Eye Tracking in the World of Social Media Pt.1
The popular rise of social networking and the various apps and sites created around it have significantly increased the number of “friends” people have. The average user of social networks has around 200 friends! This inflation has reduced the intricate and subtle social dance of meeting and developing friendships down to the sharing of innocuous profiles and pictures on the Internet. The rapid increase in the amount of people we “know” has given rise to dreaded scenarios like, “I have seen her/his face somewhere, but I can’t remember their name.”
Digital-based social networking has created a need for supporting technology to change dramatically as well. Persistent data connections to the cloud and instant access are now “the norm.” People rely on their mobiles and other digital devices to act as surrogate brains which are used to keep dossiers on everyone in their network. We have resorted to eschewing face-to-face contact in favor of sending a message, a text or even “poking” someone online.
These types of services are amazing at decreasing the amount of time required to make connections and forge new relationships. The enabling power to keep tabs on many people at once without personal, human contact or allowing us to reach out to those of whom we otherwise may have lost contact does not come without a price. Consider the following scenario:
Have you ever been at an event or just walking down the street and you see a person that you think you might have met before, but you don’t remember their name? Even worse, they are a distant cousin or an old close friend from elementary school? In a glance, you both seem to recognize each other’s faces but names completely escape both of your memories. You may even try very hard not to make eye contact for fear that you might have to go talk to that person. Engaging in an age-old socially awkward situation that could quickly turn ugly does not appeal to you.
Typically in these situations you might try introducing your “friend” to someone else, to anyone else nearby, in the hopes that you might catch their name in the crossfire and jumpstart your neurons. In the midst of this kind of awkward social faux-pas, you may find yourself wanting to get to a place where you can pull out your “brain” and look them up on Facebook. This may require pouring through all your friends and your friend’s friends, but alas you could settle your worried head by putting a “name to a face.”
In the very near future (not in several years, more like in the next two) socially awkward situations such as this will never have to rear their ugly heads. Your digital “brain” will not only be smarter and able to retain more information, but with the technologies of augmented reality and eye tracking, your “brain” will be given cognitive and precognitive superpowers. In Part II of this series, we will examine the potential of the technologies that will enable this social renaissance. So stay tuned for our next installment.
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