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.
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.
This facebook page is SOOOOO funny. But it really did get the point across that many people accept friend requests from strangers. I agree with your conclusion that facebook is fake social capital. While your profile may say that you have many "friends" that doesn't necessarily mean they are people that will be there for you OR people that you even know.
ReplyDeleteI know that people create fake facebooks all the time, to see how many friends they can trick or for a school project. My freshman year, a couple of my friends played an april fools day trick on our friend and created a facebook of a girl they told him all about and tried to get him to develop a crush on her. My friends did not know how to get out of the situation and ended up pretending to be this girl for several weeks before cutting off the communication. What was meant to be a harmless prank ended up kind of being a big deal. This "fakebook" page made me laugh but at the same time, it is also sad to think about how on facebook, your friends are somewhat artificial.
ReplyDelete-emerson
I think creating a fake facebook was really funny especially seeing all the video posts and comments that were put up. I thought you covered your point well, that people will just accept anyone they have mutual friends with. But i also think that facebook can be a help to your social capital because it helps you keep in touch with friends back at home.
ReplyDeleteyeah, I am the kind of person who likes making satirical things, and I really had a blast creating Eivenstein. He will go away soon, and I already took down the picture, because I fear the internet police.
ReplyDeleteThis is HILARIOUS!! It was great to see how much you committed to the character of this "fakebook" (especially Nancy who sacrificed her relationship status). This lab goes to show how some of the friends we have on facebook are people completely unknown to us. As creepy as this person was...there are much creepier ones in reality which makes it a bit scary we add people like this...
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, so funny. Second of all, so creepy. And third of all, Mr. Milner announcing the amount of trouble this could cause...makes this lab astounding. Good job guys. People actually accepted his friend request and that is really scary...
ReplyDeleteI think that Eivenstein was a great experiment, hilarious in a sad kind of way. But I'm still not sure whether or not he demonstrates that facebook creates fake social capital. If anything, it just demonstrates that people are trigger-happy with the 'accept' button. I'm not defending our generation, but I think that you can't blame our uninquisitiveness on facebook itself.
ReplyDeleteAnthony