How many causes have you been asked to join today? If you are on Facebook, MySpace, or even a professional social networking site like linkedin, the answer may be more than a few.
However, according to several IU South Bend students, many people will join the causes that their friends suggest, and then forget about them.
“I think that it is a misrepresentation of what people like,” said Secondary Education major Michael Duttlinger. “Many times they join a group because they get invited by a friend. I doubt that many people care about some of these causes and are only joining because it seems like the popular thing to do.”
Senior Lecturer in Communications, Alec Hosterman, agrees.
“It’s a fad. People will fan and then never check the pages again,” said Hosterman. “They need a reason to check, the page needs to be highly interactive and to have a good sense of communication between the fan and the cause.”
IUSB senior in political science, Caitlin Worm uses the causes to personalize her profile.
“Out of the 200-some groups that I am in, I only use 2 or 3 regularly to obtain information,” said Worm. “If you look at my profile, you will see I am a ’fan’ of anything ranging from margaritas to Oscar Romero to the Avenue Bicycle Station near campus.”
Hosterman also emphasized the prevalence of predatory pages.
“There will always be people who take advantage of the fans, and pages should be subject to rigorous scrutiny,” said Hosterman.
He suggests making sure that if you donate to a cause, the page uses secured server links that go directly to that causes official website. Donating to such groups as the American Red Cross and the ASPCA should be done directly and not on a cause page with no direct link.
Other Facebook users do not enjoy the pages at all, or only use them minimally.
“Most of the time, unless I know the specific «group» I ignore all requests automatically,” said IUSB student Ashley Schmitt. “I get a lot of invitations to random groups I’ve never heard about, and I don’t keep up with any of them, so I ignore. I rarely get useful information out of a group on Facebook.”
Also, there are some groups and pages that people find incredibly offensive, such as the “F*** the Troops” group which has inspired the group, “Let’s get ‘F*** the Troops’ kicked off of Facebook.”
“I just got invited to join a ’We demand a ‘bitch slap that ho’ button‘ group. I’m furious,” said IUSB student Noel Ullery.
However, Hosterman urges students to look at sites such as Facebook and Twitter as communication tools. On Twitter, people can become gatekeepers of information, using their updates to engage their readers. That is if they do not fall prey to updating every thirty seconds.
“Ubiquitous crud—for the gawkers,” is what Hosterman calls that type of update.
In order to be remembered as a cause or a cause follower, Hosterman thinks you need to participate fully in the process.
“Those you remember are the vocal ones,” said Hosterman.
The IUSB Preface > Health, Science and Technology
Growing trend of viral networking on Facebook
Published: Sunday, February 14, 2010
Updated: Sunday, February 14, 2010
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