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Networking Sites
Sep. 30th, 2006 12:42 pmA week and a half ago, we kicked off the fall semester of the Tuesday night Bible study I've been attending for a few months now. Since it was the first week and the leaders wanted everyone to start on the same page, we used that particular evening just to get to know each other - in a structured environment: We went around the room telling a little about ourselves and answering a question. When it got to one girl, one of the guys commented, "And you're engaged!" His wife said, "I was going to ask her about that later - privately." LOL! So the girl went on to explain that this was a Facebook rumor that had been started as a joke by some friends. And then she said she hated Facebook...
I've actually learned (directly or indirectly) of two fairly recent engagements via Facebook, so it can actually spread news rather than just rumors, but I have started to think recently about how the internet allows rumors to develop faster and spread further than we've ever experienced previously...granted, it also makes things a little easier to confirm (in both of the cases where I heard rumors, I was able to message the people immediately and find out that they were, indeed, engaged). But what about those who don't make the effort to confirm such rumors and instead spread them?
Last night, my mom talked to someone on the phone who told her that someone they knew saw something on MySpace about a mutual friend/acquaintance. Actually, I take that back. The people talking to my mom probably didn't say anything about MySpace because they probably either don't know what it is or haven't checked it out. Anyway, I knew exactly what they were referring to because I had seen the same thing as the person who talked to the people my mom talked to on the phone (how convoluted can you get?). And, when I told my mom something I had seen about someone I haven't even met...on MySpace, she repeated what I said to the parents of said person (even though what I had said was based on a rather vague memory of what I had seen). When she told me about the surprised response of the person's parent, I was thinking, "Wait - why did you repeat something I said about something I saw online?! It might not have been accurate - either in what was said online or in what I remember."
MySpace, Xanga, and Facebook have actually allowed me to reconnect with many relatives and long lost friends, so I've kind of appreciated that aspect of things. But it just weirds me out that I can sit down in church and talk to a friend about something that she heard from my mom after I told my mom about something I saw online. Oh...I'm not making this clear. It's just weirdness...the interaction of offline and online activity is just weird.
I've actually learned (directly or indirectly) of two fairly recent engagements via Facebook, so it can actually spread news rather than just rumors, but I have started to think recently about how the internet allows rumors to develop faster and spread further than we've ever experienced previously...granted, it also makes things a little easier to confirm (in both of the cases where I heard rumors, I was able to message the people immediately and find out that they were, indeed, engaged). But what about those who don't make the effort to confirm such rumors and instead spread them?
Last night, my mom talked to someone on the phone who told her that someone they knew saw something on MySpace about a mutual friend/acquaintance. Actually, I take that back. The people talking to my mom probably didn't say anything about MySpace because they probably either don't know what it is or haven't checked it out. Anyway, I knew exactly what they were referring to because I had seen the same thing as the person who talked to the people my mom talked to on the phone (how convoluted can you get?). And, when I told my mom something I had seen about someone I haven't even met...on MySpace, she repeated what I said to the parents of said person (even though what I had said was based on a rather vague memory of what I had seen). When she told me about the surprised response of the person's parent, I was thinking, "Wait - why did you repeat something I said about something I saw online?! It might not have been accurate - either in what was said online or in what I remember."
MySpace, Xanga, and Facebook have actually allowed me to reconnect with many relatives and long lost friends, so I've kind of appreciated that aspect of things. But it just weirds me out that I can sit down in church and talk to a friend about something that she heard from my mom after I told my mom about something I saw online. Oh...I'm not making this clear. It's just weirdness...the interaction of offline and online activity is just weird.
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