A new technology to promote communication on SNS

　 

   People start using social networking sites to communicate with more people and reinforce the ties with their friends.

   However, even though they start using, some kinds of social networking sites are difficult to use efficiently. In my experience, when I started using Facebook and Twitter, one of my friends taught me how to use them.

   In addition, when you use them as a tool to communicate with people who never met, you might be worried what topics you should talk and know about them. Among them, they feel troublesome thinking about these things and quite using them eventually.

　　　In fact, the average number of friends in Japan is 53 people (the average number of friends in the world is 80 people) in 2012. And the ratio of people whose friends on Facebook is under 10 is 47.4％. It means that many people don’t use a lot and the number of people who are related on Facebook is less than in the real world. In short, many Japanese people don’t use social networking sites effectively.

   I think one of the reasons is the Japanese are not good at communicating, because they are shy in front of unknown people. Many people are worried about how to continue a conversation.

   To improve such a situation, NEC, one of the Japanese electrical equipment manufactures, invented a new technology to active conversation on social networking sites. The technology can analyze people’s interests and friendship networks from social networking sites and browsing histories on Internet. From them, the technology can suggest people a topic. According to an article (in Japanese), the company did operation test in Sendai, one of the disaster-stricken area of the Tohoku earthquake in 2011. 
　　　The result was the amount of communication increased 2.1 times compared with before. In addition, the amount of friend’s registration among people who used the technology increased 3.1 times. That is why the company expects the technology will be helpful to promote people’s public participation.

   The technology might look to force people to communication, however I think it is very useful especially in the disaster-stricken area, because a lot of people still feel isolation. I hope the technology will be practicalized soon.

   We tend to think that the breadth of the community (circle) we are related to become widen. However, Lanier points out the problem of Internet. According to him, our communities and ideas have more subject to “lock-in” than in previous eras. In addition, the world of Internet might not have objectivity, because only a few engineers can construct the system of Internet. In such a “locked-in” situation, our communities have changed. 
   
   In the book, Lanier gives an example Facebook as a locked-in community. On Facebook, we have “friends”. The notion of “friends” on Facebook is a kind of different from the real one. This is because people can become a friend with someone even though we have no connection between us.
    
   However, some people tend to think their “friends” as real friends.  Moreover, when you post something about yourself, you only present it on a locked-in community in the end. Not a few people tend to see the locked-in community as an absolute community. 

   In short, people themselves are locked-in by Internet. Internet makes our life enrich. On the other hand, we have to keep our mind that too much dependence upon Internet might be dangerous. 

Media Engagement

   By the spread of smartphones and computers, we can bring Internet, one of the media gives us innumerable information, with us. We refer to Internet when we choose something. For example, we can look over the most appropriate way to go somewhere and we can see the reviews what I want to buy. In addition, one of the things many companies pay attention and try to take in their business now is social marketing. When companies make a new merchandise, they consult people’s opinions in Internet. In other words, people “engage” the invention through Internet. The opportunities of media engagement is increasing lately. Media engagement doesn’t means that people just engage but they are interested in the information, as a result of it, they influence and act some action.

    Media engagement through Internet makes use of the characteristics of Internet, easiness of engaging and spreading information beyond communities people belong to. We may do media engagement unconsciously. One of the examples of media engagement is hashtag on Twitter. As TWIG reported, google glass was announce the other day. Although it haven’t sold yet, now, google recruits “explore”, who can use earlier than others. If you want to get it(you have to pay $1500 though), you have to tweet about what you want using google glass with attaching #ifhadglass. Among people tweet them, explores will be chosen. It is a kind of media engagement. This is because people can know a lot of ways through others' tweets.  In addition, google can advertise google glass by being tweeting. The marketing way is smart, because google can spread the advertisement easily to many people and for free! 

   I think the opportunities of media engagement will be increase more and more, because the number of digital natives who are used to using Internet will be increase in the near future. It is good to find a way to make use of the environment effectively.

The ways to connect with others

According to Gladwell’s article, there are two kinds of ties to connect other people. One is “strong ties”, it bases on face-to-face connections. He gives an example of the protest caused four college students (they were friends) by in 1960. He argues that the protest was succeeded, because they had “strong ties”. The other is “weak ties”. The relationships people connect by Internet. He says that SNS are tools for building networks. They don’t need leaders who control activities, because they occur online. In short, he states that physical activities, like a demonstration and a strike, have more influences than actives on Internet.

 However, I cannot agree with his argument, because I think Internet connections are not always “weak ties”. As Larry Rosen said in his lecture, communications using Internet become more common especially among young people, they tend to think Internet communication is main way to communication their friends. In addition, in my experience, LINE (one of very popular Internet service in Japan. we can send message, stamps, movies, images and call for free) has a group function. This is an example Internet tool is useful to make “strong ties”. We can make ”group” within our friends list. (Friends are shown automatically if we know our friends’ addresses and telephone numbers or if we search friends’ ID, we can add them as friends) In the group, everyone can post like the picture. In my case, I join some groups, for example, Waseda students in Lawrence, even classmates in junior high school. I can say they are a kind of reconstructing and reinforcing our communities. Therefore, I think some kinds of tools using Internet have a role to reinforce to people’s tie. That is why I think Internet is useful to connect people strongly.

And I was surprise to see an Egyptian activist’s blog, because her site is much more casual than I had expected. Although I thought activists are very serious and state extreme things, it was not. She even wrote about an occurrence meteorite fell in Russia. I think the aim is to attract people’s attentions and urge people to participate and support her activities. I could understand a bit the reason many people become interested in joining activities thorough Internet. 

Tired of social networking

   I use four social networking sites. They are Facebook, twitter, mixi(one of the social networking site in Japan) and Myspace. I use Facebook and twitter on a daily basis. When I was in Japan, I used them very often even if I did’t have a reason to see them. When I had a little time, I open them unconsciously. In short, seeing social networking sites was being a habit. I think I was addicted to use social networking sites. A lot of my friends are also use plural social networking sites and often use them like me. 

    Now, many people use social networking sites and we can communicate with others easily. On the other hand, I often hear about defects of social networking sites these days. One of them is being tried of social networking sites. By using social networking sites, people get more opportunities to communicate with others and know about others’ lives. A social networking site is a tool to “connect”. However, the connection can make people feel stress.

   Some days ago, I saw an article. According to the article, “Positive images of friends enjoying holidays, commenting on their happy lives or simply posting pet pictures was enough to trigger feelings of jealousy, experts from Berlin's Humboldt University and Darmstadt's Technical University found.” In short, by seeing people’s lives, some people feel jealous, stress and isolation. Moreover, “The academics said people who surfed a lot on such sites were in danger of becoming socially isolated and depressed.”  As you see from it, if you use social networking too much, they can cause bad effects for us.

   Therefore, it might be good to make rules about using social networking sites. Using them moderately and thinking balance of relationship between Internet communication and real communication are important.