I personally find this blog difficult to write about considering the fact that I'm the lady in class that believes "Blank is beautiful." For arguments sake and a decent grade, I went ahead and attempted to delve into the minds of the lonely by putting myself on the line with one of the ever popular dating services. Quite the sphere here! Talk about your untamed fragmented sphere; this is definitely the one. There are so many diverse sets of conversations taking place that when you're in the chat room you basically do not even know if you have connected with the right person. People talking over people that are talking over people are extremely irritating and frustrating. It could quite possibly be that I am too old to try to keep up. Plenty of fish for instance appeals to a younger crowd. I found this site to be no different than face book or my space. I do not know how anyone could possibly ever meet a mate or hold an intelligent conversation while everyone is speaking at once. The site seemed to be extremely superficial, but the appeal for postmodernists is perfect. It is all about the me, me, and me syndrome which works. On the other hand sites like eHarmony and Match.com seemed to lean more towards the modernists of the world. They come across as if there is a unified structure that works for each and every individual. They once again are creating a foolproof gauge for the masses. To me it would appear as though the sites are rigged as they seem to separate us into social classes. Most of the people I found on plentyofish.com were explicit and vulgar in their chats in that public sphere. I also found that I perceived it as the norm for most of the time I tried to hold one single conversation where one individual would answer and I would know that they were speaking back to me personally. Unfortunately, this did not take place on this particular public sphere because it was a chatting frenzy. I did attempt to gain some intelligent response, but it was futile. Now they have several advertisements that are very eye-catching just like the one below that causes people to inquire because we are so used to people telling us what we should and should not do that we rush to find out how we can save or start new relationships without a hitch.
5 Dating Rules you Should Never Break No one said dating was easy, but follow these five rules and you'll enjoy a richer experience as a single person. by eHarmony Staff Read more: http://advice.eharmony.com/?page=articles/view&AID=2007#ixzz0eJhwuBPX
So, I submit to the class do you believe we actually need this genre of forums? Or do we need a dating referee to help us find love? I think not. The media is way too controlling to the public and what makes it worse is that we as a whole (well most of us) allow it to reign freely in our lives. Here are two of the links below that should work as to give the reader a chance to decide for themselves.
www.plentyofish.com – (compare and contrast the different levels of broad fragmentation) www.eHarmony.com
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I did have a picture of a referee, but it did not paste to the blog.
ReplyDeleteThere was a picture of the ref are ready to ring the timeout sign a headline which you'll find in my blog read five dating rules you should never break which was a big-time attention getter. I wish I would've posted and perhaps my blog would make more sense.
ReplyDeleteLet me try this again! There was picture of the referee showing a timeout signal along with the headline (in my blog #3) that reads "Five dating rules you should never break." Man, I wish the picture would have posted, then my blog would have made more sense, hopefully.
ReplyDeleteWow… I must say that I had not considered dating websites when we’ve discussed the public sphere. It does seem that this would be more “untamed” and “fragmented” because in these chat rooms which you described, there is naturally going to be anarchy. It seems difficult for a mature conversation to flow as opposed to natural discourse. Additionally, social networking sites such as Facebook allow more structured conversations than dozens of people forced into a chat room.
ReplyDeleteOn Facebook, you may speak with a friend in a one-on-one virtual conversation, or you may follow the discourse of a wall-post where people are not typing over each other and simply expressing their respective ideas on one’s status or in a group. My thought is that Facebook has a guiding prompt that encourages a conversation: a group or a friend’s status—each sets of some sort of theme. Wall posts go by one, and from my experience, they seem to flow together like a conversation and are related to one topic; whereas dating websites, from what I understand, do not have that structure. It seems they are more random without the guiding prompt and basically a need to “hook up.”
Thanks for the great thoughts, though. I think that the dating websites are interesting approach to view the public sphere. It appears that they would be more chaotic than Facebook or even Mysapce.