"Friending: experience of Facebook"

A lot it was written about Facebook, but let me add something more. I came across interesting article of two writers – Jane Lewis and Anne West with a title “Friending : London-based undergraduates’ experience of Facebook”. They conducted exploratory, qualitative research to look at the nature of “friending” that takes place and the extent to which students are able to manage their interactions in the public space of social networking site – Facebook.

They found out that FB was felt to be a socially necessary tool and a part of increasingly wide range of communication systems. It was valued for the way it enabled broad, low pressure and low commitment communication with acquaintances. The surprising for me was the fact that much time on FB was spend stalking – in other words browsing the users profiles, and the fact that communicating was regarded as fun and not serious. On the other hand it was expected – I make conclusions from my own experiences – that the communication on FB is seen as a supplement to other forms of communication, especially between close friends and a mean to stay in touch with others.
It was also considered to offer a very informal means of communication and maintained mostly very weak and loose ties. These ties seemed, as writers claimed, to act as a security blanket for some students – it was always a possibility of checking to see that they were not missing something.
Here I have to mention that the research findings showed that users tended to perceive the flattened friendship. If we go further the respondents in the study expressed also some anxiety about privacy. The exchanges could be read by different groups of “friends” and there exist a possibility that these exchanges can be broadcasted to the whole network.
The authors explained also that the architecture of the site worked to encourage a particular form of communication between friends, based in the main on banter and gossip, often gleaned from social browsing. The problematic is also the fact that the site requires both the presentation of the self and a process of “friending”. There is a degree of incompatibility between these two imperatives, they claimed.

I have to say that I have a profile on FB for about 2 years now. I have several friends that are my friend also in real life, and I use FB for staying in touch with them. This way of communication for me is a supplement to other forms of communication – the face to face and communication via mobile phones and emails. I do not use FB for stalking purposes but I’m aware that many users do. Fortunately the new FB gives us more privacy, because you can arrange who can see your profile, posts, wall, photos, profile information and other.

Lewis, Jane and Anne West. 2009. "Friending": London-based undergraduates' experience of Facebook. New Media Society 11, 1209. Available at: http://nms.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/7/1209.