I, Mathew Robert Birnbaum, pledge myself to the brotherhood of (Insert Fraternity Here) and thus will join in a lifelong fraternal bond with my fellow brethren to uphold honor, truth, friendship, loyalty, etc. etc. This is the jargon used in most of the ancient rituals and documents concerning fraternities. However, the fathers and founders of these fraternities did not foresee the advent of the internet and CMC and its effect on the fraternal system.
I am in a fraternity here on campus and we exhibit many Social Network Analysis (SNA) properties. In the purest form, Fraternities would display the utopic Gemeinschaft perspective of community, where there are strong interpersonal ties, shared focus, common purpose, identity, etc. Although this is all still true today, I would be lying if I didn’t mention that there are some minor elements in today’s frat world that are in agreement with the alternate community perspective, Gesellschaft—primarily the high exposure to pornography part. We all know that frat guys are notorious for their crude taste and crazy “hi jinks.” CMC and the internet have only been able to increase this level of crudity and help facilitate the transfer and sharing of lewd material due to the increased connectedness. This is epitomized in the fraternity list serve; a domain where no girl shall try to enter for her mind may explode due to the immaturity and utter chaos she will encounter. Here is a link of a video of an actual reaction to a video sent around god knows how many fraternity list serves NOTE: the actual video is far to heinous to EVER be shown anywhere near a blog linked to academia
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1781182/
Now some of you may say, “Hey Matt, this has nothing to do with SNA!” And to you I say “you’re DEAD wrong; it has everything to do with SNA!” Haythornwaite defines communities as having social networks (list serves, etc.), common ground (a love for disgusting humor, including disgusting videos), and lastly, reciprocity, one of the more important aspects in my opinion. I believe, and hope to god that my fellow fraternal brethren share in my belief, that it is our DUTY—and an honor—to continuously send each other more and more hilariously, inappropriate material over the list serve. If I send one gross email one week, I sure as heck expect a fellow brethren to reciprocate and do the honors the following week, sending an even more inappropriate email with our without attached videos, drawings, photos, etc. It is our fraternal obligations.
On a more serious note, as a fraternity, we do accomplish more than just grossing the living hell out of each other each week. We perform community service, have intellectual discussions, and form meaningful friendships that will hopefully last a lifetime. We incur strong ties with one another and additionally, weaker ties due to mutual friends, which are likely to aid us in finding jobs after college. One of the benefits of being in a fraternity in general is the notion of Social Capital and increasing your social association. Different that human capital—ones skills, knowledge, judgment, etc.—social capital refers to one’s value in relation to the access to social networks and resources they provide. Haythornwaite discusses in his paper on pg.130 whether our communities benefit from the current interaction between FTF and CMC and is there this notion of online/offline synergies. In the case of my fraternity, I feel there is most definitely evidence of these synergies. Even though I chose to describe some of the more amusing and inappropriate aspects of the fraternity list serve, this type of CMC greatly increases the connectedness and level of cohesion in a fraternity. For example, although some brothers go abroad for a semester, or even a year, they are still connected to the fraternity via the list serve and even send updates and photos over the list serve about their current experiences abroad. Additionally, Facebook also touches upon the notion of online/offline synergies by helping a fraternity stay connected through news feeds and updated photos—even for those brothers who are abroad or have recently graduated. I just hope one day I will able to afford to send my children to a prestigious university where they too can bask in the offensive, inappropriate glory that is…the Fraternity List Serve, DA NA NAAAAAAA.
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2 comments:
Hey Matthew,
I quite enjoyed reading your post since you were able to combine humor with the technical jargon required for the post very effectively.
The small criticism I do have has to do with the informalness of your post. I remember it being said that the posts should keep in mind that it is in fact a class assignment. Hope that helps
As a member of this fraternity list serve, I concur with everything you have just said Mathew. The fraternity list serve is a valuable tool that keeps everyone connected and most importantly, entertained. I think that you have a good point with reciprocity. It always does seem that one email will cause a bunch of others to, in the ensuing hours, flow into your inbox. It is almost rude to not respond, as the perso who wrote the initial email clearl is looking for some sort of feedback. But I think reciprocity here depends on your level on involvement in the list serve. If you are a passive user, you might just read and enjoy the emails and not feel the need to respond. On the other hand, there are always a few people who send emails daily who you can always count on to respond to every email sent. They feel a need to reciprocate, as you said. But I think reciprocity on the list serve also depends on the overall involvement of the person.
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