Assignment 5: Facebook - lj37

I figure one of the best ways to think about this blog post is imagine explaining Facebook to my parents. To explain it to them, I would say that it’s a networking tool, used to keep track of our friends. Since Orlikowski's discussion of technological frames suggests that they would try to understand it in terms of existing technology, I would say it’s like having a homepage about yourself that you update often, and is connected to the ‘homepages’ of all the people you’re friends with. I’d suggest that they use it as a way to stay updated on the lives of their friends, as well as keep their friends updated. Along the lines of Orlikowski’s discussion, I would further clarify by putting emphasis on how every individual aspect of Facebook for the most part already exists in their lives, it’s just augmented by all being in one place, and being constantly updated.

In terms of training, I think it would be helpful, especially to subjects that don’t usually use the internet for anything but news and email (such as my mom), to walk through the processes of editing profile, changing profile image, changing notification settings, and adding pictures. Now I know that my mom might get easily confused when faced with a page full of information such as the home page in Facebook, but I still don’t think I’d include a detailed walk through the home page. The reason for this is that pages such as that one should really be designed to make it easy for the user to figure out what’s going. In this case, I think it’s pretty well done.

I would say that the rewards for using this technology include keeping in touch with your friends, keeping abreast of what they’re up to, as well as keeping your friends updated on you. Grudin's discussion of return on investment implies that subjects would be more willing to invest time into using Facebook if they could forsee worthy rewards. In the case of my parents, I would point out that they could sign on one day and see that a friend’s status says something about a business trip to their area. This might give them an opportunity to call them and extend an invitation that they otherwise might have missed. There are even more mundane and practical rewards, such as simply having a constantly updated address/phone book, which I know my mom in particular would really appreciate. Even though this benefit seems so simple, I can attest to how much easier having a place to go if I really want to reach someone is.