| by comrade commissar | Thomas | @ Sunday, July 11, 2004, 12:49:00 AM | permalink |
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PS: This is an edited repost of a bulletin I posted on Friendster. That should hint you on how obsessed I am with this new friends-network site thingy.
I dun rave abt alot of things, especially not about online friendster-like sites. but there's this www.wholivesnearyou.com (WLNY) that's really neat. How this site works is that, instead of a network-centric system like that of Friendster, WLNY works by firstly, relying on knowing what's your address, & then letting you know umm- who lives near you (hence its name what) The service it provides is like a double-edged sword. On one hand, cool, you can get to know your neighbours in your neighbourhood & cultivate a "gotong-royong" spirit. On the other hand, anyone heard of online stalkers or the all-seeing 1984 Orwellian Telescreen? Is WLNY a Friendster-slayer? No, unless it incorporates Friendster's networking feature. Like my friend Dorothy eloquently put it in her own Friendster bulletin - It's not a friendster replacement. Relax. Nothing can replace this undeniably faulty service.So, like why we continue to take public transport & not get our own - Although it sucks, it still has some merit in its good points. In addition, WLNY, as a more Singapore-focused site, offers some interesting insight into the Singaporean youth & young adult community. If some Sociology undergrad hasn't already started on his thesis of how WLNY reflects aspects of Singaporean culture, I would be very surprised & disappointed at the lack of creativity among SG uni students. Thus, without further ado, (or heavy-duty grade requirements/a university professor breathing down my neck), I present to you - "Which Jokers Live Near You?" - Almost an Academic Paper - Dr. (wtf?) Thomas Tan, Observed trends reflected by a local online-friends website. Written by a 19+ year old Singaporean Chinese Male doing his A' Levels, whose not even doing this for academic credit. Contents 1.1 Introduction 2. Factors 2.1 Herd Mentality Noted Among Singaporean Youth 2.2 Level of Prevalence of Internet Usage among Singapore Youth High 2.3 Ratio of Users:"Neighbourhoods" Roughly Comparable to Area of the Actual Neighbourhood 2.4 More People do not have any Photos of Themselves and/or have Poor Self-Profiles 2.5 Women are Better Writers than Men 3.1 Concluding Statements 1.1 Introduction I have used wholivesnearyou.com for some time now. Below are some observations made with relavance to Singaporean societal trends. 2.1 Herd Mentality Noted Among Singaporean Youth Has anyone observed how quickly people hop on to WLNY? I mean, just look at the case of my neighbourhood. (Thomson/Bishan RULES) If a page shows 24 x 7 = 96 persons, then from the first day I joined (2 pages), till now, (5 pages = 96 x roughly 5 = 480+-) that's fast. And don't forget Thomson/Bishan is a small area. You should look at the way bigger neighbourhoods like Ang Mo Kio (AMK), or Yishun are comparatively growing at a rate like a child that has excessive growth hormone disorder & still taking steroids. This is absolutely the definition of viral human behaviour. 2.2 Level of Prevalence of Internet Usage among Singapore Youth High Based on the incredible amounts of accounts I have seen, in my opinion, Singapore's percentage of people who have access to the internet must be very high. Of course, this view is neither concrete nor conclusive unless we know for sure whether these accounts are made by real people, or are faked. Do you even want to think about how careful surveys have to be conducted, the ratio of the population of Singaporean youth has to be compared to (what should be the defined range?) the exact amount of users at a given time, & other factors which could render your findings inaccurate & useless? So.. let's just take my word for it yah? :) 2.3 Ratio of Users:"Neighbourhoods" Roughly Comparable to Area of the Actual Neighbourhood OK, you try comparing the giantic land masses of AMK or Yishun, to the combined tiny principalities of Thomson/Bishan? The amount of people in different WLNU neighbourhoods are roughly determined by the ratio of the size of the neighbourhood to the population of its inhabitants. Apparently, factors which makes people come online & use WLNU are roughly the same all over Singapore So, unfortunately, AMK or Yishun's "neighbourhoods" in WLNU will always have more people than that representing Thomson & Bishan combined. *$#@!!! 2.4 More People do not have any Photos of Themselves and/or have Poor Self-Profiles If you note the ratio of people who have the "No Photograph Available" sign indicated as their main photo, and/or incompleted/absent profiles, compared to those who do, you can roughly judge that alot of people either: 1) Are too lazy to develop their personal profiles, 2) Don't know how to promote themselves, 3) Lack the language abilities or creativity to describe themselves well, 4) or Don't have computer accessories to allow them to upload photos of things important to themselves (images OF themselves or representative avatar images) What's the importance of these assumptions? What? Motivational speakers, English tutors, "Creativity/Entrepreneurship" workshop speakers, advertisement agencies employed to promote government-propaganda, companies which sell computer-related products, do you not see the opportunity to 2.5 Women are Better Writers than Men If you randomly read 10 profiles of women WLNY users, & 10 of men users, & assuming that for both cases, they have filled out their self-description sufficient detail, you should find that the ladies tend to be able to describe themselves better than the guys. I will not comment on this other than saying that there is a genetic reason for this. Bleah. 3.1 Concluding Statements I will pen down more observed patterns to when I can think of them. (or when I see them ;) ) In the meantime, do realise that my post is for a blog, not for academic purposes, so inaccuracies & bias definitely exist in it. (Please do comment on them in the comments section) All opinions expressed in this entry are solely that of the author, (me lah deh) & do not reflect that of any other individual, group, organisation or media source unless specified otherwise. And please, if you quote from me, please attribute the relavant credits to me. "Thomas, why so anal-retentive?" The conditions stated above are for the antecedent future university student, who upon discovering this post, becomes "miraculously inspired" for the social trend which he/she should "investigate" for his big "deadline almost here!" thesis paper. Hey man. Good try. TRY HARDER. ;) - TTTT, 11-07-2004 By the way, no one paid me for this, although that would be very nice. *hint hint* |
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This would be an interesting topic to write a paper on.
As for your "research", uhm, how about writing about wtf people actually use Friendster, WLNY, et. al. for. I don't really see the usefulness of friendster really. WLNY, I can see the use, but friendster... ehhh...
- by comrade 
Jeiel Aranal @ times 10:17 PM, July 13, 2004
[delete? click on the dustbin.]
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