Often when we talk about social media we focus on its ability to help us develop relationships with others and build communities surrounding our cause. Though at first glance this seems achievable, a deeper look at the requirements of these processes is warranted. Does research in the area really support the idea that social media is redefining how we do business and interact with our clients/customers?

The growth of the Internet has been accompanied by a increasing concern that excessive use is associated with the development of what has been termed ‘Internet addiction’, ‘Internet addiction disorder’ and ‘pathological Internet use’. However, some scepticism exists around the conceptualisation of such mainly due to the inconsistency among practitioners’ views and operational definitions for the ‘condition’ (Shaffer, 2004). Nonetheless some evidence exists within theory and research to support this idea to a degree. I will define addiction according to experts in the area and discuss the viability of ‘problem internet use’ considering such.

One of my friends (a different one from last week) who read that last post was curious about how much we will tell others about ourselves online if we were known to them as opposed to being anonymous. For instance, you giving personal information on Facebook where persons who are familiar with you make up your audience. One can appreciate that cyberspace is not one generic space as it consist of many different types of spaces, so it shouldn’t be surprising that our levels of self-disclosure vary across different online spaces. So the question posed for this week is why and in what ways is self-disclosure on Facebook different from telling others about ourselves in less ‘nonymous’ online spaces?

Been talking (being nosy) to one of my close friends about some personal issues (nothing serious) they were having and they were quite reluctant to tell me. However, as the conversation progressed they slipped and said they already discussed it with one of their online buddies who is from another country. I prodded and despite my excellent probing skills, they didn’t budge. I wondered to myself, “why tell a stranger and not me, their dear old trustworthy friend?” And that is how the idea for this post came about :)