Blog
The Psychology of the Social Web
2008-12-05 10:03:33
To the confusion of older, more traditional, generations, the pop culture of today promotes the dismisal of the face-to-face interaction of the real world for the postmodern interaction offered by cyberspace. Addiction experts are starting to identify this fixation on hyperconnectivity as correlating with symptomologies of addiction. This begs the questions; what factors are at play to encourage this hyperconnectivity? More interestingly, what are the consequences of such hyperconnectivity?
Ambient Awareness
From a distance, such detached activities as microblogging on Twitter, changing one's status on Facebook or Adding an interesting article on Digg might seem depersonalised and socially removed in the extreme when compared to the the rich contextuality and polymodality of face-to-face interaction. However, when one becomes enmeshed within this hyperconnectivity of the social web2.0 a strange phenomenon begins to manifest.
As humans, we have internal psychological models we impose onto society around us to make sense of people, situations and experiences. As such, we are constantly, and unconsciously, performing complex statistical analyses of such interactions. If we look at the field of statistics for a moment, a single element of data alone is meaningless as there is no context in which to understand it. Similarly, a single pixel on your computer monitor is meaningless in isolation, without surrounding pixels to form a composite, meaningful image. Similarly, a single tweet, or a single status update in isolation is relatively meaningless. However, the semi-conscious assimilation of these individual cells of social data creates what has become known as Ambient Awareness.
Ambient Awareness can be thought of as the pattern of activity, subconsciously constructed, of another. This means that we have a general awareness of the other person's internal psychology, travels, important happenings etc. without the need for direct contact with that person. This ambient awareness of those with whom you are digitally connected acts as a mechanism for strengthening social bonds, and enables the continuation of a much larger collection of active 'friendships' than what is possible solely in the physical, face-to-face, realm.
This might seem counter-intuitive to those who are not, themselves, active participants in digital societies. It might seem to such ones that this immersion into the digital world is an antisocial rejection of 'healthy' relationships and socialisation. Current research is pointing towards the converse. Scientific studies, ranging from the use of Facebook as a communication medium in the workplace to the psychological effects of MxIT on teenagers, is suggesting that this new medium of socialising could be healthy and actually stimulate the formation of relationships.
MicroFame
Alana Taylor [1] makes the following observation on the popularity of Twitter:
"Twitter is big because it is instant. Twitter is hot because it allows us to be voyeurs. Twitter is changing the world because it is a platform of social equality. And MOST IMPORTANTLY, Twitter is HUGE because it has created Micro Fame."
Maturing in an environment which emphasizes competition, atomism and askewed ideals of success, it is easy to see how scales of self worth can emerge from the amounts of followers you have on Twitter, or the number of Friends you have on Facebook and MySpace, or even from the traffic statistics to one's personal blog.
In the past, definitions of 'societies' would include such factors as geographic location, language and dialect, religion and even ethnicity. Today, these factors no longer apply. Overlapping micro-societies are forming on a daily basis without consideration for location, nationality, religion or even language. The flow of information, the gyroscopic nature of the relationships, the richness of content all collide into the formation of this Postmodern Civilization; affecting, not only individual personalities, but the way companies do business, how products are marketed, the practice of law, medicine, the financial system, virtually every facet of modern society.
There is something quite intangible, yet fulfilling, about such a post-modern social immersion unquantifiable by traditional models and conventions. New possibilities for personal growth, intellectual development and even the repair of self-worth is now in abundance. A once isolated social outcast now is liberated to seeking out others in social niches and special interest subcultures. In a land where physicality is impossible, acceptance can be achieved through intellect, humour or character.
Transactional Analysis
What, though, is going on behind the scenes of the individuals who blog, tweet, post, share, and chat online? One interesting analytical approach to take is that of Transactional Analysis (TA) [2]. TA argues that as socialised individuals, we crave recognition, and will strive for attention, whether it be positive or, if positive interactions are lacking, even negative interactions. In such an emotive economy based on the currency of interaction, it becomes clear that the social web opens up a treasure trove of such currency.
The sheer magnitude of the audience made available through hyperconnectivity is enough to lure most into the addiction of 'interaction accumulation' (referred to as strokes by TA). We see the induction of new modes of interaction such as trolling, phishing, podcasting etc.. Arguments can rage on over such trivialities as text editors. Entire relationships can be traced through chat logs, and in intimate conversation can occur sporadically over several weeks without break in continuity.
We have seen, through media reports, that digital participation can reach such intensities as to bring about suicides, depression, and unbearable pain. New heights in pathologies have been reached whereby publicised brutalities, live suicides and other atrocities occur in real-time, and at just a single click away.
Additional Thoughts
In conclusion, I would like to point out that the changes in our patterns of communication also influence the way we think about ourselves, and thus the world around us. When we physically interact with another individual, the balance of interaction is, for the most part, equal. However, in a removed setting, this is not the case. Let us take, for example, the micro-blogging site, Twitter. With twitter, when one posts a message, it is not to anyone in particular. We are not sending information to a second party with the clear intent of the information to be read and understood by them. We are not engaged in a bi-directional conversation as is the case with instant messaging (although conversations are entirely possible).
So how can we think about such communication in a useful way? If we see such communication as an 'announcement', then questions relating to motivations behind the announcement occur. What gets announced? Why would one announce personal events? Why would one announce anything at all for that matter? This micro-culture of "announcement communication" seems to thus engender a high degree of egocentration. Social constructionists, such as Brian Fay, might even argue that you are making such announcements to a constructed 'other' which is in fact a reflection of the self.
Time will tell as to how the current generation of internet users will evolve psychologically, and if such changes will be positive or negative. If one bares in mind that the internet and fad of hyperconnectivity is histoircally quite young, one wonders as to what further social adaptations will occur in the years to come.
Links
[1] Alana Taylor. http://www.alanataylor.com/2008/04/psychology-behind-twitter.html
[2] Wikipedia - Transactional Analysis. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis
