FaceBook is a social networking website
in which anyone who is anyone is a part of …. unless you’re a social outcast or
were alive during World War One. According to http://whatis.techtarget.com/ (2014), “Facebook is a popular free social networking website that
allows registered users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send
messages and keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues.”
[Image: (Mandanici, A. 2012)]
In this blog, multiple concepts
will be addressed and linked to the social networking website, FaceBook. These
concepts include power, networks, space and place, and genre.
Power is an essential key
concept. In regards to FaceBook, it has the technocratic power to connect
people to other people who are either in the same geographic area or a
different geographic area. It is completely networked which is powerful in
itself. Self-surveillance is an additional form of power. When you post a
status on FaceBook, the user does not know which friends view it unless they ‘like’
it. This means that the user is conscious of this fact and is careful of what
they post, keeping the fact that their ‘friends’ can see it. The user’s ‘friend’s’
personal presence is not needed but just the fact they can possibly see it if
they wanted to, is enough for the user to surveillance what they upload. According
to Turkle, (1995), this form of self-surveillance is called ‘internet-censorship’.
Space and place is directly
linked to the social network site, FaceBook, as it provides it’s users to
create an identity; or let their identity be a part of the place, FaceBook.
Basically, they have a space in a place.
Genre is an additional key
concept. It is essentially, ‘a text or cultural product.’ (Van Luyn, A. 2015)
Genre is a type of network as it forms links in communication. This can be
linked to FaceBook and genre creates the type of communication style FaceBook
has and what form it takes place in.
Reference List:
Dean, A. (2014). FaceBook.
Retrieved from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Facebook
on 14/08/15.
Mandanici, A. (2012). The
Six-Degrees of Long-Distance Relationships and Other Separations. Retrieved
from http://shelovesmagazine.com/2012/the-six-degrees-of-long-distance-relationships-ldrs-and-other-separations/
on 14/08/15.
Turkle, S. (1995). The
Panopticon. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/ on 14/08/15.
Van Luyn, A. (2015). BA1002:
Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the Making of Space: Lecture 3: Genre and
Transformation [Powerpoint Slides]. Retrieved from https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/ on 14/08/15.
I agree to the fact that the social networking site, Facebook, has the power to connect others and it is shown through how successful the company and business is. More than just power, network, space and place, and genre, six degrees of separation is evident in the site. Within Facebook, six degrees of separation takes its place when it looks through what friends you already have, using that find users that you haven't befriended that has mutual friends with you, suggesting them as "someone you might know". Buchanan states that "six degrees of separation is an undeniably stunning characteristic of our world." (Buchanan, M. 2002). Facebook uses this as it allows us to find new people through friends. To find someone we only need to have a friend who has them as a friend, it's as simple as that. Though unlike the documentary Six Degrees of Seperation and the experiment that they conducted, Facebook allows a quicker and easier substitution of that; allowing us to talk to people and find new links from around the world with a few clicks of a button.
ReplyDeleteBuchanan, M. (2002) Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks.
I agree that the power of self-surveillance greatly impacts what users post onto their Facebook profiles.
ReplyDeleteTurkle (1995, p. 247-248) uses the example of a prison guard being able to see all the prisoners at any time without their knowledge. This means the prisoners, even if they’re not being watched, behave as though they are being surveyed at all times (Turkle, 1995, p. 247-248).
Today I found myself editing a post on my profile after considering the power I could be passing over to many of my ‘friends’ if they saw what I had originally posted onto my own profile only minutes before.
This power of surveillance is what controls the many posts that are created daily, with the intention of being shared with others on personal profiles to be carefully considered before they too are let out for so many other users to see.
Turkle, S. (1995). Panopticon.
Retrieved from: learnjcu.jcu.edu.au