Jun Watanabe
In case somebody who might not know about P2P, let me explain it briefly. P2P stands for peer to peer which is an interface where you can share media or information with other people who are willing to share. Even in social media such as Facebook, you share your posts, links and pictures, in Twitter you share hashtag. Although the way both P2P and social media work seem to be similar, there is an issue with P2P. If people share their own pictures that they took, videos they recorded or songs they made via P2P, it is totally fine. When somebody shares Harry Potter movie, it becomes illegal unless you have permission or buy copy right. As you can see people mainly use for the latter purpose because they can download something for free instead of paying money without going out. This kind of file sharing became illegal because it is serious financial damage on producers. They sell DVD, music and movies to make profit but if people do not pay they will go bankrupt in the end. In terms of value sensitive design, I firmly believe that P2P was poorly made. Maybe the founder did not want people to use in an illegal way but the design made easy for people to do this type of action.
On the contrary, I believe social media is well made from value sensitive design perspective. Unlike P2P, the main purpose of social media is to share your moments in your life with your friends or family. Look at Facebook, what would you post on your blog, most likely something which was fun, exciting or proud right? What I normally upload is pictures of my friends eating the food I cooked.
The amazing thing about Facebook is that you can press “Like” and there is no negative button such as “Hate”, “Dislike” and etc. This is because if Facebook introduces “Dislike”, I am sure it will be less popular, some people might feel nervous when they post something thinking about what if somebody dislikes my post? By only keeping “Like” button people can share something easily with others. Even if somebody does not get many “Like” they might be bit upset but that’s it nothing more than that. Facebook really became a new way of interacting with many people at once compared to chatting. I am looking forward to face a new type media in future.