1 Lee Gullickson Introduction to Writing Studies Dr.

Andrew Mara April 12, 2010

The Social Circles of Facebook

Lately social networking websites have become increasingly popular among teens and young adults. One of the most popular social networking sites that people are using now is Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, announced on his blog in February that the six year old website has over 400 million users now. Facebook allows its users to search for people by their real names, leave comments on each others wall, and instant message each other. The website is making it easier for college students to stay in touch with old friends from home while being able to add new friends and talk to them also. With all of these features that make it easier for students to talk to each other online, their friend list on the site can increase dramatically. A few years ago before social network websites no one would say that they had over 500 friends, but now thanks to Facebook some users have over a thousand friends on their site. Facebook allows students to expand their social circle by allowing access of their friends information with minimal effort. Students have the options now that allow them to talk to a person right away through instant messaging or leaving comments on their wall to make plans. These features enable the user to stay in contact with their friends and catch up on what people have been doing with their lives. By commenting on someones Facebook wall, all of their friends are able to see what was written and even people they arent friends with might be able to see that information depending on the privacy setting of the persons page you left the comment on. Having this type of information publicly posted online can affect peoples social lives whether it is by finding out what a persons plans are for the weekend or finding out who is going out with who.

2 Communicating through instant messaging also has an impact on peoples social circle. The users are able to talk to each other privately and make plans for the weekend or discuss some of the current gossip they have heard about. Instant messaging also makes it convenient to catch up with friends because they are both online at the same time, instead of trying to call someone and hoping that they are not busy and can answer the phone. With both of those ways to communicate, college students are able to see what their friends from back home are up to and make plans with them before coming back for a break from school. These features allow cliques from high school to continue into college, when in the past it would have been harder for them to remain friends.

Method In order to research this topic I have searched online data bases to see if there have been any previous studies done on how Facebook is affecting teens and college students. I was looking for tests or surveys that included how Facebook was being used by its users for online and offline purposes. I then tried to find information about how the students used Facebook to make new friends and see how it affected relationships with their old friends. I have also sent a survey out on Facebook to see the viewpoints from the people who are actually using the website. The survey was sent to 80 of my friends that are either seniors in High School or college students. I wanted to get answers from students who are between the ages of 18 and 22 because most of the studies about Facebook are geared roughly towards this age group. Only 25 people answered my survey with the last person responding three days after I sent the message. With only a third of the people answering my survey to help me out for a class, could be an indication of how many real friends I have compared to online friends.

3 I asked people if they allow anyone to be their friend on Facebook or if they were selective about confirming friend requests. I asked this question because I wanted to see how many people confirmed friends that they actually knew instead of confirming someone they didnt know just for the sake of having more friends on Facebook. That question was followed by asking them if they would add a person as a friend after only meeting them once. I wanted to see if the pickier people were about adding friends affected how often they talk to their older friends. If a person doesnt know over half of their friends list they might be more hesitant about what they post on peoples walls and who they actually talk to. Another question on the survey was why they decided to use Facebook to interact with their friends compared to other social networking sites. I wanted to find out if there are certain features on the website that students enjoy that other social networking sites dont have. With over 400 million users, Facebook must have something that sets it apart and makes it appeal to so many people.

Results The results that I found for the online research showed that teens and college students used Facebook to reinforce their friendships. They are able to connect with friends who now live in different cities and interact with them online, instead of never talking to them again. According to a 2001 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 48 percent of online teens believe that the Internet has improved their friendships and that 61 percent of the teens said they feel that time online does not take away time spent with friends (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield 123). The results of that study are very similar to the results that I received from the survey question I asked my friends about whether or not Facebook has affected the way they

4 communicate with their friends. 84% of the students I interviewed said that it has affected the way they communicate with their friends by making it easier to keep in touch with them. Since it is easier for friends to talk to each other, they said it has helped them stay friends with people that have moved away or that they have not gotten a chance to see in awhile. Besides being able to keep in touch with old friends, Facebook makes it easier to become friends with people they have just met. Students are able to use the website to find out more information about people they just met by adding them as a friend. Once they are friends, the student can use the Facebook page to judge how they feel about their new friend. One study of relationships among college students delved into the use of Facebook for first year students at Michigan State University. The highest ranked answers for the use of Facebook were checking people out who the students met socially, in class, or from their dorms (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield 142). The survey I sent out had the same question, but was in a different context. The study focused on relationship uses for meeting new people, while my survey was a general survey that allowed the recipients to interpret the question in their own way. From my survey 80% responded with the answers keeping in touch with friends and seeing what people are up to for their answers. This relates to the study of the Michigan State University students because checking people out that they just met would fall into the category of seeing what people are up to. In my survey I never specified if the friends profiles that they checked out are friends that they have recently met or friends that they have had for a long time. In a follow up it would be helpful to specify how many of the profiles they look at to see what people are up to are people they just met or people they already knew. When trying to figure out why so many people use Facebook, the results from my survey surprised me. The number one main reason why they said they used Facebook is because

5 everyone else has one. It seems that people join Facebook to stay in contact with their friends because it is the website where it is most likely to find friends that you might have lost contact with. People can change their phone numbers, address, or email which makes it harder to stay in contact with them since it is difficult to find the newer versions of these contacts after being switched. Facebook allows its users to type in a name of a person and then is able to find that user without having to know their new phone number or address. With this ease of finding people, it is hard to lose contact with people inside your social circle.

Discussion Even though people arent talking to each other face to face as much anymore, teens still feel connected to all of their friends. They feel that Facebook makes it easier for them to talk to all their friends and see what they are up to. Social networking sites enable their users to reinforce friendships by allowing them to communicate in a variety of ways through instant messaging, posting comments, and sending messages. Teens and college students usually have hectic schedules and have little time to talk to their friends. Social networking websites allow teens to maximize the amount of time they have and communicate with multiple people in a short period of time. With just a few clicks of the mouse a student is able to find their friends Facebook page, read about what is going on in their lives, and leave comments to get more information. It is very hard for students to not have Facebook nowadays in order to stay in touch with their friends and hear about what is going on. With events or groups being made on Facebook, it is hard for a person to find out about these without having an account. Some people may think of Facebook as a fad, but with so many users on it already it might keep growing. Facebook is

6 constantly changing to adapt to its users needs, which makes for competing against it very difficult. With the popularity of Facebook increasing, people will have to join it in order to see what is going on in the online world of their friends in order to stay in touch. The more people that join Facebook, the more easily a person can expand their social circles by adding people as friends who are just joining the social networking website.

7 Work Cited Subrahmanyam, Kaveri, and Patricia Greenfield. "Online Communication and Adolecent Relationships." Future of Children 18.1 (2008): 119-46. Web. 1 Apr 2010. <http://muse.jhu.edu.proxy.library.ndsu.edu/search/results?search_id=1443251453&actio n=reload>.