节目资讯
刊物:科技前沿
日期:2009-08-07
难易度:High
关键字:demographic, collision, confidences, proclaim, dis
(Music).
This rush to sign up has caused the collision of worlds.
Many users are finding requests to be ”friended” - added to someone’s friend
list - by family, officemates and casual acquaintances.
The truth is, though, not all friends are the same.
Confidences you share with one set of friends might not be something you’re
eager to tell co-workers.
While you may enjoy the amazing pictures former classmates are posting from your
”younger days,” you may not want them broadcast to everyone else.
And status updates proclaiming your boredom at work should be kept from any but
the most loyal buddies.
The rush to sign up.
What has it caused, Howie?
It has caused a collision of worlds.
And we hear that a lot. We’re saying: Oh, my two worlds, or my worlds, are
colliding.
And that means basically that because perhaps people from your past, your
friends from your past, your high school friends,
and now you’re current co-workers,
they’re probably gonna get to meet each other in a way because they will see
your pictures, they will see... they will see what’s going on in your life right
now.
So to collide is when two things, two objects, two concepts, are coming
together.
Yeah, it’s not always a good thing, is it?
Maybe not.
In some ways it can be.
I met someone the other day for... I had about a five-minute conversation with
him and now we’re Facebook friends.
And I know so much about him.
I mean, this is based on the...
Did you ever know this person before?
No, no.
And now I know all about him, which is, in some ways, kind of... kind of useful,
but in some ways it’s a little... a little sad,
because you sort of learn about who a person is before you really have a chance
to talk to them in person.
Hmm.
Yeah.
Very interesting.
Yeah.
Do you know where this person is, in the world?
In the world, yeah.
Oh, OK, OK, so you do know where this person is, so...
Interesting thing!
I don’t know. I mean, some people, you know, they might not identify where they
are.
Well, I met the person in real life.
Oh. Oh, I thought you just met on Facebook. I’m sorry.
No, no, no. Met in real life. Yeah.
Oh, OK.
But our... our real-life conversation was only about five minutes long.
Oh.
But now I know...
It continued on Facebook, basically.
Yeah, like... we haven’t even chatted, but I know, like, his favorite music, I
know where he went to college.
It’s interesting.
Yeah.
I just think of many people might meet on Facebook.
You might meet some guy from Iceland on... on Facebook.
You never even meet them in person but then you know everything about them.
Yes, but I will say that Facebook is unlike most chat rooms in that most of
my...
most of my friends online in Facebook are once that I... I do know from some
other connection.
I don’t just meet them in some chat room there. That’s sort of unusual on
Facebook.
OK.
Well, this sentence: Many users are finding requests to be ”friended,” in
quotes, Howie.
Well, on Facebook there’s a feature called Your Friends List.
And the reason why they have this is because you have some pretty private
information: maybe your e-mail, you date of your birth, where you’re from.
And you don’t want everyone to see that.
So you can invite people that you know to be a friend on Facebook.
And when... when they’re your friend, they can view your pages; they can view
your photos and your comments.
OK.
So you’ll log on and then you’ll get a little notification that says, ”You have
one new friend request.”.
So you check and you say, ”Hmm, do I know this person? Where do I know this
person from?”.
Yeah.
So if I get a friend request, it could be, um, for example, uh, an old
acquaintance from high school,
in which case I’m usually like, ”Oh, that’s so fun. I’d love to talk to them
again,” except sometimes it might be someone that I’ve only met once,
and I’m not sure if I want them to see my whole Facebook page, so that’s where
it gets a little complicated.
This is where that collision of worlds comes in, and that’s sort of the... the
main topic of our... our article here.
Well, do you get ”friended,” uh, often, Howie?
I think so. But then I’ve recently made some adjustments to my profile.
So not everyone can see my page, so that’s much, much less.
Right, and that’s what we’re gonna talk about tomorrow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
OK. OK.
I would think of we... sometimes you might get these friend requests that, you
know, maybe some of them you welcome,
and another times you’re like, oh, no, I just... I never liked that person from
high school or something.
Well, yeah. I have 633 friends, I believe, on Facebook.
Mmhm.
I would not be able to sit down and have a conversation with each of those
people.
Right.
Some of them are cousins that I don’t know very well.
Some of them are... are old classmates that I was never that close to.
But it’s sort of nice to know that there’s a connection that’s open.
OK. All right.
Let’s go into our next paragraph, Howie.
It says here: The truth is, though, not all friends are the same.
Confidences you share with one set of friends may not be something you’re eager
to tell co-workers.
OK. So we talked about confidences... confidences there. What are they, uh,
Naomi?
It’s sort of like secrets.
Yeah.
If you take someone into your confidence, it means that you’re letting them know
very personal things about yourself.
So confidences are... are personal details.
All right.
And so then the word ”confidential” might come from that, yes?
Mmhm.
So it’s something that, ”Hey, this is confidential. Don’t tell anybody.”.
Right. Also a person who you confide in, who you tell secrets to, we call a
confidant.
Mmhm.
That’s why I mispronounced it before.
OK, that’s all right, Howie. We love that. We’ll let you stay.
So now while you may enjoy the amusing pictures former classmates are posting
from your ”younger days,” you may not want them to broadcast to everyone else.
Howie, you gave the example of uh, somebody took all the photos from your high
school yearbook, right?
I don’t mind, but someone scanned all the pictures from our yearbook and put
them online on Facebook.
But then one of my classmates was furious, like, that’s a horrible picture of
me. I’ve always hated it.
And, uh... yeah, there was actually a war of words on their Facebook because of
that.
Wow, my goodness.
That’s where a lot of this disputes could start up because people were posting
things on there.
They don’t get permission from other people to put something on, and then all of
a sudden there’s this picture from 15 years ago.
Right, and people can do that, which is why I think if you do use Facebook,
please use it responsibly.
Please try to be considerate about the kinds of things that you’re posting.
Um, often if I go... if I go out with friends, we take some fun pictures, some
of them are little silly maybe,
I’ll say, ”Is it OK if I put those up on Facebook?” and... and get the verbal OK
from them before I post.
Right, well, that’s... that’s a very good point.
Before you do post something on, get the person’s permission because they may
not want that information or that photo up there.
So...
And then what about the status updates, Naomi?
Well, status updates are sort of like what we talked about yesterday.
And if you have a status update that is proclaiming your boredom at work,
well, most people should not see that - only your most loyal friends should be
able to see that, because if I have an update that says,
”Oh, I’m so tired this morning I can’t get any work done,” and you know, I
happen to be friends on Facebook with Doris and she sees that,
then she will not be too pleased with me.
Yeah.
So I had underlined ”proclaiming.” If I proclaim something, Howie?
You’re announcing it to the world.
OK, so...
And, my most loyal buddies are... just what? The people that are very close to
me or maybe my closest confidants, right?
Best friends.
OK.
Listeners, let’s go to our next reading.
Sharing information.
But ”social networking” is just that: sharing your actions with your entire
friend list from mom to boss.
It’s disconcerting when a co-worker mentions ”Wow, you look different in
college,” or when unrelated friends argue via comments on that story you posted.
And it’s potentially career-threatening when your supervisor asks what you find
boring at work, and why you are ”Facebooking” on company time.
People are finding out there are some things you just shouldn’t - or don’t want
to - share with everyone.
That’s where privacy tools come in.
Though most sites have them, few people remember to use them until it’s too
late.
OK. Thank you, Steve.
That was Steve Marth doing our reading. We’re lucky to have Steve do this
four-day reading for us, aren’t we, Naomi?
Mmhm.
All right. Sharing information.
But ”social networking” is just that.
We’re talking about this proclaiming boredom at work and things like that -
sharing information.
And sharing your actions.
Right. Social networking is just what it says: social networking.
It’s sharing your actions with your whole friend list.
It’s being social and... and reaching out to people.
If you don’t wanna be doing that, then you shouldn’t be on Facebook.
Ah, boy, I’ll tell you what - when I send e-mails, I have to be really careful -
you know, who I sent them to.
I usually type them up and specifically have people on the address list and then
there’s people I leave off.
But I just... I know I would mess up and I would put something on Facebook that
other people would see that they don’t .... they shouldn’t see.
So...
Well, you... I mean you always need to be careful with you words, right?
And that’s something...
I think in some ways Facebook is a good... uh... almost sort of an
accountability, a good coach, for people to learn how to be careful with... with
their words.
Right.
I would say that it might be actually nurturing a generation of people who are
more cautious about what they say in public.
Hmm, OK.
Well, and, there’s a good adjective there in line 3 that we use to describe
this... uh... some of this experience with co-workers, Howie.
Yeah, it’s rather disconcerting - and when something is disconcerting, it causes
you to worry; it’s kind of worrisome - when a co-worker mentions,
”Wow, you look different in college,” or when... when unrelated friends argue
via comments on a story you posted.
Uh, disconcerting, I love ”disconcerting.”.
It’s a great word.
It gives the idea that something makes you just a little uncomfortable, just a
bit... a bit ill at ease.
Um, so ”disconcerting” is like, ”Hmm, wait a second. What’s going on?”.
Right.
And I would find it disconcerting if unrelated friends in line 6 argue via
comments on the story I posted.
These are people maybe that I know but they don’t know each other.
It would be really weird for me to have two of these people that I know who
don’t know each other arguing.
Well, in some ways, that’s the beauty of it... is that you can have an open
discussion with people who don’t really know each other,
but they’re, you know, getting to each other and sharing opinions.
That... that can be a positive thing. But it’s again tricky.
Yeah.
You know, I don’t know if I want...
It depends on the situation.
I don’t know if I want blending of maybe a good buddy of mine here in Taipei
with a good buddy of mine in Pittsburgh.
And that’s like what we were talking about before, that collision of worlds.
Yeah, yeah, so...
Now, there’s also a risk we find out there in line 7, Howie.
Right. It’s potentially career-threatening when your supervisor asks you what
you find boring at work, and why you’re actually ”Facebooking” on company time.
Mmhm.
So maybe Doris might ask that question after Naomi says that she’s not getting
much done at work or something.
And Doris might say, ”Hey, what’s the problem, huh?”.
”Why are you on Facebook during work hours, anyway?”.
Because when you post something, it actually tells you what time you’ve posted
it up.
So like Doris may notice, ”This was posted around 9:30.”.
Yeah.
”You were working. You were on company time.”.
Well, there’s a very good piece of advice for all of our listeners: Don’t be
doing this Facebook stuff at work - at least too much of it,
because if you’re doing it, eventually, your employer will find out and it will
cause you a problem.
To be fair, some companies might be completely fine with it.
Mmhm.
Uh, some companies may just view it as.. um... as sort of something like
checking a couple of personal e-mails every day as long as you’re not on it too
often.
As long as it’s a brief thing, then don’t worry too much.
I think the issue comes when people are on just all day every day.
And it’s really interfering with work.
Checking your Facebook account for two minutes, your employer might not have a
problem with that.
Right, right.
But there... I’m sure there are situations where people spend the bulk of their
day - probably 50 percent of their day - on Facebook going back and forth.
So people are finding out there are some things that you just shouldn’t - or
don’t want to - share with everyone.
And, that’s uh... We talk about privacy tools.
Right, and that’s what we’re gonna talk about more in depth tomorrow.
But there is a way to control the information that’s getting out there.
So a lot of people are afraid of going on Facebook because they’re... they’re
thinking, ”Oh, no, if I post something, everyone will see it and I don’t know
what to do.”.
But actually there are ways, there are tools to help you control the information
that’s being posted.
OK.
Well, most sites have these privacy tools, right, Naomi?
That’s right.
Most, especially social networking sites and so on, they have tools to protect
you, to protect your privacy.
But few people remember to use them until it’s too late, until they’ve already
run into a problem with the wrong people seeing certain information.
OK. So we’ve got these privacy tools that, uh, I imagine that it’s... it’s a
learning process.
It’s an ongoing process with these tools, right?
Well, that’s why we’re doing a whole day on it tomorrow.
Yeah.
We’ll get into details about how complicated that can be.
But I use these.
Um, I... I do have a lot of Facebook friends, but some of them are people who I
haven’t met in real life.
In fact, I may be speaking to some of you right now that I haven’t met.
Some of our students have Facebook friended me, and I haven’t met them.
It’s a pleasure to be Facebook friends with them, but I still have some, uh,
restrictions.
Right.
Certain things that my mom can see that my... some of my other Facebook friends
can’t.
OK.
For example, certain photo albums that only certain friends can see but my boss
can’t.
And so it’s important to figure out how to use those features so that you’re not
just sharing your entire life with the whole world.
I agree.
Some of you may be intimidated because: Oh, I don’t want to try this. It’s too
dangerous.
But no, if you know how to set these privacy settings, you’ll be OK.
You can actually tweak; you can customize your Facebook so that for the people
that you want to share this information to, they’ll get it,
but others that you’re not as familiar or you don’t want them to see it, they...
they definitely won’t.
What’s the most surprising friend message, or ”friended” that you’ve gotten?
Can you think of that?
What’s the most surprising one - just completely out of the blue?
I’ve had people from high school which I’m... I’m like, ”Hey, you never talked
to me in high school, and yet, you... you wanna be my friend now?”.
Well, that’s kind of strange to me.
I actually had one the other day where, uh, he said: Oh, I know you from when
you lived in Montreal.
And I was like, ”How’s it going? It’s so great to see you!”.
I still have no idea who this person is.
But I felt so bad saying anything that I just accepted his friend request, but
then I put him on my limited profile list,
which means he can’t see very much of what I post.
Mmhm.
Well, I am not on Facebook,
but I actually got an e-mail from a classmate of mine from high school, and she
was sending an announcement about a high school reunion.
I have not spoken to this person in 25 years.
I got this e-mail from her. I was just stunned. I’m like, ”What in the world is
this?”.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There’s something kind of really great about it, actually.
We worked on a high school reunion... be a Facebook as well.
A lot of these people I hadn’t talked to in years, but it was nice to see how
they were doing.
OK.
Well, listeners, come on back for day 4 of this article.
Till then, this is Bill...
Naomi...
Howie...
Saying goodbye.
Goodbye.