The Leviathan is a power that enforces our adherence to society’s norm’s and standards. The Leviathan is often more evident offline where consequences of deviating from the expected can be seen and experienced directly. However, social etiquette can also be found online. In particular, facebook provides a medium were many unwritten norms should be abided. One such expectation that I will focus on is the social etiquette related to wall posts. When Kwame writes on your wall, it is expected that you will then write on his wall. People are aware of this convention or Leviathan because it mirrors FtF convention. That is if Kwame speaks to you, you can not ignore him; you must respond to the Kwame’s statement or question. Similarly on facebook, you must respond to Kwame’s wall post, or else who will seem mean, anti-social and cold. The Leviathan enforces this norm by rewards and punishments. If you do write on Kwame’s wall and thus conform to the norm, then you will reap the benefits, such as gaining popularity. You will not only gain popularity with Kwame, but also with other members of facebook who see your name on Kwame’s wall. Familiarity increases liking. If you put your name out there, people will be inclined to like you since they have seen/ heard of you before. This is related to Wallace’s intersection frequency in relationship formation. Also, if you write on peoples wall’s they will write on your wall, which will make you seem popular, social and fun to be around. This conformity to the norm, will increase your self-esteem. It will help you feel connected to others and part of a group. However, if you do not conform to the wall-to-wall Leviathan, then you may be shunned. Kwame will stop writing on your wall and soon others may stop too. You will feel rejected and separated from the group. Such non-conformists often suffer from anxiety. Being rejected by the group for not conforming to the wall-to-wall etiquette is very stressful.
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Hi, I find when I see some new posts on my wall, I will automatically link the person's website. Sometimes they ask questions and sometimes they just write to say Hi to be friendly. So I may response to the questions or my post a little smiling face to show friendly too. And when i link to one's website, i can see others posts too. I know they response to the questions or "Hi"s. So I know I should do the same. So this is like the process of learning the norm. You don't need others to tell you what to do. You are in this facebook group, you see, and you know what to do.
Hey Dina, very interesting post. I really liked your topic and also wrote about the complexities of norms and wall posts with relation to private messaging. It is crazy how much “netiquette” comes with Facebook. They should give out a handbook when you sign up. You made a great point about the reciprocity of wall posting and how failure to respond conflicts with the norm. I actually have issues with the poke feature of Facebook. I think that it’s completely ridiculous and actually don’t like when people poke me on Facebook. I usually tend not to respond, but should I feel bad? Am I going against the norm? Regardless, I refuse to poke some creep girl or guy back after they poke me. The wall post, like you said, is very tricky. However, I don’t always want to respond to others posts, at least via another wall post. Why can’t I just pick up the phone like back in the good old days, Dina, Why????
I agree with Mathew. When people write on my wall, I do not automatically say in my head, "I have to respond because otherwise people will think I am nasty and rude." It all depends upon the post in my eyes; some warrant a response and some simply do not. Does this make me socially cold and anti-social? I guess different people will have different responses to this question. I also think that something interesting in regards to Facebook Wall-to-Wall is the gender difference. I feel that men do not put as much pressure on themselves to respond to every single wall post. We have to seem manly, casual, and nonchalant. I feel that women put more pressure to respond to every post because they want to seem nice and proper. I also think that girls will frown more upon an unanswered wall post more than a guy would. I am not in any way trying to be sexist or act like a male chauvinist here; I am merely suggesting that this might be worth looking into. Dina, you might be right and I might just be an anomaly. The only way to find out is to look deeper into the situation.
I really found this topic interesting, and I liked how you related the social reward system of the leviathan back to one of the earlier topics we discussed "digital salience".
As someone who doesn't have a facebook wall, the phenomenon that you refer to is familiar to me. I definitely feel more comfortable PMing someone than having a conversation on their wall, and sometimes when people used to post on my wall I'd just PM them back. However, PMs and wall posts don't accomplish the same thing. Some people even thought that a by PMing them I was implying I didn't want to "publicly" show that we were friends.
Now that I've blocked my wall, I talk to people through PM mostly. I find that this tête-à-tête is a bit more balanced, and I rarely encounter this "leviathan".
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