Exploring the small world through Google +

Exploring the small world through Google +

Social networking as an identity service allows us to control power. Exercising power through social networking in the form of transmitting trending interests, news, popular culture and the like allow us to determine what it is users should know, in order to retain their position in the loop of real world society. Joining any social networking site creates a sense of interconnectedness through common attributes, interests, beliefs,and so on contributing to the idea of the small world concept. The chosen social website Google+ is the selected networking site that will be observed during the course of this assignment. 

Google+ is a social networking site similar to other popular social network hubs such as Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. Five-hundred million users are signed up to this networking site, surpassing the popular Twitter site, ranking in at number 2.(Business Insider, 2013) Differences between this social networking site in comparison to others is different terminology  for the features of Google +. This site is an identity service, so this requires new users to register name, upload profile photos, and any additional information in order to allow other people to establish a common connection. The purpose of this networking site is to delve into posts of interest and become a 'follower'. The groups in which the user has interests in are known as 'circles', this is for the purpose of congregating people with common interests. Referring to discussions on surveillance, much like the Panopticon concept, the user is being watched. Therefore '...social control operates through learned self-surveillance' (Turkle,1995,p. 248)

Visual design on circle networks interconnecting.

Personal experience from creating a profile showed potential interests already being displayed on the 'stream'. The stream is the central source for information according to the circles the user follows. Every circle was established for a purpose,  much like that of  'a map advances an interest'(Wood, Kaiser & Abrahams, 2006, p. 4) In the context that these circles are an array of specific interest maps users can join, this would create a mutual social network of people, resulting in a small world feeling through social networking.


References

Businessinsider.(2013).Google+. Retrieved from
              http://www.businessinsider.com/google-plus-is-outpacing-twitter-2013-5?IR=T

Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon & Schuster.

Wood, D., Kaiser, W. L., & Abramms, B. (2006). Seeing through maps: many ways to see the world. Oxford: New Internationalist.