Hi, my name is Caton McKenna, and I am new to blogging and new to Comm 245. I am a junior communication major and AEM minor in CALS. Hopefully, I will become a journalist or marketing executive in the future. I enjoy traveling, reading, creative writing, sarcasm, movies and rainbows. It’s 12:46 at night, so I’ll be honest- I’m just trying to type fast. One time, actually, quite a few times, I have taken those speed typing tests- they get addicting. I love doing that though, especially the one with the monkey and the bananas.
Anyways, so, I guess that’s enough about me. As far as this assignment, I’ll focus on facebook. Facebook offers a virtual community to users. For me it’s kind of like screening calls. You see a friend or acquaintance’s name on your cell phone and have no idea what he/she is calling about. Instead of picking up, you let your voicemail do the talking. Hopefully the person will leave a message and you can decide whether it merits a reply. This leaves you completely in control and leaves the other person completely in the dark that you aren’t taking his/her calls. You have the power to halt the communication process by just listening to the message and gleaning all the necessary information from that. No vocal connection is needed.
So, I guess that’s a stretch, but I think it’s somewhat similar to facebook. It’s a one-sided conversation. You can anonymously check out any of your facebook friend’s information, photos and relationship status at anytime you want, for as long as you want, without anyone knowing. You have complete, I’ll say it, “stalking” power. Plus, there’s no remorse or consequence for looking (despite the complete lack of productivity for that hour, two hours, etc.).
For some, you care about your friend’s life and feel somewhat connected to him/her as he/she travels around the world and you click through his/her ajillion pictures. When you two meet, the pictures/information on facebook has already familiarized you with the trip, so your conversation can be shorter with your newly gained knowledge. Yes, I do believe facebook allows people to avoid or simplify conversations. The information on facebook is public, and anything on there is assumed common knowledge. There is no need for speculation, questions or conversation when all the answers you need are broadcasted on this website.
Additionally, facebook has become an outlet for complete and utter judgment of friends and acquaintances. Oh my gosh- I can’t believe she got married! What was she thinking? Does he think he looks attractive in that picture? Wow, someone gained weight. Again, judgment without remorse or tsking. You can peruse photos, info and wall posts, use your sleuth-like skills to deduce secret relationships, or tumultuous ones. You can make connections between people that you never existed and interpret any message’s connotation to your heart’s content. Facebook gives you the freedom to gossip with yourself.
Facebook is asynchronous, since participants do not exchange messages in real time. Additionally, facebook has persistence in that it remains in the web domain as a record or file of some sort. Finally, facebook has limited anonymity for the facebook profiler, but limitless anonymity for the facebook friendly “stalker.”
1 comment:
This post was the first I read, but it caught my attention, of course, because of the topic explored. I agree with you, Caton, on the fact that Facebook keeps friends, family, and even strangers, connected while they are physically separated. I think people have come to rely on such social sites to see what new things their friends (etc.) are up to. A user can easily check out pictures or current events in the lives of others without having an awkward face-to-face, telephone, or even IM conversation. Not having to come in contact with others when surfing the site is possibly one of the most appealing aspects of becoming a member. I know that if it wasn't for Facebook, I wouldn't have kept in touch with nearly as many of my friends from home as I did when I went off to college.
What do you think Facebook will expand into in the future? What new applications or fun things do you think will be available for the members? I feel as though this is just the tip of the iceberg.
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