Primates on Facebook

The Dunbar Circle

Browsing through digg.com, I found another article that discusses the parallels between Dr. Dunbar's, an anthropologist who now works at Oxford University, "the Dunbar number [148-150]" and social networking of humans and primates. According to the article, social networking sites, such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc., that humans choose to engage in to keep in touch with their entourage is being recognized by Primatologists as "grooming." Grooming in the wild is time-consuming, but with modern technology and social networking sites, like Facebook, Dr. Dunbar's suggested size of the human brain that was said to only allow stable social networks of about 148-150 has easily doubled because it has been easier, effient, and more convenient to keep track of your friends.

Reading this article, I felt that I agree with Dr. Dunbar's theory that the cognitive power of the brain limits the size of the social network that an individual of any given species can develop. Even with modern technology, Facebook and Myspace users with +200-500 friends don't really keep in touch with all of them. Out of those 200-500 friends, there are probably only 120 people who are significantly close to them "intimacy circle." Furthermore, out of those 120 people in the "intimacy circle" probably only 10-20 of them, are the lucky few who actually get routinely checked up on and which primital "grooming" takes place. Personally, there's only about 10-15 people on my facebook that I routinely leave posts on for their wall, pictures, blogs, videos, etc. I only tend to talk to the other +200 people when their "birthday" shows up on my sidebar and when they are attending an event that I might attend or am hosting.

With this being said, I was able to reflect on past lectures and articles that we have read and briefly discussed in class regarding social networks on Facebook and Myspace. What it means to have +1293810 friends, are they really your friends?, what facebook and myspace "friends" really mean, etc. Similar to Marlow's findings and article, I was able to conclude that the social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace, do help with social networking by advertising yourself as well as keeping tabs of the outter tier of the "Dunbar number," but the inner "intimate circle" of friends doesn't seem to change. Personally, I feel the smaller the "intimate circle" is the more stable the relationships are. But that's just my perspective. Please share with me on what you think about this article and your own personal behavior on Facebook or that of your friends. What say you?

Twitter Saves Lives

It is interesting to see how social networking sites can be so multifaceted. In class today, we were discussing the negative consequences of internet addiction. More specifically, we talked about how Facebook users tend to be on the fence between addition and obsession when it comes to cyber social networking. However, I think it is just as important to consider the significant positives of these websites. Most recently, a couple of Twitter users were able to employ the website to find a missing skier. Although the other skier is still MIA, the sole accomplishment of saving a life through Twitter is nothing short of amazing. It seems like a stretch, but that simple "tweet" (Twitter post) was able to unite many Twitter users (of whom could have never even met face-to-face) actively help find a missing person. It's refreshing to see such camaraderie being put to good use through social tools like Twitter and Facebook. It makes me wonder if there are other similar cases out there than highlight such great benefits from using social networking sites.

Casual Gaming: An Interesting Parallel to MMORPGs

One of the latest fads to hit the internet is the rise of the casual gamer. Casual gamers are those who play small games, usually flash-based, that take up between 5 to 15 minutes. These game span in genre from traditional adventure/RPG to arcade-style minigames. If traditional MMORPGs are like novels, these casual games are short stories and vignettes.

The website Kongregate has been active for several years now and bridges the gap between hardcore and casual gamers.

The site hosts tons of flash-based games, inside of which the webmasters of the site code achievements. An account can be made to keep track of things like which games have been played and what achievements have been garnered. There's even a system of experience point per achievements and a gamer's "level" is displayed next to his/her name. Rounding up the full experience is a window next to the actual game that allows the player to chat with other account holders regardless of which particular flash game they are playing.

Celebrity Twitters

Celebrities twittering is news.

Just came across this trying to catch up on real news... I don't know about any of you, but I kind of like knowing that American celebrities are prone to following techno fads, too. I actually wouldn't even have bothered to look at Twitter if I hadn't found out that my favorite group of ALL TIME (Epik High--mapthesoul) recently got one. Finding this article to relate to was a stroke of luck. I personally don't have a twitter, but knowing that even William Shatner has one kinda makes me want to know what the hype's all about.

Gangster-Nerds

I found this Economist article from digg. It suggests that there is a cultural shift within the yakuza, Japanese organized crime (for those who didn't catch on to the Nippon-obsession of Snow Crash and to some extent on digg). Essentially, the new generation of yakuza has diverted from the samurai spirit of the group to a more business-oriented approach. To make more money, these gangster-nerds evoke the capitalist ethic to reach out to the wide mass of people rather than use the old-time face-to-face extortion which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. This outreach of the masses can be accomplished by promoting financial frauds that prey on greed over the Internet and through social networks. Still, questions linger about the causes of the yakuza's change. Most prominently is the installation of broadband throughout Japan. However, there are other processes involved, such as globalization and the transmission of capitalist values, anti-mafia political movements, and a shrinking Japanses demographic lessening traditional opportunities for newer members.

Since operating systems and browsers now include security features by default, users are most likely protected from common technical hacking such as decrypting banking transactions. However, the most persistent threat to information security is social engineering attacks, where users unwittingly download malicious code that searches their computer for passwords and identifying information. Despite its warning pop-ups in browsers, phishing is still a problem as information security must continuously update its blacklist. Unfortunately, the site is placed on the blacklist only when some people have already become victims.

On a related note, virtually communities have also led to semi-organized crime, where a person deceived other people into participating in something they thought was legitimate. The case that created this uproar (this version of the story by the BBC) was the burglary of a Seattle woman's house through an ad on craigslist that posed as a giveaway. Soon, local users entered the house and took whatever they wanted as sanctioned by the posting. Again, its about social engineering but more about the culture of the craigslist community, where everyone was familiar with postings about giveaways. This crime is more damaging since there was unknown number of participants acting anonymously, and they probably do not have a criminal background.

Facebook and Parents

Our group found the article “Facebook pages concern parents of college freshmen” especially interesting because it really focuses on how important it is for incoming freshmen to look at profile pages. The beginning of the article states that many incoming freshmen quickly check the Facebook profile pages of their roommates or hallmates almost immediately after receiving their housing assignment, especially to check out pictures. On the other hand, looking at Facebook profiles may make some parents hesitant and paranoid about their child’s housing assignment. In fact, housing officials at colleges have reported that more and more parents who don’t like the roommates’ Facebook profiles are actually requesting housing assignment changes.

I’ve never had any personal experience with this (because my parents weren’t aware that Facebook even existed), but I do believe that Facebook can give either a false or accurate representation of the individual. At the same time, this article emphasizes the importance of a profile within a social-networking site for any individual. I believe that in the eyes of parents, who may see things on a profile as extremely representative of their son or daughter’s roommate, pictures that contain party cups may be an issue of huge concern. Students may or may not see this as a big deal (overall, they seem to give other students more of a “chance” and not judge entirely based off a profile).

not sure if this is relevent, but i thought it was cool

After watching original videos made on Second Life, for some reason it reminded me of this video. Someone remixed the sound effects for window XP and uploaded it. Recently on broadband sites like youtube there's a popular culture of remixing songs, commercializing original music, and advertising music videos. I guess advertising online might be as effective as TV commerials in the near future.