Module 2 Essay

Question: Friend-networking websites are becoming more and more popular over time. What is the reason for this? What is attracting people to use these websites?
Friend-Networking Websites Are Taking Over the Web
Before friend-networking websites existed, the best way for online communication was email and instant messaging. Chatting was a fun way to interact with your friends, but the features were limited. One could not share photos, videos, or music. Emails on the other hand allowed you to share photos, but it is extremely difficult to keep in contact with all your friends. Hence, the idea of an online social networking database was introduced. How fun would a website that allows a person to post and share photos and information, find old friends, talk to current friends, and even make new friends? According to the Wikipedia entry of “MySpace,” the first version of MySpace was launched in August 2003. Since then, the website has boomed and people were being pulled in to the phenomena of social networking.
Nowadays, friend-networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace became extremely popular. According to Jeremiah Owyang’s blog post, “Social Network Stats: Facebook, MySpace, Reunion (Jan, 2008),” Facebook has more than 60 million active users, and MySpace has more than 110 active users. These numbers were found back in January, almost ten months ago. Can you imagine how much higher the number of users are today? More people are beginning or continuing to use these friend-networking websites for many reasons. It is a way to connect with friends, share pictures and information, and a way to spend some free time.
People from all age groups are into the friend-networking trend. However, there is a certain age group that stands out. According to Matt Dickman’s blog post, “The Age of Facebook vs. MySpace,” it shows that the majority of MySpace users are between the ages of 14-25, and the majority of Facebook users are between the ages of 18-25. This shows that even the youngsters are involved in these websites. So, what is it that brings in all these users to sign up for these websites?
MySpace and Facebook each have gratifications that attract users. For example, both MySpace and Facebook give users the ability to post comments, send messages, share and post pictures videos, and listen to music. Also, these friend-networking websites allow people to keep in contact with old, current, and new friends. In the article, “MySpace and Facebook: Applying the Uses and Gratifications Theory to Exploring Friend-Networking Sites” by John and Jennifer Raacke, a survey was carried out about the usage of friend-networking websites. Out of the people who confirmed they have a friend-networking account, which was 87.1 percent, over ninety percent said that the reason they have an account is to keep in touch with old and current friends. Students don’t only have an account just to have an account. To most of these people the accounts are important. According to Robin Raskin, “Students are smitten by Facebook in varying degrees, but the majority confess that it’s an important, fairly constant, part of their lives. They’ll check their pages for comments, messages and general happenings.” This just shows why people would consider having an account. But what these numbers do not show is why do users keep the account for long times. What makes MySpace and Facebook so attractive?
From Facebook’s “The Wall” application to MySpace’s “Bulletin” feature, there are many fun tools that keep users pleased. For example, Facebook offers endless applications that are joyful like bumper stickers, games, trivia, top friends, event notifications, photo tagging, pet buying, and many more. It even has instant messaging! Likewise, MySpace also has some fun features like the ability to make a music page, top friends, a bulletin board, fun background settings, MySpace TV (the feature that allows someone to watch television), and many more. For some people, these elements might not be so appealing, but for someone who has had social networking accounts, I can say that these features are great.
I was first introduced to MySpace about two years ago from one of my friends. He told me, “Man you have to check out this website, it’s so cool and it’s easy to pickup girls!” I responded by laughing because I couldn’t care less about online dating. However, my friend kept harassing me until I finally made one. At first, I thought this was going to be a waste my time but I came to find that this account changed my lifestyle. After editing my profile, added music, added friends, met new friends, and viewed other people’s profiles, I was hooked. I would have never imagined seeing myself, the guy that told all his friends “there is no way I will ever have a MySpace,” having a great time on this website.
I spent a lot of time on MySpace, about 2 to 3 hours per day. I finally realized it was a mistake when my report card came in. I was underachieving. I realized that having a MySpace was occupying too much of my time. Despite its nicotine-like addiction, as I think of it, I broke free and cancelled my account. When I did this, I thought that I would be fine and focus more on my studies now that I have more time. I thought wrong. With the leisure time that I had, I didn’t know what to do. I had so much time that I became bored with myself. Guess what I did next? I made a Facebook! I needed to get back to the social networking because I was losing contact with some of my friends. Motives as such illustrate why people are so attracted to the phenomena of friend-networking websites.
There are an increasing number of users of these social networking websites. These websites are appealing simply because there enjoyable. These websites will become even more popular because newer things will be added. Every year, new features are always added to these websites that make it more advanced. Can you imagine how people would be if these networking websites did not exist? How would people be spending all that extra time? Would there have been different types of websites that people engage in? Only research can answer these questions. But for now, social networking is the popular trend.


Works Cited
Dickman, Matt. "Techno Marketer." Weblog post. The Age of Facebook vs. MySpace. 02 Oct. 2008. 29 Oct. 2008 .
Owyang, Jeremiah. "Social Network Stats: Facebook, MySpace, Reunion (Jan, 2008)." Weblog post. Web Strategy by Jeremiah. 09 Jan. 2008. 29 Oct. 2008. .
Raacke, John, and Jennifer Raacke. "MySpace and Facebook: Applying the Uses." 2008. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. 29 Oct. 2008 .
Raskin, Robin. "Facebook faces its future." Young Consumers. 7.2 (2006): 56. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI. 30 Oct. 2008 .

Module 2 Questions

1) Friend-networking websites are becoming more and more popular over time. What is the reason for this? What is attracting people to use these websites?
2) MySpace and Facebook are networking websites that allow you to interact with your buddies. However, there are some negative aspects. What are some pros and cons of having a friend-networking account? Explain.
3) According to the article “MySpace and Facebook: Applying the Uses and Gratifications Theory to Exploring Friend-Networking Sites,” John Raacke says, “In addition, it is important to note the number of college students using these sites and the amount of time per day students spend on these friend-networking sites. Specifically, students spend almost 3 hours per day either on their accounts or someone else’s account.” Why is it that students spend so much time on these websites? In what ways does spending this time affect students academically?
4) What age group is more likely to use friend-networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace, 13-18 year olds, 19-24 year olds, or 24 year olds and older? What age group is the least likely to use such websites? Explain and give examples of what each age group likes and dislikes about the websites.
5) In the article, a survey was conducted. What are the positive and negative things that happened in the survey? Should something else have been asked? Was the information sufficient enough to come up with a conclusion? Explain.

Module 2 experiment

Experiment: Do You Have a MySpace or Facebook?
In the article, “MySpace and Facebook: Applying the Uses and Gratifications Theory to Exploring Friend-Networking Sites,” researchers conducted a survey among college students to figure out how MySpace and Facebook affect students’ lives. In the survey, a number of questions were asked. They type of questions that were involved were, are the students users or nonusers of these friend-networking websites, what makes them want to have an account, what makes them not want to have an account, the sex, ethnicity, and age of students. After the survey, the results show that the majority of the students had these friend-networking accounts. This survey was a good way to get the information that was needed.
If I were to conduct my own experiment related to the article, I would perform something similar to the survey that was incorporated with the article. First off, the group I will be experimenting on will consist of 100 college students between the ages of 18-24, 50 of them women, and 50 of them men. Race will not matter. This will take place in a computer lab that will fit all the people. The best time to do this will be on a weekend because that is when students have their free time. The purpose of this experiment is to find out how many people have a friend-networking account, how much time does that user spend on that account, and find out what applications on those websites gratify the user.
The experiment will go like this. I will tell each person that they can do anything they want on their computer for 4 hours. After the four hours are completed, I will give each student a survey packet. In the survey packet, the first question will ask, “how did you spend most of the time during this experiment?” I would expect that most will answer that they were on MySpace or Facebook. Then I would go on and ask the main question of my experiment, “Do you have a friend-networking account like MySpace or Facebook?” I will then ask questions concerning the age and gender of the student, why or why don’t they have a friend-networking account, and for the users, how would they have spent their time if they didn’t have any of those accounts. At the end of the day, I will hope to have gathered enough information about why people love MySpace and Facebook so much and how they affect their lives.