Monday, October 8, 2007
Internet in Everyday life
We didnt get a chance to touch on it in class but I was intrigued by the idea of the internet not changing behavior but exaggerating what we already do (22) The example the book offers is "increasing circles of friends for the outgoing and successful among us, and decreasing social circles for the rest". I'm willing to accept that internet behavior does exaggerate our social tendencies thus the "popular" kids maybe have more facebook friends than the not so popular. But the internet allows more people to unite in a comfortable atmosphere based on common interests, so introverts may have more friends online than they would have otherwise not acquired because of their timidness. It seems like this idea that extroverts benefit more from the internet than introverts is in essence belittling virtual communities. I was just curious as to what other people thought about this idea.
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Yeah, I'm also not entirely convinced about this. It seems necessarily to be very careful what one means by "extrovert" and "introvert," for one thing. There are introverts who are not shy, for instance. And there are introverts who have learned to network quite effectively. Likewise, there are extroverts who may find face-to-face contact quite stimulating but not gain the same energy from online contact. I think there is more going on here than the generalization "extrovert" and "introvert" get at . . .
I think it exaggerates the quantification of acquaintances but it doesn't necessarily 'benefit' extroverts more. I agree with Lorraine in that introverts may network effectively and have more to gain in net formation of relationships online. In terms of having a greater roster of friends (the facebook-as-rolodex example) maybe tests extrovers as more successful in both realms, when in fact these numbers fail to factor in the intensity and depth of relationships, as well as relationships formed on the internet vs. relationships merely represented on it.
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