The extent to which Plato's philosophy provides insight into current topics and ideas is alarming. To think that theories developed thousands of years ago have yet to be completely internalized shows how slow the human race can sometimes be. As students of philosophy, we feel a responsibility to shed some light on recent innovations and hot topics. Let's take a look at what Plato would say regarding social websites.
What makes a social website?
This surprisingly difficult to answer question would probably be Plato's first. More time could be spent here to flesh out the idea but to make this simple we will say that a social website is one that engages a community of users, providing some sort of social interaction (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and MySpace are some of the big ones).
What makes a social website good?
Plato took some time to develop the idea of "good" and we find it to be very relevant to this topic. He relates our creations to living things. In a living organism all parts are organically unified; it is impossible to separate one part of a person from another part and call the two parts separate people. So it should be with things we create. There must be a unifying theme that is imbedded deeply in the creation so that all parts are organically unified in this way.
A well-defined theme and clear unity will be what make others want to be a part of the creation. Social website must be able to effectively capture and engage and, according to Plato, the way to do this is to have a theme and unity.
An essential piece to making a social website good is the ability to quickly learn what the site is about. Plato believed that all people were capable of knowledge (though not all practiced it). A website should be simple and unified enough that in a matter of seconds, anyone accessing the page should be able to begin to understand what the page is trying to accomplish and how well it is accomplishing it. If the site is unified by a theme, the user will continue to learn about the service or product in a seamless experience.
A truly good social website should also foster meaningful communication between its members. Plato wrote scripts to be read at dinner parties because he believed that dialogue was much more meaningful than words. Words can be inadequate and dangerous because the cause us to think we understand when we do not. With dialogue, he took the theories developed by Socrates one step further and helped to make them concrete. This is just like the development in how the internet is used; Web 1.0 was simply a source of content, words. As it has developed to Web 3.0 it has moved toward a more interactive use, engaging users in meaningful discussion. A good social website should do this effectively (for example; the comments in Amazon reviews, YouTube comments, and Twitter).
An essential piece to making a social website good is the ability to quickly learn what the site is about. Plato believed that all people were capable of knowledge (though not all practiced it). A website should be simple and unified enough that in a matter of seconds, anyone accessing the page should be able to begin to understand what the page is trying to accomplish and how well it is accomplishing it. If the site is unified by a theme, the user will continue to learn about the service or product in a seamless experience.
A truly good social website should also foster meaningful communication between its members. Plato wrote scripts to be read at dinner parties because he believed that dialogue was much more meaningful than words. Words can be inadequate and dangerous because the cause us to think we understand when we do not. With dialogue, he took the theories developed by Socrates one step further and helped to make them concrete. This is just like the development in how the internet is used; Web 1.0 was simply a source of content, words. As it has developed to Web 3.0 it has moved toward a more interactive use, engaging users in meaningful discussion. A good social website should do this effectively (for example; the comments in Amazon reviews, YouTube comments, and Twitter).
How does one create a good social website?
Plato encountered two extremes of people; dogmatics who thought they knew more than they actually did and skeptics who thought they knew less than they did. At the same time, there were two different types of knowledge that interested him; theoretical knowledge and technical knowledge. Theoretical knowledge was viewed as a higher knowledge and was generally developed by those who had the convenience of being lazy as Renoir discusses. Those of high class typically looked down on the more technical type of knowledge that was held by those who actually created and did things.
Plato argued that the best things are created when someone who understands the theory is creating something. It is a fusion of both types of knowledge because it is more than just talking about things and it is more than just making things. We can say that the best social websites are created when the designers and programmers truly understand what makes them good.
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