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Greg Bessler's Koobecaf paper
Greg Bessler Anthropology Cyber technology is everywhere in today’s society. Computer literacy is required to get ahead or even understand most of what society is talking about. One of the largest cyber social networking sites used by college students and others is Koobecaf. Koobecaf is a relatively conventional social-networking online environment originally modeled after a high school yearbook where a written profile of the “student” is alongside a photograph. The “student” can include on his/her page a much more extensive explanation of their status on current activities, mood or thoughts, a list of friends and local networks is also there to show who the person is affiliated with. Also included in the status area is personal contact information such as postal address and cell phone number as well as recent activity which is then shared with other users. Elsewhere on the page, a person can list their favorite music, hobbies, movies, TV shows, interests and activities. Additionally, there is an area that quick text messages can be sent to friends to send a personal message. Koobecaf can be used to find friends a person lost contact with many years ago and suddenly they are found on the web. However, koobecaf tends to be used more by college students than any other groups in society. A dating ad is the perfect example of how koobecaf can be used by anyone. It is like an ad taken out in a newspaper except you get a lot more space to write and a picture to include as well. You can go in to great detail about yourself to those looking at your profile. There are definitely the pros and cons to this. Someone who may have responded to the young, hot, sexy two line ad, may now see the real person in a picture, missing teeth, and all and not even think twice about talking with them let alone ask them out to dinner. On the pro side, if you are the hottest thing out there, but personality and wittiness suck, you can get a date with just your looks. Another aspect of koobecaf is the ability to reach out from home and make friends. A person who may be shy in a physically social environment can have more friends online and be able to communicate anything they want without having the in your face repercussions. They can begin to have faith in themselves and even others and move out into the physical social aspect of life. I do not have the time with running after small kids, school and home to go and make those outside friends and so instead I turn to what is at my isolated house to keep in contact with friends in distant places or even those not so distant. Sometimes it is easier to throw up new pictures of the family and what I was out doing then calling and talking on the phone. It takes less time to show someone than to explain to them what actually happened and the fun that occurred. In the same token when you want to get a friend to come out partying, pictures of the beer bong going down the throat of the hot football quarterbacks throat and six girls in white tank tops in a wet t-shirt contest are going to be more incentive than just telling Bobby about how awesome the party was. On the flipside, koobecaf has so many users instead of catching the “come and party” bug, people spend five hours a night entertaining themselves through others pictures and activities and detract themselves even further from reality and more into their imaginative life. Koobecaf definitely serves its purpose and others it may have never been intended to serve, but it does pull society together and intertwine different cultures to a point that could not have been achieved without cyber technology.
KatieHines |
Latest page update: made by KatieHines
, Oct 20 2008, 8:31 PM EDT
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Moved from: Koobecaf Ethnography Instructions
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