The way society communicates has changed drastically due to the introduction of social networking sites like Facebook. Facebook has provided society with the infrastructure to expand people’s social circles. It does this by providing people with a place to stay in contact with every person that they have ever met. Facebook’s aggregated newsfeed has enabled members to receive a consolidated update of their social circles’ lives in just a few moments and without being in physical contact with a single person. The consolidated updates have also, in some cases, led to a behavioural pattern of possessing tendencies to self promote experiences through the newsfeed (Buffardi & Campbell, 2008). This increase of communication without any human contact has led to a number of uncomfortable etiquette issues in both the online and offline spaces. These issues include Facebook’s members addressing what is socially acceptable to know about each other when they meet in an offline space or the “real world”. This constant need for communication has led to people feeling as if they need to be able to communicate anywhere and at any anytime and this has seen the rise of the ‘smart phone’ (AIMA, 2009). As part of research for this conference paper, an online survey was distributed through social networking sites starting with my own contacts on Facebook, Twitter and email. There were one hundred and fifty three respondents with the majority of respondents located in Australia. This survey gathered information regarding how people communicate since the introduction of social networking sites. This conference paper will discuss how Facebook’s aggregated newsfeed has drastically changed the way society communicates.
