好多事情都不make sense,特别是这些突然出现的phenomenon,为什么吸引了那么多的人? 咖啡要从中借鉴点什么?
Facebook is the second largest social network on the web, behind only MySpace in terms of traffic. Primarily focused on high school to college students, Facebook has been gaining market share, and more significantly a supportive user base. Since their launch in February 2004, they’ve been able to obtain over 8 million users in the U.S. alone and expand worldwide to 7 other English-speaking countries, with more to follow. A growing phenomenon, let’s discover Facebook.
The Facebook Phenomenon
First, let’s start by looking into Facebook in a broad spectrum - as the network, the phenomenon, the company, and its brand.
History
Originally called thefacebook, Facebook was founded by former-Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg (while at Harvard) who ran it as one of his hobby projects with some financial help from Eduardo Saverin. Within months, Facebook and its core idea spread across the dorm rooms of Harvard where it was very well received. Soon enough, it was extended to Stanford and Yale where, like Harvard, it was widely endorsed.
Before he knew it, Mark Zuckerberg was joined by two other fellow Harvard-students - Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes - to help him grow the site to the next level. Only months later when it was officially a national student network phenomenon, Zuckerberg and Moskovitz dropped out of Harvard to pursue their dreams and run Facebook full time. In August 2005, thefacebook was officially called Facebook and the domain facebook.com was purchased for a reported $200,000.
Availability
Unlike its competitors MySpace, Friendster, Xanga, hi5, Bebo, and others, Facebook isn’t available to everyone — which explains its relatively low user count. Currently, users must be members of one of the 30,000+ recognized schools, colleges, universities, organizations, and companies within the U.S, Canada, and other English-speaking nations. This generally involves having a valid e-mail ID with the associated institution.
Surveys & Studies
A large number of surveys and studies have been conducted around Facebook - some with interesting results. For instance, according to an internal September 2005 survey, approximately 85% of the students in the supported colleges had a Facebook account, with 60% of them logging in daily. A survey conducted by Student Monitor revealed Facebook was the most “in” thing after the iPod and tying with beer, and comScore Media Metrix discovered users spend approximately 20 minutes everyday on Facebook. Another 2005 survey said 90% of all undergraduates in the U.S. use either Facebook or MySpace regularly, and a detailed questionnaire analysis by Chris Roberts revealed that 76.2% never click on its ads. Perhaps the most amazing statistic of all may be that Facebook is the 7th most trafficked site in the U.S.
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Business & Funding
Given the situation other social networks on the web are facing, Facebook is in a good position financially. While it hasn’t managed to get acquired like its rival MySpace (despite some rumors about an $800m deal with Viacom), it’s been quite lucky in most aspects. For its initial funding, it received $500,000 from Peter Theil, co-founder of PayPal. A few months later, it was also able to get $13 million from Accel Partners, who are also investors in 15 other Web 2.0 startups, and $25 million from Greylock Partners, making their overall venture equal to approximately $40 million.
For users, Facebook’s core service is completely free and ad-supported. In fact, in August 2006 Facebook signed a three year deal with Microsoft to provide and sell ads on their site in return for a revenue split. The deal followed an announcement from Facebook’s direct competitor MySpace who signed a similar deal with Google. The youthful demographic that both the services attract is highly prized amongst advertisers and should return a good amount of revenue for both the services to stay alive - and profit. Another deal which made news in July was Facebook’s agreement with Apple to give away 10 million free iTunes samplers to Facebook users. A deal has also been signed to provide Facebook credit cards.
Lawsuits & Concerns
In its early days, Facebook faced an extremely threatening lawsuit from ConnectU, a very similar social network which - like Facebook - shares its roots back to Harvard, and as a result almost got shutdown. The founders of ConnectU alleged that Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg stole source code while he was in their employment. Zuckerberg denied the allegation and the lawsuit was dismissed.
Facebook has also been host to other issues and concerns, especially in the privacy sector where its privacy policy states “Facebook also collects information about you from other sources, such as newspapers and instant messaging services. This information is gathered regardless of your use of the Web Site.” Another theory is that Facebook could also be a data-gathering project or if not, used extensively for these purposes. Facebook’s policy also states that it “may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship.”
The Service
Now, let’s look into Facebook - the service itself, and some of its features, highlights, and the things that got Facebook where it is today.
Facebook Profiles
As Facebook has evolved, so have its profile pages - new fields have been added and users can share more information than before.
A typical Facebook profile consists of a number of different sections, including Information, Status, Friends, Friends in Other Networks, Photos, Notes, Groups, and The Wall. Most of the sections are self-explanatory but some are specific to Facebook.
Facebook Photos
With over 1.5 million photos uploaded daily, one of Facebook’s most popular features has been the ability to upload photos. Users can upload unlimited photos from their cell phone or through its Java-based web interface. Facebook is one of the few services to offer an unlimited quota with their only restriction being a 60-photos-per-album limit - this is much appreciated by Facebook’s college demographic.
The process of uploading photos is very simple. Users create albums which they can assign limitations to (e.g. visible to my friends only) and upload photos within them. The album is then put into their profile, and other users with right credentials have the ability to see and comment on them. Facebook also gives the feature to share the photos with a simple web link or send them via AIM or by e-mail. What’s more, users can also order prints online through a simple integrated interface.
Facebook Groups
Just like every other social network, Facebook has something called ‘groups.’ Users can create new ones or join and participate in existing ones. This is also displayed in their profile and is a good indication of hobbies and interests a person might have.
There are two kind of groups, a normal group and a secret group, which isn’t shown on the profile. A normal group is just like any other, but users can also create and invite others into secret groups. These can be used for collaborating on university projects, and provide a way to have closed discussions. About 80% of the groups are ‘fun-related’ and companies can even sponsor groups - as is the case with, for example, the Apple users group.
Facebook Events
Another Facebook success is their ‘events’ feature, which provides the ability to organize, be part of, and plan for events. This feature has been extremely successful when it comes to organizing parties.
Along with organizing and joining events, users can also invite and recommend others to an event. This feature, however, has raised some controversy as it is generally the start of underage drinking and dry campus violations. Colleges and universities use the feature to catch planning of such events before hand and investigate those that are over. In any case, it’s one of the most popular features of the service and even beats some of the competing products made specifically for this purpose.
Facebook Developers
As of August 2006, Facebook has offered a free Developers API called Facebook Developers. This essentially gives anyone access to Facebook’s internals and lets programmers create widgets, mashups, tools and projects based around Facebook.
This is an important feature for Facebook since it makes it the first major social network to give access to its API. Although it is limited to 100,000 requests a day, it’s more than enough for a decent web app to come through. What’s more, a selection of applications have already been created. FaceBank is a promising tool which lets you ‘keep track of depts and shared expenses with friends.’ Another interesting application is lickuacious which lets you ‘rank your friends by wall popularity.’ The Wall, of course, is Facebook’s comments feature.
Facebook Notes
Facebook’s most recent addition launched in late August. The service is called Facebook Notes, and allows users to write a Facebook blog. All notes are displayed in the user’s profile, and other members can add comments.
Notes possesses an important feature, which is the ability to import and syndicate an external blog, although unlike Technorati, doesn’t allow you to claim one only to yourself (e.g. it’s possible to claim the New York Times syndication feed easily in one’s Notes). The service allows HTML to be included in the posts, although JavaScript and Flash are disabled. You can attach photos and also post via cell phone by sending your notes to notes@facebook.com. Another interesting feature is tagging - tagging a post with a username will automatically send it to that specific user. The Notes feature has been well received.
The Future
Facebook is a massively successful social networking service that grew to prominence in virtually no time. It’s not hard to see why: its features and tools are highly appealing, and Facebook users are extremely well networked in real life. Rumors of an acquisition continue to circulate, with some estimates putting the price in the billions of dollars. In the short term, however, Facebook plans to go it alone, continuing to build out one of the world’s most successful social networks.
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- posted on 01/28/2008
哈佛大学心理学系, 有趣。
⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯
有报道说,扎克伯格的身家已经达到数十亿美元,也有说法称已经超过30亿美元。尽管
扎克伯格因此成为全球最年轻的亿万富翁,但是他依然住着一套一室一厅的小公寓。
Facebook的创始人兼首席执行官(CEO)马克·扎克伯格,日前接受美国哥伦比亚广播公
司《60分钟》栏目专访时表示,Facebook网站2008年不会上市,但上市依然是Facebook
最有可能的选择。扎克伯格同时预期,截至2008年底,Facebook的用户可以达到2亿。报
道称,扎克伯格已经成为全球最年轻的亿万富翁。
名列福布斯07网络名人榜
扎克伯格年仅23岁,与微软总裁比尔·盖茨一样,是一名哈佛大学辍学生。扎克伯格4年
前由哈佛大学心理学系辍学,创建了社区网站Facebook,并因Facebook现象走红。《福
布斯》杂志发布的2007年网络名人榜中,由于微软、李嘉诚均入股Facebook,以及Face
book进一步推广了社交网站概念,扎克伯格名列前茅。
短短4年之中,Facebook网站已经拥有了5800多万用户,外界甚至认为Facebook将成为G
oogle第二。有报道说,扎克伯格的身家已经达到数十亿美元,也有说法称已经超过30亿
美元。尽管扎克伯格因此成为全球最年轻的亿万富翁,但是他依然住着一套一室一厅的
小公寓。
从小就有计算机天赋
扎克伯格从小就表现出极强的计算机天赋,6年级开始编程,大二时他成功侵入哈佛大学
的一个数据库。“黑客事件”后不久,扎克伯格与两位同学一起用一星期时间编写网站
程序,创建了Facebook网站,作为哈佛校友的联系平台。Facebook于2004年2月推出后,
立即轰动哈佛校园,截至2004年底,注册人数就突破100万,扎克伯格于是从哈佛退学,
专心营运Facebook网站。
- posted on 01/28/2008
2007年11月7日 星期三
Facebook 与 hang out
之前曾经在一个用英文编写的中国web2.0观察blog上看到一个观点,解释为什么国内没有出现Facebook现象,也就是一个大的social network聚拢了绝大多数用户。它的解释是,Facebook提供的服务其实在线hang out,它真正入侵了的市场是传统的hang out场所(例如pub),总而言之,这算是一种娱乐服务。基于美国的Internet一直围绕着信息与商务发展这一特性,Myspace和 Facebook跳出来提供娱乐服务自然能够抢占到相当的市场份额。然而中国的Internet一直在信息与商务服务方面发展得不怎么样,反而娱乐服务是过度供应了,因此无论你推出怎样一种全新体验的娱乐服务,都不可能在娱乐服务的整体市场中抢去大份额。
实际上说到hang out,就必须提及我之前听说过的一个理论,也就是大学生为什么那么喜欢玩Counter Strike,原因当然是这也算一种hang out的方式。不过这是几年前的理论了,现在玩CS的人应该没那么多了。校内网成为一个hang out新去处,却做不到Facebook现象,不过应该比之前的CS要好——毕竟大多数女生愿意上校内网但不会玩CS。
那么为什么比 Facebook更具备social功能的LinkedIn以及比CS更具备联机游戏能力的Battle.NET不能成为大众hang out的选择呢?因为这两者的目的性都太强了,而hang out就是一群朋友聚在一起,享受那种什么也不做的感觉。如果目的性很强地去做一件事,那就变成teamwork了。为此可以再举一个例子,就是麻将和桥牌,一种可以作为hang out活动而另一种不可以。也曾经有人对麻将有种解释,说中国人之所以喜欢玩,是因为容易上手,再没有经验的玩家也可能碰到牛屎运,再配合我之前所说的 “赢就是最大的兴趣”的理论,麻将当然受欢迎。桥牌则正好相反,必须专业学习,你的赢面才大,自然玩的人就少。
最后,我们需要观望的就是下一轮的hang out服务将会是什么样的。可能不再依赖于social network了,但总之那必然是一样很休闲的活动,谁都能体会到其中乐趣的。
发表者 Cat Chen 于 11:53 上午 - posted on 01/28/2008
BURLINGAME, Calif. -
They'll let anyone in to Facebook these days.
Once the exclusive online stomping grounds of college students, social networking site Facebook.com is throwing open the doors to rest of the world. The site is slated to announce in coming weeks that anyone can gain access to the site, simply by affiliating themselves with a particular city or region.
The company had planned to announce and launch this expanded registration Tuesday but has delayed the expansion as it sorts through the backlash from changes it made to the site Sept. 5.
"Last week, we learned we need to do a better job communicating on launches," says company spokeswoman Melanie Deitch. "We are going to think through how to better inform users, and we don't want to risk expanded registration being a big issue on the heels of last week's changes." Deitch said the company might communicate with users in coming weeks about the site's growth pace via blog postings and comments in user groups.
The growth move is fraught with risk for the company, whose more than 9.3 million registered users are intensely attached to the site because it lets them connect to a select group of peers. But the nature of social networking sites makes it easy for dissatisfied users to migrate. Facebook executives must try to expand the site's reach without diluting its appeal. If they fail, the company risks being viewed as a second-rate version of MySpace, the famously open social network that now receives more than 46 million visitors per month.
"Facebook could be hurt when users start drawing comparisons to MySpace," says Fred Stutzman, a graduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science, who studies Facebook's use among that university's students. "There's a backlash with every change at Facebook--but this is now the point of no return."
Last week, the company created a furor when it tweaked its model to show users updates to their "friends" activities as soon as they logged on. Facebook fans squawked, citing privacy concerns, and hundreds of thousands joined online petitions threatening to boycott the site.
"The Facebook users feel like they have ownership in the company," says Stutzman. "When they realize that they're not the ones in control, it's a real slap in the face."
Facebook executives initially dismissed users' worries, but within days the company backtracked somewhat, allowing users more control over who sees what. On Friday, founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg posted a public apology to his users on the company blog, outlining where he went wrong and what he has done to make amends.
Zuckerberg helped create the company in 2004, when the Harvard undergraduate wanted to find a way to let fellow classmates connect. The company later broadened its user base to include all Ivy League schools, then all universities, then high schools and eventually corporations. Would-be members had to demonstrate affiliation with one of these institutions, via a valid e-mail address. But as soon as the new look kicks in, users will be able to register with a generic e-mail account and join a group associated with one of 500 cities and towns, whether or not they live there.
Though group members can customize their security settings to include or exclude specific people from seeing certain personal details--such as photos, contact information and comments left on friends' profiles--default settings allow anyone within a network (such as a school, or now a city) see everyone else's profile details. The wealth of personal data available to large groups of strangers on Facebook has never been richer.
Comparisons to the much larger and more open MySpace--purchased by News Corp. (nyse: NWS - news - people ) in July 2005 for $580 million--are inevitable. But if Facebook truly wanted to emulate MySpace's success, it would have opened up its registration policy a long time ago. But until now, the site's restrictions restrained growth.
Now it seems ready to expand. The company has collected $38 million in venture funding collected since 2004; in August, it secured an advertising deal with Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ). The site's non-student population already appears to be growing. Between May 2005 and May 2006, the percentage of Facebook users older than 34 grew to 37.3% from 32.4%, according to eMarketer and ComScore Media Metrix.
Yet Facebook still has less than half the users MySpace had when News Corp. bought the company last year, and revenues are still small--an estimated $30 million a year compared with MySpace’s roughly $180 million--says eMarketer senior analyst Debra Williamson.
And perhaps because of the limited advertising real estate at Facebook, limits ads to sponsored profiles, banners on the side of the page and above a user's profile. "Facebook doesn't have that sexy glow as an advertising environment, as compared with MySpace's advertising buzz," says Williamson. "That could be a negative for Facebook unless they redesign their pages."
This year, U.S. advertisers will spend only $280 million on ads through social networks, according to eMarketer, but that will increase to $1.9 billion by 2010. Worldwide, that figure will reach $2.5 billion. Those numbers, coupled with the continued success of MySpace after News Corp.'s acquisition last year, have fueled rumors that Facebook is a likely acquisition target.
At the time of the company's last round of funding, the Silicon Valley rumor mill pegged the company's value at around $600 million. But the "why not?" logic of the latest tech boom has fueled reports placing even higher price tags on the company--someone purportedly attached to the company even managed to attach a $2 billion price tag/trial balloon last spring.
"We have to correct that. The $2 billion price tag reported in the media is so far out there," Zuckerberg said during an Aug. 17 interview. Zuckerberg, who admitted on a company blog that Facebook "really messed up" the launch of news feeds, wouldn't take interview requests about the delays in expanding registration. "We're not holding out for a price because we're busy building and growing the site." But Zuckerberg must tread carefully: Growth that scares his core could wind up hurting his young company's value. - Re: 【web 2.0】The Facebook Phenomenonposted on 01/28/2008
玛雅,上星期我也加入了 facebook,发现好些我认识的人都已经在那里了,而且还找到几个 long-lost 的朋友,大学同学,我现在的教授,多年前的网友,约过会的男生,远近亲戚。真的挺好玩的。我给包括你在内的几个咖啡友发了邀请信。不知还有那些网友在 facebook 上?
- Re: The Facebook Phenomenonposted on 01/29/2008
有道理。
为什么小A喜欢在咖啡扔砖头? 因为他感觉老赢。不仅多数情况下赢道理,还常常赢风度。:)
所以,要让小A少扔砖头,最有效的办法就是对小A狠狠反扔砖头,让他没有赢的感觉。
对小A这种老痞子,用做人要谦谦君子来教育是没用的。:)
玛雅 wrote:,再配合我之前所说的 “赢就是最大的兴趣”的理论,麻将当然受欢迎。 - Re: 【web 2.0】The Facebook Phenomenonposted on 01/29/2008
Facebook has been extreamly popular among the students, from middle school and up to new graduates. I first got invited many many months ago, and felt that I was too old for this toy, quited since my daughter has not yet adapted it yet. I recently went back in, still not have not done or found anything interesting. I felt it is an extended and interconnected alumni network. - Re: 【web 2.0】The Facebook Phenomenonposted on 01/29/2008
那天,阿姗让我去Facebook, 一去,吓一跳,老面,象罔,梦冉全在那里,哈哈,敢快跑。 - Re: 【web 2.0】The Facebook Phenomenonposted on 01/29/2008
我怎么没见到象罔和梦冉?老面还是我邀请的吧?难道大家在 facebook 上也有多个马甲?
Facebook 挺好的,不象博客那样一个作者一堆粉丝,又不象论坛那样几个人表演一大堆人潜水,又不象网聊那样占时间,又不象个人空间那样吃力。大家各有一小摊位,有空去打理一下,没空就不去,互相又可以来往,看看有什么新消息。
July wrote:
那天,阿姗让我去Facebook, 一去,吓一跳,老面,象罔,梦冉全在那里,哈哈,敢快跑。
- Re: 【web 2.0】The Facebook Phenomenonposted on 01/29/2008
本想上去看看nephew的照片, 但懒得注册. 又猜想现在很hot 的social networking 和以前的网聊多半也是大同小异, 早就没兴趣玩了. 原来还有这么多区别. 现在上网就是看"表演", reality show. ;) - posted on 01/29/2008
要不要加入?上次不是要交换 e-mail 的吗?不如到 facebook 上面见。草鱼也在上面呢,虽然他只挂个名字。我LG也是早期网聊的同学,也早对网上交友失去兴趣了。我觉得 Facebook 这类的跟网聊还不太一样。首先是要用真名的(象老瓦还弄个马甲来加入,这样可玩不起来)。注册也不难。你如果去了,可以来找我 Ah-San Wong, jorielle@gmail。
yc wrote:
本想上去看看nephew的照片, 但懒得注册. 又猜想现在很hot 的social networking 和以前的网聊多半也是大同小异, 早就没兴趣玩了. 原来还有这么多区别. 现在上网就是看"表演", reality show. ;) - Re: 【web 2.0】The Facebook Phenomenonposted on 01/29/2008
谢阿姗介绍. 我们 IRC 时代也都是真名啊, 因为都是用的学校帐号. 从business角度, 我比较看好niche social networking, such as special interest groups, ski, movies, etc.
- Re: 【web 2.0】The Facebook Phenomenonposted on 01/29/2008
昨天我加了个电影在我的 Blockbuster Queue 上,回头一看,Facebook 也跟大家宣布我的电影决定。哇,厉害啊。也好,省得我一个一个朋友通知,说我打算看某某电影了。
原来你也是个 mm。:)
yc wrote:
谢阿姗介绍. 我们 IRC 时代也都是真名啊, 因为都是用的学校帐号. 从business角度, 我比较看好niche social networking, such as special interest groups, ski, movies, etc. - Re: 【web 2.0】The Facebook Phenomenonposted on 01/29/2008
现在放心了? ;)
Can I see my nephew's pictures without being his "friend"?
阿姗 wrote:
昨天我加了个电影在我的 Blockbuster Queue 上,回头一看,Facebook 也跟大家宣布我的电影决定。哇,厉害啊。也好,省得我一个一个朋友通知,说我打算看某某电影了。
原来你也是个 mm。:)
- posted on 01/30/2008
Why don't you want to be your nephew's "friend"? You are using a 马甲?
I think having a Facebook profile is like having a mini-homepage. It's better than personal homepages or blogs, because you are linked to your friends, so whenever you update something, everyone is automatically informed. Unlike online discussion groups or forums where everyone goes to a central site to participate, on Facebook, everyone has a home base. Also, everyone has equal access to Facebook resources, so one feels equal.
yc wrote:
Can I see my nephew's pictures without being his "friend"? - Re: 【web 2.0】The Facebook Phenomenonposted on 01/30/2008
Of course not, if I want to use a 马甲, I don't have to sign up facebook. I just wasn't sure if he wants me to be his "friend", but I requested anyway. :)
阿姗 wrote:
Why don't you want to be your nephew's "friend"? You are using a 马甲?
- posted on 01/30/2008
> 好多事情都不make sense,特别是这些突然出现的phenomenon,为什么吸引了那么多的人? 咖啡要从中借鉴点什么?
The secret recipe for cooking these kind of phenomenon is "something does not make sense".
The best recipe is the one nobody will believe even you tell them. They may even laugh at you if they knew what you were up to.
For Facebook, the recipe is "people are willing to use real name, real home address and real identity to play on internet". Which nobody believed when facebook started. And it turned out to be true.
For eBay, the recipe is "people are generally good, they will trust a stranger". Which nobody believed when eBay started. It unfortunately also turned out to be true.
For Microsoft, it is "everybody will have a PC at home"
For Cirque du Soleil, "Adults like to watch circus, too"
......
咖啡 could not learn from any of these phenomenon, they already happened. But if you could figured out something where common sense is wrong, you have a recipe in your hand to cook next phenomenon.
- posted on 03/27/2009
今天看了一篇讲 facebook 的小文,觉得挺有意思的。说 facebook 就跟乡村生活一样,每个人有点什么事,全村人都知道。这种 network 是现在西方社会中所缺少的,环绕在周围的"ambient"式存在的。就好像以前我们住在筒子楼,大杂院,谁家有点什么动静,大家都知道,时不时给出点主意,表表同情,或嘻嘻哈哈随便打个招呼。facebook 不是交朋友的地方,也不是跟知心朋友交流的地方,只是这么一个村子,一个院子,让大家互相监视着,照应着。
====
Behind Facebook's success: It takes a village
By Anand Giridharadas
Thursday, March 26, 2009
VERLA, India: Twitter and Facebook are, OMG, so last millennium.
Or so it seems as I look out through my window in the forested Indian village where I am living, one of those places that the future has yet to invade.
A row of modest houses faces me. All day long, as I write, their inhabitants talk. And I have discovered through their talk that the age-old sociability of the village ambient sociability, one might call it harbors a strange likeness to the social-networking culture we think to be so new.
They don't do one-on-one conversation here. They broadcast. If you have something to say, yell. Bring water! Go to school! Why did you tell her that thing? The people do not limit their talk to their own homes. Their scolds and praise and commands are for the village.
Privacy means little. Their doors are scraps of fabric. People come and go; it is hard to say who owns which house. Committing adultery or defaulting on a loan would be social suicide: everyone would know. A bargain has been made: There is more to gain from being in the network than from anonymity.
They stand in a stream of soothingly mindless hubbub. They hear opinions even when they do not ask, receive advice they do not need, get a little love from everyone and a lot from no one. Village sociability is not about sharing feelings. It doesn't dwell on you. It asks for little. It just buzzes.
And what do the Internet's social networks offer if not this village buzz? You build networks wider than your circle of close friends, and immediately you, too, stand in Hubbub Creek.
One friend "has been caring for an indescribably adorable baby bunny," your Facebook news bulletin tells you. Another is "leaving for 10 days of backpacking!" Another's iPhone has survived a "swim." Once they are in your network, you are compelled, as in the village, to know their business. It's strangely nice.
This is not about deep bonding. For that, stick to e-mail, the phone and remember it? human interaction. Social networks offer only ambient love. They maintain not your 10 key relationships, but your hundred semi-key mini-relationships. They are not about understanding or soul-baring, but about being simply, ambiently present about knowing as soon as a relationship has ended, as they do in a village, even if you never learn why.
Villages once blanketed the earth. Then towns congealed, then cities, and the West in particular urbanized intensively, adopting the city's weaker, more anonymous links.
Material affluence grew. But it came at the price of increasing isolation: vast high rises, far-flung and atomized suburbs, long commutes, a withering civic life, families separated by the pursuit of careers, fraying marriages and, above all, what the late novelist David Foster Wallace called "a peculiarly American loneliness: the prospect of dying without even once having loved something more than yourself."
That does not mean villages are ideal. They are home to unpardonable cruelties. They pigeonhole; they stifle. Many of India's villagers hunger for the urban life, boarding trains by the millions each year to get out.
But one senses that the West's social-network devotees, born in Mr. Wallace's lonely culture, are driving the opposite way. The world feels too anonymous, homogeneous, with no tribes or castes to cling to. It is a climbing wall in polished marble, without nooks for our feet.
And to socially network is to make a big world feel small, to belong as in our village pasts, to live in that gentle, loving buzz.
In India's smaller settlements, shame governs. Umred, a heartland town of 50,000, functions on mutually assured destruction. If a woman is seen on a motorcycle with a man, she is toast: the witness will tell. In so doing, the witness effectively denies herself the same activity. People participate in this because it enforces shared norms, which give them identity.
In the West, a certain anonymity once prevailed, then was voluntarily surrendered. People now post drunken photographs of themselves, announce whereabouts, disclose activities that could return to haunt them. There are risks for employment. There are risks for relationships "No, I was at a work dinner," you say, before the party photographs are uploaded. There are risks for offending friends when you visit a city without telling them.
But we make the same bargain as villagers: that, in surrendering privacy, we gain community.
In Ludhiana, a northern town, honor culture runs deep. The sexes are carefully segregated; men rarely ask women out. Instead, a man might circle a woman's block on foot. He and his friends might hang out in the quarter. Then, having registered a regular, ambient presence, he might graduate to calling her and meeting her. In India prospective mates generally cannot spring out of the blue, but must come with context, connections, a history.
This may sound medieval to a Western ear. But has social networking not brought Indian-style courtship to the West? If a Westerner met someone at a party 10 years ago, one had to ask for a number or risk losing touch. Today, people can be found the next morning on Facebook and "friended." An ambient presence can slowly be registered, a virtual if not physical circling of the block. Then, as in Ludhiana, one can close in when risk has abated.
And when you friend someone you've just met, you can know, before venturing out on a date, the person's age, religion, politics, education, job history. I thought Indians alone still did such reconnaissance. But now Facebook Casanovas are adopting the village ways, in which "bio-data" are shared first and kisses later.
The West has, in effect, retraced the life path of Ram Jatan Pal.
He began in a teeming Mumbai slum, much like a village, where doors were open, toilets were shared and gossip and opinions flowed swiftly through the gullies.
Then he moved up in the world; he got "development." The government offered him an apartment with his own toilet. Which seemed like a good idea, until Mr. Pal went inside and shut a front door for the first time in his life.
"It's like being caged in a poultry farm," he complained.
Like Western beneficiaries of "development," Mr. Pal felt there was something missing. There used to be friends everywhere, playing cards, eating, drifting among homes. Step outside, and you saw everyone you knew.
They were not your best friends. It was ambient. They were there.
It was enough.
What Mr. Pal misses, perhaps we also miss. We have tired of coming home, shutting the door and living in our own heads. So we soothe ourselves as best we can, with this cool, gushing stream of sweet networked nothings.
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(c) 2010 Maya Chilam Foundation