I copied Josh’s idea but used a facebook application because I don’t have many friends on twittr. Go to flickr and tag yourself in this photo if you use flickr.

To get one of these yourself, use the ‘A Thousand Words‘ facebook application.

When someone imports their email address book into Facebook to search for friends, they can invite those friends who aren’t already on Facebook to join. However, if one of your friends has multiple email addresses, and already has a Facebook account registered to a different email address than the one you’re ‘inviting’ them with, they get an email asking them to sign up (again) to be your Facebook friend. If they’re already signed in, they get redirected to their facebook homepage. I don’t understand why it wouldn’t just take you to the facebook profile of the person who invited you.

So, I get an invite to Facebook from ‘Tom Mackenzie’ to my personal email address.

My facebook is registered to my work email address. I even try adding my personal email address as an alternative email to my facebook account, but nothing new happens. I don’t have Tom Mackenzie’s email address. The only way I can find his Facebook profile is to do a search on his name. This brings up 3 pages of Tom Mackenzies, many of whom have no photo or their photo is too small to tell who they are. So I don’t know which of these are my friend!

That brings me to Facebook’s other annoying feature – you can’t see people’s full size photos, or personal details unless you are in their network. I don’t see any reason why someone in London’s network would want me to see their profile any less than someone in Brighton & Hove’s network!? Surely if I’m planning on a bit of e-harrassment, it’d be worse if I was local?

What even is the point in blocking regional networks that you’re not a part of? Or even of only letting you join one regional network at a time! I really don’t understand.

When someone imports their email address book into Facebook to search for friends, they can invite those friends who aren’t already on Facebook to join. However, if one of your friends has multiple email addresses, and already has a Facebook account registered to a different email address than the one you’re ‘inviting’ them with, they get an email asking them to sign up (again) to be your Facebook friend. If they’re already signed in, they get redirected to their facebook homepage. I don’t understand why it wouldn’t just take you to the facebook profile of the person who invited you.

So, I get an invite to Facebook from ‘Tom Mackenzie’ to my personal email address.

My facebook is registered to my work email address. I even try adding my personal email address as an alternative email to my facebook account, but nothing new happens. I don’t have Tom Mackenzie’s email address. The only way I can find his Facebook profile is to do a search on his name. This brings up 3 pages of Tom Mackenzies, many of whom have no photo or their photo is too small to tell who they are. So I don’t know which of these are my friend!

That brings me to Facebook’s other annoying feature – you can’t see people’s full size photos, or personal details unless you are in their network. I don’t see any reason why someone in London’s network would want me to see their profile any less than someone in Brighton & Hove’s network!? Surely if I’m planning on a bit of e-harrassment, it’d be worse if I was local?

What even is the point in blocking regional networks that you’re not a part of? Or even of only letting you join one regional network at a time! I really don’t understand.

The valorising of individuality in Western society, which is exaggerated in youth culture, has been described as ‘a cult of individualism’ (Atkinson, 2006: 75). Indicators of such traits may function as commodities in social settings, which in turn could earn social status, increasing social capital (Allik, 2004: 29). Resonating with capitalist notions of the individual as the center of importance, and perpetuating anti-communist abbhorrence of unification, individuality seems to be increasingly upheld in youth culture as virtuous (Traber, 2001: 30), to the extent that (within socially accepted boundaries and adherence to certain behavioural norms) perceived autonomy of an individual by others is related to the opportunities for social and community involvement they experience (Allik, 2004: 32).

The whole essay is available here: Individualism and Social Capital in an Online Social Networking Community: ‘MySpace’ as an organising site for Identity Construction [PDF]