ミクシィにミクスする
This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Winter 2009 Technology & Identity class. To learn more about the assignment, visit this blog post. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.
I like aligning with my favourites. I only buy Macs, rarely purchase a non-Nintendo video game, and only use Facebook. Or rather, only used Facebook. After exploring some alternatives, I might have found a new web-hangout: Mixi (ミクシィ) the Japanese-specific social network.
Is Mixi as active and linked as Facebook? Probably not. But it really is a breath of fresh air.
Being on Facebook can be stressful. With Applications, News Feed, Facebook Chat, Messages, Photos, and the Wall, Facebook usage is a constant splurge of friends, information, and media. And when a small pocket of peace is found, someone will accost you with a Poke. As fun as Facebooking can be, the profile has become a webpage, the default a Photoshop gallery, and status updates a form of blogging. It's easy to make a new self. It's easy to get lost in the mix.
Contradictory to its name, Mixi is a social networking world where people don't get lost in the mix.
Why?
Focus. The bulk of content on Mixi is based on who the user is, not who the user says s/he is. While Mixi provides similar functionality as Facebook, Mixi's main approach is to act as a web diary. Everything else is extra. Users on Mixi go around, learning about people's day to day lives. Facebook's equivalent, Notes, tends to be a scream for attention, or an expression of a strong point of view. Hence, the Facebook reader learns about the author's preferences, but not about the author him/herself. The Mixi user gets to decide what a person is like. The Facebook user is told.
But Mixi isn't just about writing diary entries. Mixi is designed for strengthening friendships. Most users of Mixi have Mixi friends that they are already good friends with outside of the internet realm. There is no longer a competition for attention. In fact, most Mixi profile pictures don't even contain pictures of the user themselves. Rather the profile picture is a photo of a rabbit the user saw the previous morning, a favourite manga character, or what the user ate for breakfast. Being on Mixi, I feel at home. I get to be genuine.
Facebook is great. But everyone seems to be dressed up for a night out. With Mixi, I get to put on pajamas and just talk to friends about my love for small animals or my secret obsession with romantic comedies.
No pressure.
Comments
I'm very intrigued by this Mixi. Although the concept of web-diaries are nothing novel (goodness knows I've seen more than enough of my share of LiveJournals and blogs in high school to last me the next decade or so), from what you've described of Mixi, it seems to transcend this and comes off as a more interactive hybrid with facebook. You do bring up good points in favor of Mixi, but you should be careful that comparing two platforms that may not fundamentally have the same purpose.
My impression of Facebook is that it was designed to have less of an emphasis on strength of ties as breadth of ties. Perhaps this may account for why there is always such an overwhelming flow of mostly irrelevant details on the lives of vague acquaintances instead of having a filter that only displays the updates from one's closest/most frequently-interacted-with friends. Facebook is unfortunately just not designed for intimate conversations about common love for small animals (an undoubtedly noble passion). Facebook should be used and judged for what it is: a casual social networking website, emphasis on networking.
(Oh, and an interesting side topic you might want to further explore: Is Mixi's popularity partly because its more intimate, casual appeal is more in tune with the generally more conservative preferences of its Asian audience?)
Posted by: Katherina Nguyen | February 5, 2009 12:32 AM
From your description, I imagine that Mixi is quite different from Facebook. While Facebook, at least to me, seems to have unintentionally been designed as a social networking site, Mixi is a diary that becomes more personal. I think you make a valid statement that a personal Facebook is more geared towards creating an image rather than representing one's true self. I myself have been judged from my Facebook profile picture even though it was not my intention to create an image of myself. I just wanted to let people see how I spent my vacation. However, the idea of Facebook had streamed toward that of creating a first impression. Even now, the term "Facebook stalk" has made its way around users telling of people examining profiles and creating an impression.
The difference with Mixi is that it is oriented more around the daily lives of the users and so continually tells a story. What I imagine the difference to be between this and Facebook is the frequency and length of "status update" that people write. You can say that the status update on Facebook is like a superficial version of Mixi. I think it would serve your argument well if you clearly denote the differences between Mixi and Facebook and what may be their causes. For example, the difference between interfaces can lead to this distinction, or how societal beliefs change the intention of a social tool like that of Mixi or Facebook. What factors contribute to these beliefs?
An interesting direction you might want to take this is instead of looking at the functionality of the sites, you can explore the what impacts this kind of social tool has on people when they leave this realm.
Posted by: Junichi Tsutsui | February 5, 2009 10:58 PM
Is there and English Mixi because it sounds amazing? I completely agree with you about how facebook is all about creating an image and not about representing your true self. I know that I try as much as possible to represent myself genuinely on facebook but it can be rather difficult. Your entry got me thinking. Would mixi do well in the US? Something tells me that mixi is popular in Japan because of the structure of their society. I don't know if the bulk of Americans who use facebook as their main social networking site would be willing to switch to mixi. I know that they do different things and one isn't really meant to replace the other but if there were a US equivalent of mixi, something tells me that many users would still try and engineer a persona by creating diary entries that suit their purposes.
Posted by: NnamdI Amobi | February 8, 2009 02:47 PM
The idea of Mixi as an intimate community is intriguing to me. From what I understand, Mixi is an invitation-only site, and in fact you need to live in Japan to join it (this can't be the case, right? you joined, didn't you?). I wonder how this somewhat exclusive flavor compares to Facebook's gradual evolution into a social networking free-for-all. It would be interesting to map if Facebook's quality or effectiveness declines as its access becomes more and more open to all.
I wonder if people "collect" friends the same way they do on Facebook. You make it sound like a more intimate and personalized encounter,so my initial thought would be that you would have fewer, but better, friends.
Finally, I'm glad that you focused on this site simply because it isn't just a Facebook clone. It offers an alternative model to Facebooking, not just a translate of Facebook into a different culture.
Posted by: Christine Alfano, Stanford Instructor | February 19, 2009 11:35 AM
Mixi has come a long way in the years. It didn't always used to be so nice. It has been redone to make it easier to use. Apparently, Mixi is also considering adding the additional programs to compete with Facebook.
Posted by: japanese words | March 2, 2009 07:28 PM