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Japan's online social scene isn't so social

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26 Comments
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If you live in New York, is it much good to have online friends in Seattle?

The izakaya and love hotels are all full. Nobody that can meet real people within touching distance should care about online social life. --Cirroc

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Japanese people are so socially awkward they can't even do dating sites right

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I joined mixi a few years ago in an attempt to buff up my colloquial Japanese a bit, and what this writer says is absolutely true. While I met up with more than a few of the friends I 'met' on mixi (and dated a couple people of the ladies), but the whole site has gone downhill, and really offers no incentives for newcomers to join. What's more, with Japanese access to MySpace and the superior Facebook, mixi is likely to go the way of the samurai.

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why wud japanese open themselves up to a new avenue to be bullied, makes perfect sense given j-culture NOT to make yr identity known, simple really

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Japanese people are so socially awkward they can't even do dating sites right- thats why the population is declining!

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Byproduct of shame culture.

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Makes it easier for identity theft, publishing all of your details. A Japanese bank even let a guy withdraw savings from his brother's account....

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Japan's online social scene isn't so social Japan's offline social scene isn't so social either

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Putting up too many pictures or too much personal information comes back to bite them in the backside. By having less information and limited access, etc. prevents all this. Smart if you ask me.

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“the nail that sticks out is hammered down.”

Envy, bullying, stalkers.

I still remeber when the Gov tried to convince people to use their real names in the internet.

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Pretty much a bunch of uninteresting, socially inept people. That's my conclusion after a handful of years there, and a large part of why I left.

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I sort of agree with the Capt

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I don't like the whole dating thing via online services and will never try it; but isn't things like myspace and facebook supposed to be about meeting new people???? aside from sharing and interacting with friends. Perhaps Japanese people don't really want to meet new people bad enough to break down their barriers. I think they are interesting people, the ones I've met so it is a shame. It will take time but it will happen because nothing ever stays the same.

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I never liked how MySpace and FaceBook weren't very good about privacy and the big reason why I like mixi is because it's easy to control who you interact with. There are so many different levels of privacy settings that you can customize. Many people DO post pictures of themselves, but you often have to be on their friends list to view them.

Interaction with strangers on MySpace is often dimwitted at best. if you're a girl with your pic up, you get bombarded by mails akin to "hey baby wassup?" and even random guys sending you their phone number and stuff...but hey I guess that's how people interact on the streets in some American towns, so then, essentially, isn't online life in other countries also very similar to real life?

They forgot to mention though that mixi's communities in general seem to have more actual discussion and interaction than those on MySpace.

By the way,I thought mixi was founded in 1999, not 2004. Anyone know the real date on that?

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Simple reason: Japanese fear /b/

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It is all about how people adopt manners on SNS see www.properfacebooketiquette.blogspot.com

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To become an extroverted westerner is not as appealing as it used to be for some, obviously it hasn't solved most of the problems we see in the world today for both. Likewise, I don't see westerners embracing asian culture honestly. The cultural exchange was not satisfying for most because of .... Perhaps there will be another chance for you, us, them.

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Darn it...! And here I was thinking of opening up another social networking site to compete with MySpace, FaceBook, Mixi, and the likes... (Sarcasm).

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As a Canadian you will NOT fine my name on the "On Space" or the "On Video" or what ever it is called.

I would NOT trust either of them.

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A lot of the people I have met on Mixi could be assumed to be either a) cats b) Hamasaki Ayumi or c) That horrible little Olsen twin

That's interesting, most of the people I've met have been dogs, the majority of them dobies. Cleo is also a dobie on Mixi, though she isn't cleo there.

It's easier (in my experience) to find people with similar interests on Mixi than it is on Facebook; it's also less in-your-face.

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is there a english interface at the mixi site ? +) Japanese people are so fixed on privacy content. At least from the post in here.

But Kuwano says even among the women hunting for a spouse on the site, only 40 percent are willing to post a picture of themselves, and men are far less likely to respond without getting a glimpse first.

Are thouse 40% considered weird ? Or its sometihng really ubnormal to post a picture of urself on ur homepage.

Not for commercial - i have a homepage myself at vkontakte.ru (the site is in cirrilic, so it will be hard to brouse it) with almost ~150 photos (not alot of myself, but only because i'm on the other side of camera). A lot of my friends have tons of photos, and like 15-20% of them are fixed on privacy, the others are free for all. I know its not true that all the japanesee people are that "shy" and fixed on "privacy". Its easier to live on when u have more people you know, with more chanses to spend your free time with ur friends. ... Do really want to get on that mixi site.. and will have to start learning kanji.
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It is correct. Social sites from Internet are very unsocial.I have joined many social network sites. Wasted time from me! Most of my new friends from social network site never reply my greetings or birthday wishes. In the reality they do not treat me as a friend. I removed some of the unfriendly friends from my profile.

One thing I am happy about is showing off my photos at social sites. Otherwise no one will see my photos. Sharing my trip photos with everyone is very pleasant.

The downsides of social sites are people do not trust each other. They are making less privacy. Culturally senstive for some people. However they are good for sharing photos, music and market information. The world is getting smaller because of that.

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Social sites bother me. My friends send me invites to so many things but I have no idea what they are. like Athletes said above, it's just good for showing your photos to your friends. Other than that I don't need all the karma, bought you a ???? and cr@p01a like that.

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Part 1

OK here's my take. It really just depends on what type of site it is. YouTube is not as personable so a picture is not as important. I don't have a picture of myself there either. Although I do try to put one up that represents a part of myself which people can relate to. Facebook is more of the same. I little more personable but still not enough to warrant a picture of yourself. This is unless of coarse you are part of a group such as an anime club or have some things in common like with cars or some other hobby. I can see where this would be a problem on a site like Match.com or E-Harmony.com or even a site like JapanCupid.com. These sites are designed for the sole purpose for helping people find a sole mate or for a better term a partner. Be it a friend, future friend, or just someone to share your interests with. It is always more difficult for this to work if you don't at the very least have a picture to go by. It is almost like first contact. It puts a real person behind the persona and make people feel more as ease and comfortable with who they are talking to. After all any relationship starts with friendship and gaining trust in that person. It is almost impossible to do if you don't at least try to open up a little. I should know as I am the master of living in a hole. I can relate with the Japanese people in that respect. I guess it all becomes lost in translation.

This is why sites like E-Harmony or Match.com will likely never work in places like Japan. Sites like JapanCupid.com I think are at least trying to bridge that gap. Although it is important that they make it clear what is expected of both sides which each can understand and accept. In addition to this maybe a more stringent registration process which will discourage the people who are just looking at this for a gag or for other means which the site wasn't intended for. This I think would help at least to some degree. Likely this is more effort then most sites would like to put forth. Although it would I think help ease concerns and maybe help them to open up a little more. You can't change the Japanese people but I am not willing to give up on them just yet. People are still people no matter have uninteresting or dull they may seem at first. I likely have the dullest life in existence but I am willing to share that with someone who thinks the same of their life. I think the Japanese people are very interesting as are other races and people throughout the world. It is just as hard for me to open up as well but I accept that.In Japan I know this has been burned into their thinking but that can change. Otherwise if change isn't possible not in just Japan but in any part of the world. Why are we even trying to make a difference anywhere. We may as well just let the world destroy itself which was really a failed experiment from the beginning.

If people were never meant to change or adapt then why even create the world at all. It would seem to be utterly pointless in my opinion. While the Japanese social scene is much to be desired I don't believe it is beyond repair. Although it will take much more effort on everyone's part to make this work. This is why I am learning Japanese if it kills me. The more interest ones shows in ones culture or language then it might help to break the ice better.

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