Did you know that when McDonald’s first appeared in Poland in 1992 (in Warsaw, Marszałkowska street) it was a favorite place to eat of the local upper class? The food served there was as junky and unhealthy as it is now but it did not matter. McDonald's was a brand associated with the 'glorious' West and people went there to show others that they eat American food. Not much has changed since then. Of course, McDonald's reputation quickly deteriorated but new brands and products have emerged and became a symbol of social and material status for the people. Let's take a look at some of them now.
(image source: http://www.networkingaudiovideo.com/)
How all of this started in our country? Ironically, the one to blame is the universally hated Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. (TPSA) and their famous internet access: Neostrada. It was the first non dial-up (where you paid one, fixed bill at the end of the month instead of paying per minute) connection that reached the masses. Suddenly many people, especially the young ones, were exposed to the vast depths of the Internet. The term 'Dzieci Neostrady' (Children of Neostrada) was born. That Polish piece of the World Wide Web suddenly became a very crowded place. Before it had been mainly for engineers and hobbyists. After Neostrada hit, an average user had to deal with immature children, raging teenagers, frustrated adult women, frustrated adult men and many different creeps and strange people on day-to-day basis.
image source: http://blog.bachmatiuk.eu/)
Neostrada was a first step towards a Polish global village. People started pretending that they were someone else than they really were in the real life. Someone better, more confident, more beautiful, more successful. It was difficult, however, to broadcast that brand new self to the wider public. That is when Nasza-Klasa and Facebook appeared.. One individual could now have 'hundreds' of friends and show them how hip, how cool she/he is. And so it began. Below is a good clip illustrating this situation:
Questions:
- Have you ever had an account on naszaklasa or facebook? Why?
- How many “virtual” friends do you have?
- How many of them are your real-life friends? (Keeping regular contact etc)
1. I have an account on facebook mostly because many people I know are there aswell.
ReplyDelete2 & 3. I don't know, less than 100. I keep regular contact with about half of them.
I have nothing against facebook or other social websites, they are good to spy on people ;)
I don’t want to be rude but everyone says the same. I mean people claim ” I have facebook because many people I know are there as well.” or facebook is “good to spy on people” hehe.
ReplyDeleteTo me, although I have fb too (but I have only about 30 friends - YES, no one loves me :( ) , this kind of social services are a waste of time because people start chatting, playing stupid games etc instead of meet each other in real life. For sure not all of us but most of all. It is said
I remember, before Neostrada access there was a dial-up connection with modems, played very funny “tiu-ru-ru-ru -- tri-ri-ti-ti “ sounds during establishing a connection :-)
ReplyDeleteThat was on the very beginning. Everybody wanted to have a dial-up access and spent every evening on chats. “Look, that’s Internet” , “Uuuuuu – can I copy that on the floppy disk?”
I’ve never have and definitely never would have a Facebook account. I’m quite opposed of such kind of social web-communities.
Few years ago I used to have ‘Grono.net’ account but just to exchange school materials, information… aaah and also I have a NK account. But I don’t know email address and password as well. Somebody created that account on my behalf just for fun.
How many virtual friends I have? It’s hard to say. I’ve never collected them. But I think we can have as much as we want. Just go to randomly chosen Web Communicator or Web Chat, select one after another person and ask them: “Will you type with me?”… that’s sad. Instead of going somewhere and meet with friend people are sitting at home and “collecting” new artificial friends, chatting with each others - became overweigh and ugly. I can call them “outcast generation”.
Spying people ?! Just call them and ask: “Hey, how are you? How is life treating you?”
1. Yes, I have an account on facebook, becouse it is one of the fastest possibility to contact with some of my friends. Apart from that it is the best form to establish contacts with friends from abroad.
ReplyDelete2/3 I don't have "virtual" friend. On facebook I have about 100 friend, I know everybody of them and I keep contact with them. Regular contact I have with 70% of them.
I am not a big fan of social web-communities, but I think it give us an opportunity to contact with friends from the old times, and it isn't obstacle to have a real life contact.
Yes I have an account on facebook. The advertisers have contact with friends and I can see what's going on with them without contact. On facebook I have over 300 friends but maintains constant contact with about 30-40 people. The rest of the people are just colleagues. I think that social networking is a good thing but you should approach this with caution.
ReplyDelete@s4504 since when chatting with friends is bad?
ReplyDeleteI think you guys forgot about one thing. Look at the translation of "friend" on facebook. It's "znajomy", a person you know, that's all.
Of course adding everyone you see on the streets and posting things like "I'm going to the bathroom" on your wall is silly.
chatting isn’t bad but facebook people use it in so many unnecessary cases that it becomes more like an addiction than actual chatting.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with your opinion about the facebook’s wall. For God’s sake , what’s the point of liking everything? I need to have a pony! <- Like (83234243 people like it)
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ReplyDeletehave facebook account just only because almost all of my friends publish their/our interesting pictures there :( -I mean pictures from parties in which I took part in, from their holidays, interesting trips and so on... It is sad for me because I am not in general a fan of facebook, I could even say that I hate it especially when the people are posting all details of their private life 20 times a day such as when they make a shit!!! Who cares!!!
ReplyDeletePersonally if I want to show my pictures to my friends, I just share with them on picasa.
ok people who cares how many friends on facebook do you have..? Is this important at all? you can have 500 or 30 "friends" it really doesn't matter.. I have friend who has about I don't remmber exactly but let's say 500 people and in her "real life" she's very sociable, easy going, people love to spend time with her maybe or I'm even sure they're not her best friends but just people she met and just enjoyed the meeting even if it was first and the last one..who knows.
ReplyDeleteI agree that if people are isolated and they just sitting at home and have their virtual friends on facebook or wherever it is sick. But what we can do? Is there something we can do? Maybe just help people who have a problems with communication to talk with them, understand I don't know.. but why we judge others..it's sensless
I have a facebook account and if you wanna know I have about 90 friends. It's because I met people during my few travels abroad and they're not my best friends but i would like to keep in touch with them. I have also a few friends from my "world":) my friends with who I meet often here in Poland. And about nasz klasa..I didn't like my schools and most of my classmates but if someone had a great time at that time of their lifes it's good possibility to comunicate with them.:) what's wrong with that?
1. Yes, I have an account on fb. It helps me to stay in touch with people who I don't see to often, especially ones who are abroad.
ReplyDelete2. Few too many, but about as many as should be. And still more and more.
3. As Adam said, there's a difference in meaning of the word friend translated as "przyjaciel" and "znajomy". Also, in 21st century it happens quite often that you meet some people virtually and keep contact with them only by phone/email/fb or whatever before you meet them in real life. There are married couples who chatted virtually for months before they met in the "real life". So what does "real" mean now?
Btw, I met most of my "fb friends" not virtually first.
Maybe that's just being old or something similar, but showing your face, name, place of residence, e-mail, job history, preferences, habits and who knows what else to all the Internet is just too much. It's a great amount of knowledge for everyone who may want to steal your account etc. Of course, this is the worst scenario, but nowadays when you're going on a job interview, you're being checked in Internet. It's just too much knowledge for an employer. But maybe that's just me.
ReplyDelete1)Facebook it is very popular network in the worl.Many people are members of it I also.It is simple way to find out manu old friends and to meet new one and talk about common interest.It is great way to spend free time too.
ReplyDelete2,3)Virtual not many ,but some people which I know from network I met eith them in real world and now we keeping regular contact even sometimes we support each other in hard situations.
Yes, I have an account on NK portal and on Facebook. Why? On NK because I wanted to be in contact with friends from years that past. On Facebook, because my girlfriend made me an account in order to cheat in e-competitions. On these accounts I have a few friends. I do not have virtual friends. With a small amount of people from my friends I keep any contact at all because they are from other cities, and I now live in Warsaw. I am not a fan of social networks.
ReplyDeleteI do not have a naszaklasa profile, but do have a facebook account. I am not obsessed with updating my status or collecting friends. I don't want people to know what I ate for breakfast. Private life is called private for a good reason. I only use it to keep in touch with my real-life friends. I have not more than one hundred friends on facebook, all of which I actually know in real life.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever had an account on naszaklasa or facebook? Why?
ReplyDeleteI still have account on facebook. The reason is that I always know what's going on in my friend's life. I also use it to keep in touch with them and to know about the parties.
How many “virtual” friends do you have?
I have alot of virtual friends. I always had.
I prefer rather than virtual contacts - real ones. Every person on my friend list in virtual world is also my real friend in life. I never accept the invitation from the person I don;t know.
Have you ever had an account on naszaklasa or facebook? Why?
ReplyDeleteI have never had a naszaklasa account. I have a FB account, but I don't use it too often. To me it's an alternative tool for communications with friends from abroad.
How many “virtual” friends do you have?
I don't know, probably around 100.
How many of them are your real-life friends? (Keeping regular contact etc)
I keep in touch with most of them, I don't have any fictional friends if you ask about that. Why would I? :)
By the way, it seems to me that you really hate the modern style of communicating. I must say that I agree with you on some level, the time that people spend on social network sites has gone way too high :)
ReplyDeleteYes I have active account on facebook and naszaklasa but I use it very little. I have 97 virtual friends on facebook and 154 on naszaklasa but I don't know exactly how much of them is my real-life friends. I think most of them.
ReplyDeleteI have an account no Facebook. It is an easy way to maintain some contact with friends and keep an eye on the latest news. I do not have any 'virtual' friends, my real friends are the only I care about. And I keep a regular contact with all of them. That's why I called them 'friends'.
ReplyDeleteI have an account on Facebook too. I keep it mostly to keep contact with people from my previous schools. I also have a lot of foreign friends on LiveJournal.
ReplyDeleteI know all people from my friend list from the real life, from the very beginning I was very carefull about it. About LJ friends, I was lucky to see some of those people when I was visiting their countries.