10 Ways to Lose Your Social Capital


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC3BAn1f3bA

Dakota, Zac, and Nancy's Fakebook Page

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=100001733597621&v=wall

In this experiment, we created a fake Facebook (should I say Fakebook?) for an imaginary character of Eivenstein Johnstonberger. We tried to get friends for our obviously fake person and were quite successful. "Eivenstein" has an abundance of friends, wallposts, and even a confirmed relationship. What does this mean to real people's "real" social capital and relationships they hold over Facebook? Our dependence on technology is obviously decreasing social capital--when a fake person can get things that legitimate people consider "relationships" and "social capital" on Facebook, it proves how illegitimate the real people’s social capital is. Our society’s social capital is proven to be becoming much weaker through this project; our relationships are ridiculous, as a person names “Eivenstein Johnstonberger” can get as many friends as some real people.

Check the Facebook out for yourself and see how silly our “virtual social capital” is and how much time we waste on things like Facebook.


PS: A funny/sad story that emphasizes how seriously people take the internet and the "relationships," Nancy's mom saw that she was in a relationship with "Eivenstein," and called her crying! This just shows that these fake relationships directly affect our real ones.

Living Without a Cellphone

This is Zac PM's contribution to the project--He lived without a phone for two days. This is his analysis on how our reliance on technology affects social capital.

Blue Boy for a Week

This is Dakota Proctor's contribution to the project--He wore the same outfit for 5 days.