Sharing

Van Dijck broke the book up into sections of different types of social media. In the section on Facebook, one of the subtitles is “Coding Facebook: The Devil is in the Default.” She is referring to how Facebook has automatically defaults the privacy setting to public, meaning people have to purposely change them to make their information (and pictures) private. I think one of van Dijck’s biggest faults is how subjective she is about this topic. She briefly acknowledges that it isn’t all bad, “In many way’s Facebook’s connective functions provide empowering and enriching social experiences” (2013, p. 47). However, even the subtitle of that section already indicates her position on having profiles that are that public. Van Dijck argues that Facebook changed the norms associated with sharing. There is not only a shift toward expanding your social network, but there is also now more of a push to have more interactions with all virtual life outside of the social networking sites like Facebook. Van Dijck describes this as other sites taking on some of the features, like many sites have started using the like button. I think van Dijck makes an important point, because before Facebook started using this feature, there wasn’t such a widespread push to connect with other people on the Internet like there is now. Many other social networking sites, including Twitter, Tumblr and Pinterest, include some kind of feature that indicates you agree with or like someone else’s content, regardless of whether or not you are actually “connected” to that person. 

Van Dijck points out how Facebook made terms like “sharing”, “friending” and “liking” more expansive terms, and Twitter made terms like “following” and “trending” more expansive. I found these arguments valid, because there are many examples of these terms merging with other social media sites and they have greater meanings now that aren’t specific to those two SNSs. Social media is increasingly becoming about expanding your networks and connecting with people that you may not know in any other context. These sites encourage people to divulge more information and pay attention to what other people are sharing. In The Network Society, Jan van Dijk has similar arguments to José van Dijck about social networking. She says, “[Media networks] are a potential social threat to privacy in private life, and at the same time they are a condition for the fulfillment of the need for social communication and information in the same spheres of privatized life” (2006, p. 161). Both of them make good points, because while we are able to have better connections with people through SNSs, we are also giving up a lot of privacy (and sometimes we aren’t even aware of how much). Overall, van Dijck exposes some of the consequences from this new norm of sharing so much information, and she raises good questions about why we are so willing to share. 

 

One of van Dijck’s biggest flaws is the way the language that she uses to make some of her main arguments. As one of the reviews mentions, van Dijck has a tendency to use many complex concepts in one sentence. This actually detracted from some of her arguments, because the reader has to spend more time figuring out what she is trying to say than taking in what she is getting at. If she were more straightforward and concise, her arguments would be clearer. It wasn’t that the writing was at too high of a level for me to understand, because I understood most of the vocabulary that she used. She just used more complex language than she needed to given that the book is centered on the topic of social media.

 

Ellen DeGeneres exposes just how public many people's photos are by publicly surprising audience members with their own embarrassing Facebook photos. 

The first minute of this tech update announces that Facebook is now going to have video ads automatically playing in people's NewsFeeds. They are also introducing a "Donate Now" feature to help non-profit causes. However, this also means that Facebook will be storing your credit card information if/when you donate.

Shares [image]. Retrieved December 18, 2013 from: http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Safe-on-Social-Networking-Sites

Social sharing [image]. 2013. Retrieved December 18, 2013 from: http://geekymobilegadgets.com/news/done-wp-installation-get-plugins-next-stage/

Van Dijck, Jan A.G.M. (2006). Social structure. The Network Society.

Van Dijck, José (2013).  The Culture of Connectivity: A Critical History of Social Media. New York: Oxford University Press.