I found an interesting article about the relationship between Facebook and Japanese people.
Japanese tend not to use Facebook.
Do you know why?
According to the article, Japanese don't want to use real names.
Instead, they use nicknames in Japanese social networks such as Mixi and Gree.
Japanese are wary of using real names on the Internet.
I can agree with this article.
Many Japanese don't want to show their private life, even names, to the public.
That's why Facebook is not so popular in Japan.
However, after the great hit of "Social Network," I think many Japanese started to create Facebook account.
But I can say that one of the reasons they started creating an account is Japanese people like popular things.
Personally, I like Facebook better than Japanese social networks, so I hope Facebook will be familiarized to Japanese.
By the way, I also think that when I use Facebook, I feel like I am forced to use English...so do my friends.
I don't know why, but even if Facebook has become world wide SNS, we think it is American, which makes us use English.
Here's an article, "Facebook Is Nowhere In Japan."
Oh, I forgot to tell you.
Please don't think that these 3 people showed in this article are normal Japanese!
They are not that normal for us, either!!
They are just prominent..
Appearance of most Japanese like me or same as American people! :) LOL
Very enlightening, Mika. I'd be very curious to see how Japanese social networking sites like Mixi and Gree work. Does everyone on these sites use nicknames and avatars or do some people use their real names and/or real photos? Do participants share biographical information and "taste preferences"?
ReplyDeleteBoth Mixi and Gree are Japanese SNSs, but each characteristic is different.
ReplyDeleteFor example, Mixi, more than 50% people write both their real names and nicknames on their profile. However, their nicknames are shown for many pages, and if they jump to their profile page, they can see the real names if they've put. We also can search friends by both real names and nicknames.
We put real photos, but most of them are just for friends to share. However, it is interesting that younger generation(younger than mine) tend to put their real face on their profile.
I don't use Gree, so I don't know much about it, but Gree seems to use more nicknames than real names. Moreover, Gree is considered as to play games on the website.
Mika, is there more rich media (video/high-quality audio/etc.) on Japanese SNSs than on US-centric sites? I'd be thinking that there would be with the greater prevalence of FTTH and other ultrafast Internet connections in Japan.
ReplyDelete