In
this blog I will try to analyze social networking websites by applying the
concept of formulas to them. There are
different formulas for different types of movies and songs, but I have never
thought of these formulas when thinking of social networking websites. Perhaps when thinking about a particular type
of social websites, such as dating websites, I may be able to see some of these
concepts.
For
instance, if you watch television, you have probably seen commercials for the
website, E Harmony. The makers of this
website proclaim to have made more “true love” matches between people than any
other dating site. This site matches
people on their compatibilities, therefore, almost making it impossible that
you will not meet your soul mate, or so they say. When applying the formula of romance to this
website, you can see that so many people join, and spend their money, on this
website because they believe that they will find there true love. These types of websites prey on the myth of
romantic love. People may join with this
mythological mindset because everyone wants to experience this romantic love
feeling with another person. These
websites almost promise this to people, so people pay a fee to have a computer
decide who they will be able to meet and chat with online.
The
stereotypes depicted in commercials for these websites is that there are two
generally attractive people that meet, because the website knows who you will
be compatible with, and they begin to talk to each other, online. After this they decide to go out on a date
and find that they are so compatible and have so much in common, because the
computer only picked people they have a lot in common with, and they begin to
fall in love. After getting to know each
other, of course they stay romanticized and in love, and eventually get
married. These websites portray that no matter who you are they can find
your match made in heaven and find the person that is compatible with you and
will fall in love with you.
The
formula used for these websites is the boy or girl gets their dream soul
mate. Of course, in the commercials they
leave out the part that the person loses their true love or gets that person
back, and jump straight to living happily ever after. It works for people though, especially the
makers of the website cashing in on all of the people that join. I am not saying that people cannot meet on
these websites and live happily ever after, all I am saying is that these
websites should not proclaim to be able to find your true love, because you
will still likely have to go on many incompatible dates before you actually
meet the person you would want to spend your life with.
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