Social networking

Social networking services are designed to facilitate interpersonal interaction. But experts have warned that excessive use of these virtual ‘connecting’ tools may actually cause users to disconnect from the real world. You are on holiday in a foreign country. When you get to a sightseeing spot, do you immediately start to look for free Wi-Fi hotspots to ‘check in’ on Facebook and post your travel pictures? Are you busy posting pictures of the food on the table even though you only have an hour to finish your meal? If you often do these things, you are not alone.Such habits are, in fact, quite common nowadays. With over one billion registered users, Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world. It has been dubbed the ‘third largest country in the world’, as only China and India have bigger populations.And, according to a recent study, 40 percent of Hong Kong people use Facebook, some for as long as nine hours a day. With such a huge user base, its coverage is broad. Hence it is a potent platform for connecting people. If you are trying to contact a long-lost friend or relative, as long as you have their name, you will most likely be able to do so via Facebook. Network bubble Social networking sites enable people to be in touch with more friends, more often. But some experts in the United States are warning that these services do not enrich users’ social lives. They say over-reliance on online communication could eventually put a greater distance between people in the real world. For example, they say Facebook users will eventually migrate all their social communication online, and friends will end up seeing or talking to each other less and less. Is this good or bad for interpersonal relationships? Online opportunities Having an effective way to mobilise people makes it easier to organise social campaigns. Features such as ‘Groups’ or special topical pages of Facebook can, and have been, used to serve this purpose. Social media can be a positive force that helps society change for the better. Sites can provide a channel for ‘small’ people to be heard. Locally, there have been a few major social campaigns that were organised on the Facebook platform. A memorable one was the movement against the demolition of Choi Yuen Village for the construction of the Hong Kong-Guangzhou high-speed rail link. Over 1,000 people were mobilized to stage a protest outside the Legislative Council. Trial by netizens However, the power of social media can be used to inflame public sentiments irresponsibly, and as a tool for ‘public lynching’ online. Earlier this year, several Baptist University students became the targets of public attack on the internet for requesting cheap meals from a small shop that offered below-cost meals to the poor and the homeless. Some netizens took issue with the students for “adding to the burden of the shop” and started to hurl abuse at them on the web, calling them “rubbish” and “beggars”. The incident was widely reported in the mainstream media, and the students were eventually pressured to stage a dramatic apology in front of TV cameras by bowing to the owner of the shop. Facebook fixation Quite a few Facebook users have become addicted to the website, and experience anxiety if they are unable to use it. Some users are also afflicted by a condition called “Fear of Missing Out” (錯失恐懼症), which causes them to live in constant fear of missing out on messages from friends, or having friends missing their messages. As a result, they compulsively check Facebook. The speedy update of information on Facebook and its capacity for instantaneous communication could keep its users on edge in anticipation of incoming messages.  Source: Adapted from Lon Yan, Visual Worlds Apart. The Junior Standard. 5 November, 2013.