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Critical Analysis of Clive Thomas’s I’m So Totally, Digitally Close To You”

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I’m So Totally, Digitally Close to You: Reflection Social Media began affecting our communication and relationships as early as 1969 when the first internet service provider become available to U.S. universities. In 2002, Friendster, the first social media website available to the U.S. was created and gained over 3 million members in just over 3 months. One year later, MySpace launched. In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, a 24-year-old Harvard student, created Facebook, an online social networking service. This service was originally a way for students to interact. Today it is the world’s largest social networking service and allows over a billion users to connect though posting photos, sharing links, and comments which all appear on a “News…show more content…
Are we spreading ourselves too thin among our “weak ties,” leaving us with fewer close relationships? There are both positives and negatives to social networking. After reading his article, I began to reflect on my own experiences and looked further into the information he presented. I found Thomas’s piece to be extremely accurate and I agree with the majority of his claims. Thomas goes deeply into the limited privacy these websites provide, the ambient awareness that brings a whole new meaning to knowing someone, and how your “weak ties” may be stronger, but also impacting your real life relationships. The article made me realize how much this social media craze is affecting our population and myself. Are you concerned people are watching you? If not, let me point out some of your peers that check up on your online presence. Your page on Facebook is viewed nearly 200 times a day. If you are under the age of 18 your profile is somewhat private by default, but after you reach that age it becomes public, unless you manually change it. If your profile is public- family, friends, acquaintances, and people you don’t know are viewing all your information. As Clive mentions, “Browsing Facebook was like constantly poking your head into someone’s room to see how she was doing.” Are you comfortable with your online privacy settings? Are you aware that when accepting the ever changing Terms and Conditions for Facebook, you agree to let outside sources access your
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