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Relationships & How the internet is...

How would you finish this stem, "how the internet is..." ?


In The Atlantic's You Are Here (a series about the science behind everyday life) authors Alice Roth, Nicolas Pollock, Jackie Lay, Jeremy Raff, and Julie Beck provide some thoughts on "How the Internet is Changing Friendship"


Major Points Made:

  • Dunbar's Theory: Highest amount of people one can maintain meaningful relationships with is 100-200 depending on how social one is (many have lots more social media connections than that)
  • William Rawlings, a friendship researchers, divides friendships into 3 categories
    • Active - in contact and basically know what is going on in each other's lives
    • Dormant - shared history, and while not in contact could pick up where left off
    • Commemorative - a part of your history but not likely to be rekindled
  • The authors suggest commemorative friendships may enter a different zone due to social media, extending the lifespan of a friendship but perhaps it's like "life support" rather than keeping it truly alive
  • Emily Langton is referenced in regards to friendship maintenance and how social media allows convenient yet minimal maintenance to continue, though likely only sustains shallow friendships 
  • Social media, however, is a tool that can help you deepen your relationships when various social media are used in addition to in person contact
    • Media Multiplexity Theory
Some Comments on the Comments Section:
  • It is interesting to notice the comments on this video quickly turn into tawdry banter between viewers
  • Some viewers were requesting more science and that references be explicit in the description or at the end of the video, or criticizing the graph or lack of depth in explanation for given points
  • A hand full of comments were criticizing the way the narrator (Julie Beck) spoke; e.g. 1) "The vocal fry makes it hard for me to listen. Why are so many young women talking like this? Why isn't someone telling them that this is not a good communication style?" 2) "I gave up trying to understand this woman about halfway through; another example of the vogue for conversational mumbling. Women who talk like chipmunks can't expect to be taken seriously. Just because you can broadcast to the world doesn't make you a broadcaster..." among others
  • One wrote "Yeah, my policy is to read every comment like it's a joke." Another replied "Take every insult as a compliment; it pleases your friends and annoys your enemies."
  • Several viewers offered their anecdotal experiences on the subject, usually pointing to added complexity that was not explored in the video
  • A least one comment seemed to be in reference to a previous video, which speaks to a frustrating factor some speak about regarding auto-play features
  • Another comment seemed to be about something completely other than the video being commented on
This^ quick analysis was inspired when reading the comments and realizing once again an interesting dimension of Web 2.0 is the nature of communications via comments... It could be a whole topic of its own probably.

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