The asociality of social networks or the return of the forum
Among the many conversations about social networks, communities, blogs, web 2.0, we often forget about such a concept as forums. Although, you know, it is impossible to forget about the forums. They are and they will be. And I can’t even say that humanity has changed its priorities; rather, technological progress imposes new solutions and trends.
In this article I do not want to engage in necrophilia, or to organize holivor forums against social networks. I will try to conduct a small analysis of social networks and forums, on the subject of their organization.
To begin with, the very concept of forums and social networks is rather vague. We can say that by this concept everyone will understand something of their own, or even personal :). The attitude towards them is formed on the basis of personal experience, and given the huge variety of social networks, and even greater variety of forums, it is hardly possible to imagine that we can imagine one thing. Therefore, I will talk about my personal experience of communication on forums and in social networks.
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I will not say that I often changed forums. For the last 4 years I have been communicating in one forum (see the address in my profile), which was originally conceived as a game, or more precisely as a game magazine forum. But over time, we have so talked about games that it became a move. Only newbies talked about games, the entire stable community practically didn’t play games, but there was always enough for us to communicate. It’s amazing what they didn’t have to discuss: religion, history, philosophy, and, of course, politics, issues of love, friendship, and many other issues. Moreover, the discussions did not go on the level of “boogog”, “lol” but with clearly expressed thoughts, long posts of thoughts and discussions, where the moderator, if anything, interrupted any insults, switching to personalities and mats. In general, I can say that some of the discussions were both quite tough and informative, and probably expanding the horizons. In addition, we have a very close community, and every week (and more often) we organize meetings.
This is my personal impression of the forums.
Now about social networks. I will formulate a thought: “Everyone in a social network owns his own little kingdom.” Here I will note one fundamental difference between the forums and the social network. The forums focus on the topic of discussion, and in the social network - on the person, the author of the blog. I think these are two very different concepts of organizing information. Despite all the inconveniences of the forums, it seems to me that the organization of the discussion on the topic is correct, not by person and by the time when he published his post. That is, a number of issues that can not be tied to the identity of the author, it is better to discuss it in the forum format. Indeed, in a blog, a dispute with its author can end in a ban, he can close a post, and in fact the author of a blog is a petty dictator. He speaks his opinions to the whole world, and the fact that you read his opinion and went to his journal to comment on him already means that he has some authority. This “authoritarianism” depresses me. After all, all the questions revolve around the author of the blog, and it is impossible to get rid of this context.
At the forum, credibility is deserved, and mostly rarely when it corresponds to some kind of artificial characteristics. And all users have the opportunity to discuss issues on an equal footing. Of course, with imputed moderators and the adequacy of the users themselves. But the main thing is the theme itself! After all, an interesting topic can emerge in a year and two years after its creation, but all blog posts go into oblivion, blindly submitting to Chronos.
And the last, and probably the most important difference between forums and social networks. In a social network, the user rarely goes beyond “his circle” in communication. To say otherwise, all discussions are taking place around friends and friendly communities. The forum also provokes participants to discuss topics that may be beyond the interests of the friends of the first round. And here, on the one hand, there is an opportunity to learn new opinions, about a subject, which was previously little thought, and then, form your opinion and express it. For example, this may be a topic on history, after re-reading that you get a lot of new knowledge, and those described are not in an academically dry language, but with the opinions and analysis of real people.
And you know what is interesting in this approach, that the user will unwittingly become interested in a popular topic, and will probably reread it. Suppose a 15-year-old teenager opens a topic on the same story, and based on her knowledge can lead a discussion, for example, about the personality of Mazepa. (In the 10th grade, this has already been studied :)) Would he have talked about this on the social network with his “friends”? Here is the most interesting thing that different people converge on the forum, of different worldviews with different thoughts, and the older generation of the forumites instills in them the tastes of the younger generation. On the social network, users restrict themselves to contacts with friends and tapes and live in a closed space of interests.
That is why the spiritual crisis of the current structure of social networks is being manifested, where twos and boys and teenagers sit there who discuss their photos, new baubles, and love-carrot questions. In their group, there is no older person to tell something about love that is completely concrete based on experience, or who would suggest anything else to discuss. Nobody forces them to discuss topics that are more global than “how I spent today,” and “how I love my cat.” But after all, at teen age, priorities, interests, opinions about life are being formed. And they are artificially locked away from the world by a decentralized social network and live in their own pink world.
Therefore, I am sure that it is unlikely that social networks with huge multi-million dollar investments and a large population are unlikely to be able to completely replace the forum. If someone thinks otherwise, then surely your personal opinion about the forum does not coincide with mine. And yet, I propose to think about how the path that social networks offer is true for humanity. How will people develop by limiting their social circle? Why are there so many “friends” in social networks that will never become friends, and why on the forum you can find both real friends and real enemies, who later become real friends anyway :)
PS> Sorry, for perhaps a too subjective view of the problem.
In this article I do not want to engage in necrophilia, or to organize holivor forums against social networks. I will try to conduct a small analysis of social networks and forums, on the subject of their organization.
To begin with, the very concept of forums and social networks is rather vague. We can say that by this concept everyone will understand something of their own, or even personal :). The attitude towards them is formed on the basis of personal experience, and given the huge variety of social networks, and even greater variety of forums, it is hardly possible to imagine that we can imagine one thing. Therefore, I will talk about my personal experience of communication on forums and in social networks.
')
I will not say that I often changed forums. For the last 4 years I have been communicating in one forum (see the address in my profile), which was originally conceived as a game, or more precisely as a game magazine forum. But over time, we have so talked about games that it became a move. Only newbies talked about games, the entire stable community practically didn’t play games, but there was always enough for us to communicate. It’s amazing what they didn’t have to discuss: religion, history, philosophy, and, of course, politics, issues of love, friendship, and many other issues. Moreover, the discussions did not go on the level of “boogog”, “lol” but with clearly expressed thoughts, long posts of thoughts and discussions, where the moderator, if anything, interrupted any insults, switching to personalities and mats. In general, I can say that some of the discussions were both quite tough and informative, and probably expanding the horizons. In addition, we have a very close community, and every week (and more often) we organize meetings.
This is my personal impression of the forums.
Now about social networks. I will formulate a thought: “Everyone in a social network owns his own little kingdom.” Here I will note one fundamental difference between the forums and the social network. The forums focus on the topic of discussion, and in the social network - on the person, the author of the blog. I think these are two very different concepts of organizing information. Despite all the inconveniences of the forums, it seems to me that the organization of the discussion on the topic is correct, not by person and by the time when he published his post. That is, a number of issues that can not be tied to the identity of the author, it is better to discuss it in the forum format. Indeed, in a blog, a dispute with its author can end in a ban, he can close a post, and in fact the author of a blog is a petty dictator. He speaks his opinions to the whole world, and the fact that you read his opinion and went to his journal to comment on him already means that he has some authority. This “authoritarianism” depresses me. After all, all the questions revolve around the author of the blog, and it is impossible to get rid of this context.
At the forum, credibility is deserved, and mostly rarely when it corresponds to some kind of artificial characteristics. And all users have the opportunity to discuss issues on an equal footing. Of course, with imputed moderators and the adequacy of the users themselves. But the main thing is the theme itself! After all, an interesting topic can emerge in a year and two years after its creation, but all blog posts go into oblivion, blindly submitting to Chronos.
And the last, and probably the most important difference between forums and social networks. In a social network, the user rarely goes beyond “his circle” in communication. To say otherwise, all discussions are taking place around friends and friendly communities. The forum also provokes participants to discuss topics that may be beyond the interests of the friends of the first round. And here, on the one hand, there is an opportunity to learn new opinions, about a subject, which was previously little thought, and then, form your opinion and express it. For example, this may be a topic on history, after re-reading that you get a lot of new knowledge, and those described are not in an academically dry language, but with the opinions and analysis of real people.
And you know what is interesting in this approach, that the user will unwittingly become interested in a popular topic, and will probably reread it. Suppose a 15-year-old teenager opens a topic on the same story, and based on her knowledge can lead a discussion, for example, about the personality of Mazepa. (In the 10th grade, this has already been studied :)) Would he have talked about this on the social network with his “friends”? Here is the most interesting thing that different people converge on the forum, of different worldviews with different thoughts, and the older generation of the forumites instills in them the tastes of the younger generation. On the social network, users restrict themselves to contacts with friends and tapes and live in a closed space of interests.
That is why the spiritual crisis of the current structure of social networks is being manifested, where twos and boys and teenagers sit there who discuss their photos, new baubles, and love-carrot questions. In their group, there is no older person to tell something about love that is completely concrete based on experience, or who would suggest anything else to discuss. Nobody forces them to discuss topics that are more global than “how I spent today,” and “how I love my cat.” But after all, at teen age, priorities, interests, opinions about life are being formed. And they are artificially locked away from the world by a decentralized social network and live in their own pink world.
Therefore, I am sure that it is unlikely that social networks with huge multi-million dollar investments and a large population are unlikely to be able to completely replace the forum. If someone thinks otherwise, then surely your personal opinion about the forum does not coincide with mine. And yet, I propose to think about how the path that social networks offer is true for humanity. How will people develop by limiting their social circle? Why are there so many “friends” in social networks that will never become friends, and why on the forum you can find both real friends and real enemies, who later become real friends anyway :)
PS> Sorry, for perhaps a too subjective view of the problem.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/15076/
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