Formalization of communication in social networks
“We do not understand how social life actually works. Therefore, we build rough approximate models for it and for human psychology. In the modern technological world, the prerequisites for these models are often made on the basis of materials drawn from science fiction and popular psychology, because we are proud of our complete lack of understanding of social life. A simplified or mechanistic understanding of social life is characteristic of individuals prone to autism.
From an autistic point of view, social life phenomena can and should be processed at the program and algorithmic level, and perceived at the level of simple categories. The complex relationships in which people enter into daily life are reduced to segmented opportunities. When we teach children who are prone to autism to participate in social life, we explain to them the meaning of such simple concepts as facial expressions: that a smile means benevolence, and frowning eyebrows - concern. Step by step, we dissect social affects and try to formalize them so that children can understand the world around them. We are trying to do the same with computers. How does this differ from the simple question: “Are you a friend to me or not?”
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Take the recent surge in interest in multi-tier social networks such as Friendster, Tribe.net, LinkedIn, Orkut, and so on. These technologies are trying to formalize the process of building and managing relationships among people and suggest that you can assign ratings to your friends. In some cases, they manage the process of communicating with new people at the procedural level, providing their users with a formalized process for establishing contacts.
Undoubtedly, this approach has its merits, since it is easily formalized, but it scares me when people consider this a model of social life. It is so simplified that people are forced to enter into communication as if they are suffering from autism, and all interactions between them should be based on a procedural level. Of course, the procedural approach helps people in need of systematization of this kind, but this is not a universal model that suits absolutely everyone. Moreover, what are the consequences of having technologies that require the mechanistic involvement of new participants in the process of communication? Do we really need a social life that encourages an autistic communication style? ”
Dana Boyd, “Autism in Social Software”
From an autistic point of view, social life phenomena can and should be processed at the program and algorithmic level, and perceived at the level of simple categories. The complex relationships in which people enter into daily life are reduced to segmented opportunities. When we teach children who are prone to autism to participate in social life, we explain to them the meaning of such simple concepts as facial expressions: that a smile means benevolence, and frowning eyebrows - concern. Step by step, we dissect social affects and try to formalize them so that children can understand the world around them. We are trying to do the same with computers. How does this differ from the simple question: “Are you a friend to me or not?”
')
Take the recent surge in interest in multi-tier social networks such as Friendster, Tribe.net, LinkedIn, Orkut, and so on. These technologies are trying to formalize the process of building and managing relationships among people and suggest that you can assign ratings to your friends. In some cases, they manage the process of communicating with new people at the procedural level, providing their users with a formalized process for establishing contacts.
Undoubtedly, this approach has its merits, since it is easily formalized, but it scares me when people consider this a model of social life. It is so simplified that people are forced to enter into communication as if they are suffering from autism, and all interactions between them should be based on a procedural level. Of course, the procedural approach helps people in need of systematization of this kind, but this is not a universal model that suits absolutely everyone. Moreover, what are the consequences of having technologies that require the mechanistic involvement of new participants in the process of communication? Do we really need a social life that encourages an autistic communication style? ”
Dana Boyd, “Autism in Social Software”
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/288086/
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