Social Networking Sites.
In many respects, the social media/Social Networking Sites (SNS) are changing the ways in which we communicate and acquire information online. The social media created a new platform, or a public digital space that affects how we interact with one another. The increasing popularity of bite-size information seems to reflect the progressive changes in our concept of time, lifestyle and how we consume information.
Compared to a more personal style of online interaction through emails, SNS uses the online space for people to communicate publicly. As noted by Jedidiah, although there are debates as to whether online communication can substitute face-to-face interaction, what is interesting about SNS is that people can “see” what other people are talking, even if you are not directly involved in the conversation.
Of course, SNS is a great social tool to keep in touch with friends or acquaintances. But in addition, I think the potential and the effectiveness of SNS lie in the speed of real time updating of the information and the way it can be a great resource for like-minded individuals to share/collect information and collaborate towards the same goal, whether it be planning parties, school related events, or even politically related actions. The possibility of SNS depends on their users.
I hope this doesn’t sound too abstract, but I think SNS users live in 2 realities: one offline and another online. Once you log into your SNS account, you are consciously or subcontinuously making a switch between two identities. My point is not to argue that these two identities do not always coincide, but I just wanted to note that the SNS user’s online posts shape the identity of the user. And what is peculiar about SNS is that whatever the user posts online is visible to the rest of the SNS users who are connected to the user as a “friend” or a “follower” and the user also has a choice to make it visible to anybody with access to the internet.
This is probably enough from my rant on SNS – how does this all relate to the work of Invisible Children?
My thoughts started to spin around because of an answer I got from Jedidiah about a question I asked:
“When did Invisible Children started to use SNS and why?”
His answer was “from day 1” that IC was founded and he perceives SNS as a “manifestation of personality of the people who work here”.
In response to my other question about who updates the IC’s SNS, Jedidiah explained both the difficulties of coordinating the “level of cohesiveness” in representing the voice of IC [because the IC has multiple staffs who have access to their SNS account] but also the opportunities in using the SNS strategically to “be something that does not exist” by personifying the organization to give it a more human quality to the organization.
What does this really mean and how does it work? For the next blog post I will be exploring the theme of SNS in more detail, by analyzing the following SNS used by the IC:
· Twitter
· Facebook
Hope you are getting excited about our Visible People Project’s progress as we are!
Got a Twitter account? Follow or Tweet us @ visible_people :)
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