Facebook; ask anyone, majority will say, 'Oh yes, I have a facebook too. Please add me!' Is this becoming a social norm or what?
Recently, I met up with a few friends and we happened to talk about facebook. Out of the six, only one had not started an account with Facebook. The session soon turned out to be an 'education' on the pros of Facebook (seems more like a persuasion tool to get her to sign up). Initially, she reacted 'violently' by not wanting to as she could not see the fun of it. They continued to 'advertise' the function of Facebook, its ability to share photos, rear a virtual pet, etc...
Indeed persuasive, the next thing we knew, our dear friend created her own Facebook and was enjoying the 'superpoking' and other applications. Out of curiosity, I asked her about the change of mind, she responded that she did it partly out of curiosity and partly because she realised that a lot of people are using Facebook to 'link' friends up. She sees it as an 'added pressure' to have one since whenever people mention about sharing photos, most of them are using Facebook as an avenue for sharing.
Conformity is classified into Informational Influence and Normative Influence. Informational Influence occurs when people are influenced by others' judgments or rely on others for information to make decision. Whereas Normative Influence occurs when people are influenced by others in order to gain acceptance or to avoid being dislike. In this instance, personally, I view this such a change as both under informational and normative influence. Given the basis that majority of her friends are using it, the level of trust was there and therefore, she would tend to believe that their judgment is right. On the other hand, she would choose to conform and be accepted by friends than to be 'outcast' by her group.
Given that majority of the people are utilising the functions of Facebook to share information/things and connect people, that is probably the direction to take in order to be in sync with the way how things are done in today's society. However, there is always the exceptional group who does not think so.
4 comments:
I'm one of those who is not on Facebook, partly because I don't see the need for it, and partly because this is the latest fad and I'm resistant to the idea that 'everyone else is on it, so should i'.
I prefer not to conform to normative influences, but that doesnt mean that I'm free from such influences. People don't live in a vacuum and we need to conform to social norms in one way or another to survive successfully in this social world.
I hope to be able to retain my Facebook-free status for as long as possible. But, should Facebook become the de rigueur medium to keep in touch with friends i.e. a social norm, I'd have to conform, or risk being left out from my friends' social circle.
haha, I'm also one of those who are not in Facebook, but one of the reason is because I'm not so free to register and have one and the other, I'm so sick and tired of the whole fad, its almost the same as Friendster or even hi5.
Hiazzzz....Istn't it tiring to look after so many accounts? And isn't there more outdoors activities for us to do rather than stay at home and do minimal activity.. What a waste of time! :)
i'm gonna share a secret with you.. i don't own a friendster or facebook account. of course friends have also been 'pressuring' me to get an account. however, i don't see a need for these additional stuff since my friends are easily reachable on their hps, or the few networking websites that we share in common. to me, conformity is not always necessary, especially in such situations.
I am on of those who are the exceptional case. In my opinion I dont see the necessity or benefits of having a facebook. I think it is time consuming as you only have 24 hrs in a day where you are bogged down with so many responsibilities to handle. It is individuals prefernce and perception of whether they want to engage in certain activities.
Post a Comment