Comments on: Branded Social Networks

By: Joujolie

Joujolie — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:00:22 +0000

I thought of you when I fell upon this article:
The Anti-Social-Network Social Network (in NYTimes)
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/the-anti-social-network-social-network/?ref=technology

By: Jason

Jason — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:37:52 +0000

i also agree with “branded” being a capitalistically loaded word in this sense, although i also feel that it is applicable. Many social networks arise from companies creating them as an enterprise, such as fb and myspace.
the idea that i find drawn to when conceptualizing these networks is more the idea of ‘tribes’ or ‘clans’ of people, wherein members of the group identify with their own clan, and distinguish themselves as different and exclusive of another.
this of course was the idea behind ‘tribe.net’ which i used for quite a while, and i was sad when it failed to keep up, interface and support-wise. but i am still intrigued how the clannish tendencies of humanity is in place even in the metaverse.

By: Deepthi

Deepthi — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:41:24 +0000

Yes, I mean in a Facebook versus MySpace kind of way. Facebook is definitely more about community/lifestyle than MySpace, which is really defined by its network of music communities at this point.

That’s really interesting, I wasn’t thinking so much about the connotation of “branded” as negative, I was more interested in distinguishing the embedded practices of one network versus another. But while I completely agree with you that the choice of alignment with one versus another is often not based on brand, I think that the brand shapes member experiences on every visit.

There’s also the argument about perception of FB as more general and “clean” versus MySpace, which danah boyd wrote about. She interviewed teens who thought MySpace was too “ghetto” to use and found the demographics were falling out along ethnic lines, which while super depressing, makes a lot of sense. I’m writing that section of my paper right now, I’ll post it later

By: Joujolie

Joujolie — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:27:29 +0000

Interesting. Do you mean branding as in Facebook vs Myspace? or do you mean NewSchool network vs WalMart vs Beirut? (the networks within the network…)
I would agree generally, but I find that “branding” while accurate is too loaded with a specific negative consumption vibe. I’m not sure how directly relevant, the branding is, well or how “conscious” the choice initially was. I have few to no friends on Myspace, I have many friends on FB, therefore I use FB. I got on FB because my brother discovered a group of relatives across the world and we started creating the family tree network. I never expected then (more than two years ago) that FB would become such a big thing…
Although I know where you’re coming from, (and mostly agree) I just think perhaps “Branded” is too strong a word.