What are Your Opinions on Social Networking?

[Mr Saturn64 742]

I have none unless forums like this are counted, to which I have 4. (this being the only one I have over 1,000 posts on) and I really don't see the reasoning behind it, so pardon the poll and its flaws. The only person in my direct family with a Facebook is my mom, who got a picture of a baby donkey on crutches for friending someone, which didn't help its reputation in my book

[Duke87 1,070]

I mostly avoided Facebook for quite a while but for the past couple years I've been checking it at least once a day. I chalk this up to that as I've gotten older I've become more sociable than I used to be and have taken an interest to keeping in touch with friends where I really didn't used to.

 

I also have a Twitter account but I never tweet anything, it's just for following stuff.

 

And I did have a Myspace page back in the day but I never really used it.

 

 

Forums I don't really consider to be a "social network" for one thing because they predate the concept of social networking and thus really can't logically be part of it... but I would also say there are a few key differences:

1) social networks are for general audiences. Forums are generally targeted at a particular group around a particular interest (SimCity in our case).

2) you usually know at least some of the people you connect with on a social network in real life. Members on forums, meanwhile, rarely know each other outside of the internet.

3) social networks usually give you some capacity to control what you share with whom, creating a sense of privacy. Things posted on forums are usually more or less public.

[Bdub01 201]

Since I got my iPhone I bounce between ST and FB. I don't tweet or have a my space or Instagram accounts. I've been on FB got years. I use to play castle age ALL THE TIME!!!! I was a leader in a guild and got up to I think I was higher than a baron. But it's been so long since I played. The only reason I stopped is because I got bored with it. I still go through FB and troll pages just to start stuff for the fun of it.

If ST ONLY dealt with SC I would say its not a social network. But since there is this general forum and other games on here I believe it could pass for the next twitter or FB . I've already met several folks that live within a couple hours of me and I'm sure there are others as well.

[lhrob 213]

- I don't use Facebook anymore, so I deleted my account a while back.  I used to like MySpace a lot.  But no one I knew wanted to use it because they thought Facebook was better (an opinion I did not, and still do not, share).  I was told the only way I would be able to stay updated about what was going on in anyone's lives was if I signed up for Facebook.  I did it reluctantly, and quickly found out how much I disliked it.  Plus, very few people communicated with me much after signing up, despite being led to believe that would be the only way I'd stay updated on their lives.

 

- I'm actually thinking about signing up for Pinterest.

 

- Should forums like Simtropolis be considered social networks?  Well, you already have social interaction here...and people can post photos of themselves, or info about their lives in their profile pages here.  But since this is a website with such a narrow focus, I don't think it could be considered a true social network.

 

- Are social networks the main reason for poor grammar?  I don't think social networks have anything to do with it.  But I do believe texting is one of the primary reasons why spelling and grammar are in such a sorry state these days.

[Wiecher 192]

I use Facebook mostly for groups. For the committees I do for my study association, it's even impossible to not have Facebook. 
And when I'm going abroad with friends, we have a group for that as well, and there's a group for the European network of geography students, to keep in contact with people from all over Europe. I have a group for planning game evenings with my friends, and a group to share study related stuff.
Also, every party and other event is announced mostly on Facebook. I'd miss all parties if I wouldn't use it.
And I use it for exchanging photos with people I went on holiday with, or new friends I met abroad.

But I rarely ever do status updates.

And about the grammar? I think it's completely unrelated to social networks. People are just uneducated (or want to look uneducated, because in modern society, being smart is unpopular)

[MandelSoft 2,774]

So, here are my two cents about the topic.

Yes, I do have Facebook, but currently, it only catches dust. I started it like a year and a half ago, but I quickly lost interest and just left it there (still with lots of privacy stuff options set to on so little people actually see it). So, I wouldn't say I actually USE Facebook. I don't have accounts at any other social networking website.

Should SimTropolis be considered as a social networking site? I'm not sure. Some aspects do allow social interaction, like the chat and some of the off-topic sections. But as a main focus, it remains a gaming website. All things organised in a social context around this site are not the main focus of the website.

But I does open up gateways to real social interaction in some cases. Last year in April, me and some other members of the dutch-speaking community held a meeting in Rotterdam. It was a success and we're planning to do the same in Gent in the end of May this year. Furthermore, I actually met Felix (Riiga) two weeks ago in Real Life. He stayed over here, we all planned it in the chat, and we would've never met if it wasn't for that one place of common interest: SimCity 4 and Road geekery, both present on SimTropolis. In this way, the internet can be a blessing

About spelling and grammar issues being caused by social networking sites: I think it's only a minor contribution. It does "train" people in some way to use poor grammar, but I think part of it is also the laziness of the writer himself/herself, or (to quote Linkara from ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com) "because poor literacy is KEWL!". It's not just limited to social networking sites only. I see it in more locations, especially everywhere on the internet you can leave a comment.

Best,

Maarten

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

I have Facebook, because I live on the opposite side of the world from my family and the few people back home I'm still friends with (FB didn't actually help keep us in touch all that good, but it could also be because I am a misanthrope).  I had Myspace for the same reason when I first moved to Japan, but that very quickly became uncool and I've been on FB since.  I don't get Twitter and I don't use Instagram or any of that other stuff.

 

I think that online forums in general are kind of social networking type things.  You could kind of umbrella them all, especially since here at ST we have the friends thing, and the "What's on your mind?" thing where we get to post a one-liner at each other.  This sort of thing is expanding across the internet, and it has started invading the consoles, too.  The Wii U is quite heavily socialized, from my understanding of it.

 

I think that our grammar in general is not as poor as everyone likes to think it is.  I think it's just that the outliers who use terrible, horrendous grammar all the time attract attention and make everyone in their demographic look bad.  Gotta remember, most of us are in the middle, and we are all capable of making mistakes.  Even me, a dude who teaches English and considers himself something of a writer, I'm pretty sure that you can find posts I've written here that are awful, grammar-wise.  It just happens.  That said, people who suck at grammar, native speakers who suck at spelling and using proper grammar when writing, they should try a little harder.  The smart ones, though, they could stop pointing it out as obnoxiously as possible, too.

[VanGioRobNelli 29]

I use Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

 

 

FACEBOOK

I used to be a HARDCORE facebook addict in college, but after graduation, I immediately noticed a drop in usage.  Now I go on once to twice a week just to clear messages and keep updated with my friends around the US and the rest of the World.  Facebook is a really great tool to keep connected to all the people you do not see on a normal basis. 

 

TWITTER

Ok, I am addicted.  Twitter is INGENIOUS for the business world.  The ability to convey a mass message and that allows immediate consumer feedback has revolutionized the marketing world.  I know some businesses that simply put, probably would not have much sustainability without Twitter. 

 

LINKEDIN

The best modern tool for digital business-to-business, professional-to-professional networking, period. 

[lhrob 213]

A quick side-note about poor grammar...

 

This is a true story.  About 9 years ago I worked with a girl who had just graduated high school.  While talking to her one day, I asked if she had plans to attend college.  She said yes, and I asked her what she wanted to major in.  She said "English", and told me she wanted to be a high-school English teacher.  I thought it was fantastic!  I said to her "I bet you speak gooder English than I", to which she replied "That's okay, I'll learn you how to talk it right."  

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Looking at the poll, which I answered quite truthfully, it lacks the idea of multiple answers.  I have both facebook and twitter accounts.

 

I don't use either regularly, and mostly use facebook to keep in  touch with my daughter's family in Newfoundland.  I hardly ever log on to any social network, so called.  A better title for them would be babble wires.

 

As for grammar, the biggest culprit is the parents and the next worst is the school systems.  Neither spend enough time and effort to get it right the first time.

 

English grammar, in particular, once you get past the basics becomes very arcane.  To avoid all this, I always recommended my students get a little paperback called "Elements of Style" by Strunk and White.  It is a newspaper style guide, and it is good enough for most college papers with the exception of people in English degree courses when the recommended work is "Fowler's English Usage" published by the Oxford University Press.  This tome takes several pages to discuss the preposition 'of'.  It also has a whole diatribe on punctuation under the title 'stops'.

 

Now, English is a living language and it is full of dialects.  There are two basic dialect groups on this continent alone called General Canadian, and General American.  This is why we can understand each other, but even then things are different.  Up here a serviette is something you use at table to clean your fingers and lips, but what is called a serviette in the UK is what we call a sanitary napkin.  Living languages are full of traps like that.

 

However, the general format of English sentences is generally subject verb modifiers/object.  It isn't that hard, but the number of people who can't write a proper sentence is staggering.  As a post-secondary teacher it was always annoyed by this because it is prevalent among first-year students who often had to take bone-head English as one of their first courses when they failed the admission test.

 

Worse, still, is that spoken and written English are somewhat different.  In speaking one can often use the context to abbreviate and be generally sloppy, while in writing one is representing oneself in a more permanent medium.  "The moving finger writes and having writ moves on"^*.  Nothing can retract this if it is published in any way, and especially on the Internet.  The Internet also has a better memory than an Elephant, and stuff you write 10 years ago can come back to bite you.

 

The Internet is like Bob Ashcroft's secretary.  In his book on management style his recommendation was: "Fire your secretary.  Those records she keeps will get you convicted of something, someday."

 

The "social networks" are treated by the unwary as if they were conversations.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Stuff on the Internet is in writing, it is broadcast, and it represent the writer in all his glory.

 

---

* The Rubyat of Omar Kayyam.

[Haljackey 17,380]

I actually have a Facebook page

 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Haljackey/362423807168438

 

 

Nearly all of my friends have Facebook, and it's the main tool we use to connect these days. Facebook chat is good for messaging, groups/events are good for planning get-togethers and stuff.

 

I also have a Twitter account, but do not use it nearly as much as Facebook.

 

You can use tools such as 'Addthis' to seemlessly link sites like ST to social media sites. I don't think that ST needs social network integration but I don't think it hurts either.

 

I do not think social networking is a source for spelling/grammar issues. That's more texting lol.

[Bdub01 201]

^ I "liked" your page!!!

[nemusd 22]

I don't use any of the social networks. I had FB, but i deleted my profile since i didn't know what's the purpose. Ironically, i think that social networks desocialise people.

Greetings all,

Have a beer on me,

Nemus

[S A 0]

My opinion about social networking is in two forms.

 

1.The term social refers to a characteristic of living organisms as applied to populations of humans and other animals.

It always refers to the interaction of organisms with other organisms and to their collective co-existence, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and irrespective of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary.

 

2.Network Meaning: A group of interconnected (via cable and/or wireless) computers and peripherals that is capable of sharing software and hardware resources between many users. The Internet is a global network of networks. See also local area network and wide area network. Communications: A system that enables users of telephones or data communications lines to exchange information over long distances by connecting with each other through a system of routers,servers, switches, and the like.

 

If we combine both together they have different component and also need each-other  Social Network is a means of passing information and inter-exchanging either in a physical form or by using technology.

 

 

Social network It does not necessarily using Facebook and so on because it's a characteristic of living organisms.

 

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