange".
ReplyDeleteI believe as technology gets sharper both in hardware and software, virtual communication/community will be the predominant form of communities in the world, but there will be no loss in interaction due to skype, tokbox, oovoo (i think?) where they're updating video conferencing, but more importantly, we have no idea what will be created to build virtual interaction in the years to come
Jon,
ReplyDeleteI like your answer, but I think Charles is asking a more fundamental question: Will face book and on-line communications be the end to or replace face-to-face community as we know it?
Community is defined as “a group of people with a common background or with shared interests within society” and “same as virtual community”.
I’m not sure I agree with that. Sure I can “chat” on-line, text and twitter with people I know and some I don’t, but is that genuine community? I can “reach out" to someone on line, I can even see a person and inter-act with him or her via skype, but can I really get-to-know you?
Can I “feel” you in the sense of understanding who you really are? Communication is enhanced by these tools, but is that “true community”?