Film260 Week 2: iFriends
Professor Sydney Matrix
May 12, 2013

Lecture Notes

Friendship in the Age of Social Media * 7 out of 10 people use social media (this hasn’t changed in 2 years) * 7 out of 10 facebookers check it every day * Many people say they’re spending less time on FB than we used to (but FB says we aren’t) * So do we have a disconnection between perception and reality? * Is FB so habitual that we go on every day for like 20 minutes but we think it’s 5? * Study from Social Bakers says the top reasons for not Facebooking are: * “I’m too busy” * “There’s too much drama” * “It’s too boring/irrelevant” * Migration from Facebook where all the parents and the police are to a more instant gratification like Snapchat (where there’s instantaneity and impermanency) * Younger generations may migrate to things like Snapchat because of the instant gratification and the impermanency of it all * A lot of people freak out over the “once I put it on FB or Twitter, I can never take it off” but Snapchat gives that false sense of security (self-destruct feature) which is why it’s often used for sexting * Social media fatigue – getting tired of social media * Leads to you taking a vacation from the site * But it’s really hard to do so cause FB is integrated into everyday event planning, decision making and networking * People who love FB the most are of course, the ones who are forbidden from it (12 year olds) * What is so compelling about Facebook when you’re 12? * Want to be like older kids * Want to have lots of friends * Fear of missing out * Why is social media so compelling for all ages? * It’s all about friends * A social network is nothing without friends even though it seems like it’s only about advertisements * What do we do