Catherine Teimoori
2/5/17
The number one social media outlet, Facebook, announced that
they are testing a new technology “Discover People”. This new technology
encourages users on Facebook to update their profile so that people can connect
easier when scrolling through a list of upcoming events. Journalist, Andrew
Hutchinson states in “Facebook’s Testing Out a New Tool to Help You Connect
with Like-Minded Users” that the Facebook team stated, “Our top priority is
keeping you connected to the people, places and things you want to be connected
to — starting with the people you are friends with on Facebook.” Is “staying
connected” really Facebook’s top priority?
Think about this, is this new technology on Facebook really
going to benefit us users? Or is this an additional reason to be less
interactive in person? I believe that it all depends on the type of person you
are. I think this new technology may make people even less social in person,
however, I also think it may make people have a motive to go up to someone they
see in person. Baym, author of “Making New Media Make Sense” states, “Such
direct effects of technology may be strongest when the technology is new
because people do not yet understand it. Rather than “using” it, people may be
“used by it.”” The reason Facebook is coming out with “Discover People” is for
the social network company to make users feel like they are the priority, they
state they want to “help” YOU, they want to make YOUR life easier by getting to
know the people around YOU. However, is that really the case? Or is Facebook
coming out with “Discover People” so that the company can get more engagement
to benefit the success of their social media platform? If “Discover People”
made you engage with people you are interested in getting to know, then you are
actually using the new technology. However, if you are just moping around to
see what other people do, even though you don’t really care, then you are being
used by the new technology.
Baym, author of “Making New Media Make Sense” states,“Many fear that actual human
connection has been irretrievably lost, although others hope that
communications technologies can promote human connectivity.” This quote brings
us back to what was mentioned above. Will Facebook’s new technology benefit us?
Or decrease in person human connection? In the end it all depends on how a
person views the technology. Do you view this as a technological determinism,
or as a social constructivist? Does the machine have the power? Or do the
people have the power over the machine? Baym also talks about “social shaping
of technology” which is basically the middle ground when speaking about
technological determinism and social constructivism. Social shaping of
technology (SST) is a concept that explains there are choices and these choices
lead to different technological outcomes. I would like to connect Bayms SST
point to a second selected news story, “Facebook rolls out creepy Discover
People feature on mobile, suggesting you make friends with strangers”. In this
news story, the author talks about how “Discover People” could easily create
connections as well as easily creates harassments. Ultimately, in the end,
Facebook does not care which outcome you have as long as they are gaining
success throughout their social media platform. You make your choices and your
choices will create your technological outcome.
Selected News story: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/facebooks-testing-out-new-tool-help-you-connect-minded-users
Citations:
Hutchinson, Andrew. "Facebook's Testing Out a New Tool
to Help You Connect with Like-Minded Users." Social Media Today. N.p., 02
Feb. 2017. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.
Wilson, Mark. "Facebook Rolls out Creepy Discover
People Feature on Mobile, Suggesting You Make Friends with Strangers."
BetaNews. N.p., 02 Feb. 2017. Web. 13 Feb. 2017.
Karinaschorr14. "Making New Media Make Sense."
Making New Media Make Sense. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 23-49. Baym Ch 2: Making New
Media Make Sense. 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.
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