In order to justify ongoing investment in development, we need some means for evaluation. First, we motivate our discussions by introducing some of the strengths and weaknesses of existing systems, a process that could be formalised through, e.g., SWOT analysis.

Reality Check: Fulfilment of Existing SNS Strengths and Reduction in Existing SNS Weaknesses

We provide a summary of highlights and issues that have been raised in the media. This rudimentary approach gives a practical indication of whether new designs offer improvements and new benefits or whether they offer less and create new problems.

Recognised Strengths of Existing Systems

The fact that SNS have become so pervasive is indicative of their success, at least of their appeal to large numbers of people and there are many heart-warming stories.

  • SNS have made it easy to connect with peers and stay connected – statistics show that email traffic generated by Facebook is very considerable on many university campuses
  • The most popular SNS make it easy to reconnect with people from the past, provided that they are already in the system
  • The interconnectedness, openness and fairly straightforward interface of social media enables sharing of knowledge and memories. SNS can augment this as evidenced by a 90-year-old lady in a hospice who is sharing her memories through blogs and connecting with people through Facebook1.
  • Facebook launches location-based extension:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11342802

Weaknesses of Existing Systems

There are, however, many negative aspects with some of the weightiest concerns arising in long term considerations.

  • The notion of friendship is arguably made considerably weaker, an issue that has long been known2.
  • It is difficult to disconnect from SNS, which highlights the dependency on such systems, both in terms of hours consumed using the system and then trying to stop using the service altogether 3.
  • Some services grant permissions to connection requests without the target of such requests authorising this. An example of this is that when someone sends a Friend request in Facebook, all news denoted as ‘Public’ is automatically relayed to the requestor4.
  • A broader issue is that such a feature was introduced without due consultation5.
  • Academic studies concerning ‘well-being’ have shown many dimensions, many aspects6. A paper by Helliwell and Putnam indicate that a strong contributor is a variety of ties, i.e. connections with heterogeneous networks. They cite data for the UK that whilst economic GDP has gone up, well-being has remained flat7.
  • Time spent online is de facto time not spent face-to-face. So there is the issue of the extent to which face-to-face activities are displaced, as explored already more than 10 years ago with findings that support that such displacement has a major impact, especially at home in the family8.

    Take the following true account as an example: a young man was involved in an accident and ended up in hospital. From his bedside he got out his mobile phone and posted a Facebook status update, which was picked up by someone via their newsfeed. Some time later, this person made casual reference to the accident to the man’s mother. It was the first she knew about it – she was not a Facebook user and she had not yet been informed.

    This story is indicative of many things, but most especially it illustrates how drastic this displacement can be: instead of phoning the nearest family members, a message is broadcast to anyone who has at most ‘friend’ status, which statistics indicate is more than 100 people on average. It’s extremely insensitive.

    School teachers have also expressed concern, particularly about how it adversely affects students’ homework9. In fact, one could take each of the 6 dimensions and show how the lack of due consideration for them may lead to negligence in the respective relationships. SNS should instead be affirming each one in the appropriate way.

A Proposed Visualization of Sustainability

By highlighting the potential multi-dimensional extensions, we may develop more in-depth qualitative analyses based on mathematical models. To aid understanding, we may create visualizations.

In keeping with the holistic approach, sites can be analysed according to the nature of the network (connection types), the strength of connection, and – more subtly – the propensity towards virtue. The models can be developed along the lines expressed here, in accordance with especially Buddhist insights. Without giving details of the models, we can anticipate the visualization to have the following (positive) axes:

  • x-axis:number of mutually orthogonal connection types
  • y-axis:depth of connection
  • z-axis:guidance towards virtue (as expressed in the likes of the SigalovadaSutta, Mangala Sutta)

Further, based on such a schema, we may define sustainability as a function f(x,y,z) of the distance from the origin.  Hence:

  • ‘Instant Networking Site’ – those sites that by this perspective lie close to the origin: Facebook et al fall into this category
  • ‘Sustainable Networking Sites’ – those sites where f has high values.

By incorporating a simple real-time system early on, we may have an effective means to help validate the emerging implementation on an ongoing basis.
 

Notes

1 Daniel Seiberg. BBC World News America: How to preserve history online – reporter (last access to article dated: 08:27 GMT, Friday, 17 September 2010 09:27 UK) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/9008348.stm

2 Joel Stein, You are Not my Friend. Time Magazine. 4 October 2007.
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1668441,00.html

3 Katie Beck, How to disconnect from your online life . BBC World News America. 15 September 2010. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/world_news_america/8999235.stm

4 Facebook FAQ: Why can someone I haven’t accepted as a friend see News Feed stories about me? https://www.facebook.com/help/211564572207196/

5 MG Siegler, TechCrunch. Facebook Has Quietly Implemented A De-Facto Follow Feature
http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/20/facebook-not-now-follow/

6 See e.g. Discussion Meeting Issue ‘The science of well–being: integrating neurobiology, psychology and social science’ organized by F. A. Huppert, N. Baylis and B. Keverne In. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London: B (1449) September 29, 2004.
http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/359/1449.toc

7 John F. Helliwell and Robert D. Putnam, The social context of well-being in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London: B (1449) http://www.subjectpool.com/ed_teach/y4person/3_happiness/Social_causes_of_happiness.pdf (archived)

8 Norman H. Nie, D. Sunshine Hillygus The Impact of Internet Use on Sociability: Time-Diary Findings. IT & Society, 1(1), pp1–20. http://www.itandsociety.org/v01i01.html (Paper available from author’s ftp site).

9 BBC News: Education and Family. Social networking ‘damaging school work’ say teachers, 19 November 2010 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11797511