social networks as sanctioned voyeurism

I'll show you mine if you show me yours

[linear]

It occurs to me that the secret of successful social networking might well be the appeal to the voyeuristic nature of people. By no means am I heavily into social networking, but I've messed around with a few services and I'll offer some observations. The voyeuristic aspect is balanced to some degree by the editorial control given to the owners of the pages within the site. Success may be more about getting that balance right than voyeurism as such, but it made for a better thread title [webmasterworld.com].

Flickr is reasonably direct voyeurism, but filtered through the lens (literally) of what the user chooses to shoot with a camera and then share. The lens can be turned inward or outward, but it's the viewpoint of the user that is captured and shared in a Flickr page.

del.icio.us is a more indirect voyeurism. You get to know me thfough my bookmark file. There's not a lot of filtering or editing, since a list of sites I like isn't a tremendously telling portait of me in most cases.

Myspace of course has drawn huge fire for the ease of sharing inappropriate personal info, coupled with the youthful target audience. But it's hugely popular--maybe in part because of the risk/danger/thrill of oversharing? At least it's a component of the experience right? (I'm not a myspace user and have only read the endless blather in the press about it--I'm not in the target demo.)

Orkut offers crush features and profiles with a balance of self-descriptive imagery and text. You can modulate the degree to which you expose your details, and personal details are segregated from professional, so you don't inadvertently disclose some embarrassing hobby or interest to folks you know in a work setting. That segregation may not be all that effective, since membership in various groups is a significant way to declare affiliations in Orkut. You could argue that the groups serve no other purpose than labels/affiliation badges (because substantive discussion is really rare--Orkut discussions are an inch deep and a mile wide). So, danger again--you never know if the boss might get an invite, log on and find out that you belong to the group for some revealing/embarrassing proclivity.

So on to the discussion questions:
If you use a social networking site, what makes it compelling to you? Is there a degree of voyeurism involved?

Do you "overshare" info on these kind of sites?

Do you, or do you know anyone who actively "games" these kind of sites, constructing personas, or trolling, or skirting the rules in other ways?

If you used a social networking site and left, were there reasons involving voyeurism? (too much, not enough?)

[rogerd]

I think you are on target, linear. Social networking sites can be somewhat hypnotic even to the non-participant. Looking at someone's profile page gives you a bit of a window into their life and personality, and it's all too tempting to click on a "friend" link to get the same kind of glimpse into someone else's existence.

Virtual people-watching...

[ineedmoney]

I think one thing you forgot to mention is the use of social networking as pure business promotion. I use MySpace soley for the purpose of promoting my websites, and with good results. Others use it for band/music promotion, etc...

Although I think you make a valid and interesting point. Voyeurism I would say plays a big role although I may not call it that, maybe its just an individuals attempt to show the world they are unique through a ritualized and repeated action (i.e. signing up for a myspace account)