Well, here we go…<\/p>\n
Given my current day job as a Production Manager in a web company, I have been a bit negligent in engaging in the very medium my company promotes to clients.\u00a0 Until recently, I was one of the 60% of users who sign up and then stops using social mediums such as FaceBook, MySpace, and Twitter after the first month (1<\/a>).\u00a0 Similar statistics and reasons I assume for gym memberships.\u00a0 Then last month, my birthday served as a good excuse as any to finally commit to engaging in this not-so-new-anymore medium of social interaction as part of a personal social experiment.<\/strong><\/p>\n I started my newfound commitment to cyber-expression by resurrecting my FaceBook page, to which the application guided me through the process of connecting with a respectable 50 or so friends.\u00a0 I then downloaded TweetDeck, which allows me to see my tweets and post to FaceBook and Twitter in one action.\u00a0 Finally, after a bit of research, I selected WordPress as my blog of choice and deployed to this site you are visiting.<\/p>\n But I must ask myself, \u201cWhy am I doing this?<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0 And are my reasons the same as the millions of others?\u00a0 The number of Twitter registered users is in the unknown millions (2<\/a>), although along with the previous 60% stat, 80% have less than 10 followers (3<\/a>) (I have 20 at the moment, thank you very much).\u00a0 Facebook is estimated to be between 200 and 300 million users by the end of 2009 (4<\/a>).\u00a0 My recent WordPress blog was hardly noticed among the 15 million installations (5<\/a>).<\/p>\n My personal answer to why: a burning desire for community, to share with and be a part of other\u2019s lives<\/strong>.\u00a0 I would also propose that there is something in community for which we are all desperate, a need to engage with those understanding our position.\u00a0 We of the consumer-driven neoliberal society live in a cultural paradox.\u00a0 We have more opportunities than ever to engage in community, but we cling to our highlighted individuality, celebrated as the consumer god to be worshiped.<\/p>\n We are confronted with media-driven opportunities to engage in communities<\/strong>, such as those who like similar music artists, TV shows, religious beliefs, philosophical positions, political views, regional-aid groups, global initiatives, industry forums\u2026 and the list goes on.\u00a0 Each of these creates identity markers to add to our established persona such as family member, worker, or general society contributor.<\/p>\n It is this fragmentation that author Richard Sennet refers to as \u201cThe Corrosion of Character<\/strong><\/em>\u201d (6<\/a>).\u00a0 As Sennet states, we have little to hold together in emotional terms for a self that is constituted entirely through brief episodes and fragments.\u00a0 He calls this the supermarket identity, made up of scraps and bits and pieces.\u00a0 This identity suits global capitalism just fine, as we flit from career to career driven by a societal pace that would have appeared as madness only a few decades ago.<\/p>\n I recently shared a coffee with a friend who raised concerns over the recent social communication phenomena.\u00a0 He stated dual criticisms of people sharing intimacies with the masses which they normally would not share in personal conversation, and a general laziness to engaging with community.\u00a0 While I do not disagree with his observations, I would defend the offenders.<\/p>\n Our diverse roles demand new forms of communication that often become communities in themselves<\/strong>.\u00a0 Brick and mortar traditional community groups struggle to adapt to these new forms, leaving those who now depend on the new forms to feel increasingly misunderstood and\/or question the relevance of the traditional forms of community.\u00a0 With society demanding so much of our time, how can we not give in to the simplicity of single status updates or \u201ctweets\u201d to convey our current condition?\u00a0 Is it laziness, or grasping onto community the only way we feel we can within our hectic context?<\/p>\n At this stage, I am unsure where I will end up. <\/strong>Will my social marketing efforts lead to increased fragmentation of my postmodern self, or will I find that nirvana balance of community and communication?\u00a0 Will people gain a deeper understanding of me, and I of them, or will they just find out what I look like in Speedos, like this guy (7<\/a>)?\u00a0 We shall see, my Facebook friend, we shall see.<\/p>\n (1) http:\/\/blog.nielsen.com\/nielsenwire\/online_mobile\/twitter-quitters-post-roadblock-to-long-term-growth\/<\/a> Given my current day job as a Production Manager in a web company, I have been a bit negligent in engaging in the very medium my company promotes to clients. <\/span>Until recently, I was one of the 60% of users who sign up and then stops using social mediums such as FaceBook, MySpace, and Twitter after the first month (1). <\/span>Similar statistics and reasons I assume for gym memberships. <\/span>Then last month, my birthday served as a good excuse as any to finally commit to engaging in this not-so-new-anymore medium of social interaction as part of a personal social experiment. <\/span><\/p>\n \n I started my newfound commitment to cyber-expression by resurrecting my FaceBook page, to which the application guided me through the process of connecting with a respectable 50 or so friends. <\/span>I then downloaded TweetDeck, which allows me to see my tweets and post to FaceBook and Twitter in one action. <\/span>Finally, after a bit of research, I selected WordPress as my blog of choice and deployed to this site you are visiting.<\/p>\n \n But I must ask myself, \u201cWhy am I doing this?\u201d <\/span>And are my reasons the same as the millions of others? <\/span>The number of Twitter registered users is in the unknown millions (2), although along with the previous 60% stat, 80% have less than 10 followers (3) (I have 20 at the moment, thank you very much). <\/span>Facebook is estimated to be between 200 and 300 million users by the end of 2009 (4). <\/span>My recent WordPress blog was hardly noticed among the 15 million installations (5).<\/p>\n \n My personal answer to why: a burning desire for community, to share with and be a part of other\u2019s lives. <\/span>I would also propose that there is something in community for which we are all desperate, a need to engage with those understanding our position. <\/span>We of the consumer-driven neoliberal society live in a cultural paradox. <\/span>We have more opportunities than ever to engage in community, but we cling to our highlighted individuality, celebrated as the consumer god to be worshiped.<\/p>\n \n We are confronted with media-driven opportunities to engage in communities, such as those who like similar music artists, TV shows, religious beliefs, philosophical positions, political views, regional-aid groups, global initiatives, industry forums\u2026 and the list goes on. <\/span>Each of these creates identity markers to add to our established persona such as family member, worker, or general society contributor. <\/span><\/p>\n \n It is this fragmentation that author Richard Sennet refers to as \u201cThe Corrosion of Character\u201d (6). <\/span>As Sennet states, we have little to hold together in emotional terms for a self that is constituted entirely through brief episodes and fragments. <\/span>He calls this the supermarket identity, made up of scraps and bits and pieces. <\/span>This identity suits global capitalism just fine, as we flit from career to career driven by a societal pace that would have appeared as madness only a few decades ago.<\/p>\n \n I recently shared a coffee with a friend who raised concerns over the recent social communication phenomena. <\/span>He stated dual criticisms of people sharing intimacies with the masses which they normally would not share in personal conversation, and a general laziness to engaging with community. <\/span>While I do not disagree with his observations, I would defend the offenders. <\/span><\/p>\n \n Our diverse roles demand new forms of communication that often become communities in themselves. <\/span>Brick and mortar traditional community groups struggle to adapt to these new forms, leaving those who now depend on the new forms to feel increasingly misunderstood and\/or question the relevance of the traditional forms of community. <\/span>With society demanding so much of our time, how can we not give in to the simplicity of single status updates or \u201ctweets\u201d to convey our current condition? <\/span>Is it laziness, or grasping onto community the only way we feel we can within our hectic context?<\/p>\n \n Will my social marketing efforts lead to increased fragmentation of my postmodern self, or will I find that nirvana balance of community and communication? <\/span>Will people gain a deeper understanding of me, and I of them, or will they just find out what I look like in Speedos, like this guy? <\/span>We shall see, my Facebook friend (7), we shall see.<\/p>\n \n (1) http:\/\/blog.nielsen.com\/nielsenwire\/online_mobile\/twitter-quitters-post-roadblock-to-long-term-growth\/<\/a><\/p>\n (2) http:\/\/www.techcrunch.com\/2009\/04\/20\/how-many-new-twitter-users-post-oprah-a-lot-maybe-over-a-million\/<\/a><\/p>\n (3) http:\/\/www.techcrunch.com\/2009\/06\/06\/on-twitter-most-people-are-sheep-80-percent-of-accounts-have-fewer-than-10-follower\/<\/a><\/p>\n (4) http:\/\/blog.socialcash.com\/post\/2009\/02\/05\/How-many-users-will-Facebook-have-by-the-end-of-09.aspx<\/a><\/p>\n (5) http:\/\/en.wordpress.com\/stats\/<\/a><\/p>\n (6) http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0393319873<\/a><\/p>\n
\n(2) http:\/\/www.techcrunch.com\/2009\/04\/20\/how-many-new-twitter-users-post-oprah-a-lot-maybe-over-a-million\/<\/a>
\n(3) http:\/\/www.techcrunch.com\/2009\/06\/06\/on-twitter-most-people-are-sheep-80-percent-of-accounts-have-fewer-than-10-follower\/<\/a>
\n(4) http:\/\/blog.socialcash.com\/post\/2009\/02\/05\/How-many-users-will-Facebook-have-by-the-end-of-09.aspx<\/a>
\n(5) http:\/\/en.wordpress.com\/stats\/<\/a>
\n(6) http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0393319873
\n<\/a>(7) http:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/i\/pix\/2009\/07\/04\/article-1197562-0598AE66000005DC-770_306x836.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n
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