I'm already a Facebook member but very rarely contribute anything. I use it mainly to look at photos put up by friends and family. I'm also one of the librarians behind the UTS Facebook account which we use to communicate with the UTS community.
Thanks to Lesley I joined the ITC510/213 2009 group but I'm not sure if I'd use it to contact fellow students because the forum and email are already such effective tools for asynchronous communication. I think I'm already in danger of not keeping up with all my online communities - I need to KISS.
a. Facebook poses problems for me. The implied intimacy of Facebook worries me and I dislike the way the word 'friend' is used for all my contacts. Every potential friend has to be evaluated and a decision made about how much personal information I want them to be able to see. The audience for every word I write has to considered.
Ackerman (2000, p.180) pointed out that " human activity is highly flexible, nuanced, and contextualized" and that "computational entities such as information transfer, roles, and policies need to be similarly flexible, nuanced, and contextualized." Facebook goes a long way towards achieving this goal but there is still a significant "social-technical gap" which can cause ethical dilemmas such as the one illustrated below.
For example: Is it ethical for employers to dismiss employees based on a Facebook entry?
Here's a clip which illustrates the two faces of social networking:
Facebook also has the potential to cause problems for employers who use it to communicate with their 'clients'. UTS Library , for example, saw the need to develop a social networking policy. Here's an extract:
Despite the informal nature of social networking spaces, you should remember that all online activities undertaken as a UTS employee are governed by the Code of Conduct, Workplace Behaviour Statement and Acceptable Use of Information Technology Facilities. You must also be aware of, and remain within, legislative frameworks: libel, defamation, harassment and copyright laws apply.
You should also be aware that all statements are public and may be permanently available. Take the time to familiarise yourself with the privacy polices of any site you are using.
These examples illustrate how social networking sites like Facebook can present pitfalls for the naive user. Who's responsibility is it to deal with the ethical dilemmas raised? Children, in particular, need to be educated about social networking risks to privacy and safety. Ideally, this is a combined parent-school responsibility.
b. Cognition is to do with 'knowing the world' so Social cognition is best described as the way we interpret, analyse and remember information about other people - our social worlds. Visual cognition is the way we interpret, analyse and remember information we receive/perceive visually.
Reference:
Ackerman, M. S. (2000). The intellectual challenge of CSCW: The gap between social requirements and technical feasibility. Human-computer interaction, 15(2/3), 181-203. [online] http://global.umi.com/pqdweb
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