Net11 Reflections Week Five

Well week five as come and gone just like 2008, and like 2008, week five offered me lots of exciting new opportunities and a few challenges on how I look at things.

Last week saw me finishing up module two and starting to tackle module three, Contributing to the Infosphere, and in particular how we write on the internet. Jamming all this in around work commitments (yes I still worked over the Christmas new year period) and social commitments, has proved a challenge albeit a rewarding challenge.

In fact it has been this time hungry schedule which has caused me to stop and reflect on a few discussions I have had with fellow students over the previous weeks, plus a comment Peter Fletcher made refering to Barry Wellman's paper "Connecting Community: On- and Off-line". Simply put Wellmen posits that technology, online communities, communication on the internet allows us more face to face time of greater quality with our friends and family.

As a result I have begun to take notice of the quantity and quality of the face to face social interaction I have with my friends. Through this self appraisal I have found myself in agreement with Peter's comments and Wellman's paper. I am beginning to see how keeping up to date with my friends via social networks and technology is allowing me to have deeper personal conversations with them. My partner also pointed out how she is able to keep up to date with those friends she is not so close and doesn't see as frequently and as a result those friendships are far stronger.

This it seems is not a random phenomena linked only to myself. Recent studies have also shown that social networking and technology can indeed benefit real life skills, even the business world is starting to realise the benefits of customer interaction through online social networks and media. I think that we are now only starting to see the beginning of how technology, internet communication and particularly social networks can change our world.