Anti-Social Social Media goes Social!

Not unlike the Canon 5DMKII was sometime ago, this is a game changer!

Confused? You needn’t be, it’s actually very simple. Facebook has come to the Xbox 360 and it is going to redefine the way we view and interact with Social media!

Now why on earth would I be posting about the XBox 360? Aside from the fact that it has HD capabilities and also plays movies, what does it have to do with camera’s and the usual content on this blog? Well it does have something to do with photo’s and this is how it all started. Allow me to explain. . .

Until now, Facebook, a site based upon Social interaction, has increasingly and somewhat ironically become an anti-social pursuit. It’s habit-forming for many and anybody who has experienced it would agree that despite being a social platform, it all too often removes the user from actual social situations to inform their other ‘friends’ of their doings and current ‘status’.

I see friends posting photo’s of what’s going on, updating their pages, writing messages, all while it’s actually happening. While that’s going on, sure I can see it on my computer or my phone, but that person is completely detached from the actual situation that moments ago, they were actually experiencing. We are seeing average everyday people turning in to voyeuristic documentarians for the benefit of their Facebook following.

When I view this content, like many others, I am alone on my computer logging in to see what’s going on. Katie also reads and sees most of the same content, as we have many mutual friends and we often discuss what we see on there. I never watch her ‘maintain’ her Facebook, nor does she watch me, nor does anybody else I know watch other people on Facebook. It has seemed to me for all intents and purposes to be an individual and anti-social pursuit. . .until now. . .

Recently Katie and I had some friends around and we were all sitting in the living room, chatting away and having a few drinks. I have an XBox 360 connected to the TV that streams my iTunes music from my editing machine over the house wireless connection.

I remembered seeing that Facebook had come to the XBox 360 and after picking some beats and seeing it on the menu, rudely decided I would check it out (It was new and shiny, I just had to have a quick peek!). What ensued was something I have never experienced before and I couldn’t believe it.

There was 8 of us in the room and when they saw their beloved Facebook on the TV, many were quite surprised! All being quite avid Facebooker’s, this was a new and interesting (albeit a little klunky) implementation of the site.

What was intended to be a quick look to see what it was like turned into a full on group session. We went through old photo albums, laughing, telling stories and reminiscing. This quickly led to more searches for ‘that photo’ and in turn, more laughter, discussion and reminiscing. It all happened so fast, before you knew it everybody in that room had had their own photo’s up on the screen, we had all had a great time and 2 hours had flown by.

I looked around me. There had been a radical shift in the dynamic. In that moment the XBox had suddenly and irrevocably changed the way we interact, share and evaluate a Social Media experience. It had taken it out of the office and bedroom and into the living room! A room oft-times designed to comfortably accommodate multiple people for extended periods while they talk, watch TV or a movie. I mean of course you could have always plugged a laptop in and done exactly the same thing, but what I’m really talking about here is accessibility. Heaps of people have laptops and Plasma’s, how man people would actually bothered to hook it up and do that?

The XBox might not be the first to do this, it definitely won’t be the last, but with it’s wireless controls and ability to display on the TV, it sure is a perfectly suited system for that kind of viewing.

So now what? What’s next and where do we go from here? Will Facebook actually begin to promote real life social interaction in the form it did in our lounge room that night? I sure hope so. . .then I won’t have to live with the haunting Social/Anti-Social paradox that is Social media.

More soon. . .