Assignment 6.1, The Facebook Leviathan, because we're all conforming to it

I don't mean to be repetitive by discussing Facebook in this blog post, but I feel that it is an important internet phenomenon to discuss when considering an internet Leviathan, because it is really the only online community that I'm a part of (besides this blog), and because we are most likely all a part of it. While I could have discussed our blog in this post, I feel as though the Leviathan is all too obvious as being our TAs and Professor Hancock, and I think it is more interesting to study a network which hasn't designated as clear of a Leviathan, but more so creates and abides by its own Leviathan, which is the way I consider Facebook to function. I find Facebook to be such a fascinating example, because we all act as our own Leviathans to a certain extent. That being said, I think that an important element of the Facebook Leviathan includes photo "tagging," which applies to the essential elements of the internet Leviathan that Wallace discusses in Chapter four of the text, namely, our willingness to conform.

Facebook, as an online social network, is an interesting phenomenon first of all, because it essentially lacks the initial "sign on the door" element that Wallace discusses. When you join the Facebook network, there is no list of rules that introduce you to the environment or help to acclimate you to the established norms of the online atmosphere. On the other hand, when you join the Facebook network, you essentially have to learn the rules of the game from the other people in the network, which is not as easy as it is to learn the rules of the proverbial French restaurant that Wallace discusses, in which case you simply look around and see which fork everyone else is using. Instead, on Facebook, you have to add other people as friends and integrate yourself into the network as much as possible for you to be able to witness how other people are acting and interacting in the medium. You cannot enter the network as an anonymous "lurker," because you can only witness the actions of others once you have in some way earned the right to become Facebook friends with them. It is in this sense that the internal Leviathan plays an important role.

If you join the Facebook network, you must have some desire to be a part of the group, and to be a part of the group you have to know that there are some things you must sacrifice, such as your anonymity and/or right to make all your own rules, in order to be an accepted part of the group. For example, you cannot violate the norms that are already established regarding the Facebook "netiquette" of tagging photographs of other people. If you break from the expected norms, then this will most likely lead to what Wallace describes as the second method to encourage online conformity, which she calls the online "Arched Brow," or use of reproach on others. This is the form of punishment used in this online environment, in which one person lets another person know that they are breaking the established norm, and that they should alter their actions to conform to the group. With the photo tagging example, it is expected netiquette that if someone posts a photo album on their Facebook profile, they are to "tag" all of the people that appear in that album, so that those photos will also appear in all of the profiles of the people that are in them. If, for instance, someone was to post a photo album on their profile and not tag their friends, a common form of reproach for this would consist of one of those friends to post on that person's Facebook wall that they want those pictures to be tagged. This is usually communicated in a playful or friendly way, so that the reproach comes across as saying that person is to tag the photos, but that the mistake is not too big of a deal, and is simply not to be repeated.

This is the sort of reproach that is most common in the Facebook environment, because there is no rule-book, and no centralized authority on Facebook that monitors the actions of all its members, making sure that everyone follows the established conventions. This is because the medium is constantly changing, and people have to continue to adapt to it, and it would be too difficult to designate a specific set of rules for everyone to follow. Instead, people want to be able to be a part of the network and have freedom to do what they want with Facebook to a certain extent, which is possible only because every member of the network acts as everyone else's Leviathan. If people want to have certain freedoms and rights to use Facebook as they wish, then they also have to be willing to sacrifice complete freedom, due to a general willingness to conform if it means preserving a functioning online group environment. In this sense, the Leviathan establishes itself in all the members, because everyone has to be willing to conform to the group to a certain degree so that the environment can be maintained. So everyone takes on the minor role of monitoring everyone else's actions (which the News Feed makes all too convenient for us) to make sure that the network will flourish peacefully. If this desire for a Leviathan didn't come from within, then the Facebook network should fall apart because there would be no overarching authority present to monitor everyone else's actions. The fact that all the members of Facebook are willing to be theirs and everyone else's Leviathan speaks to what Wallace identifies as a general willingness to conform in a group-oriented CMC environment, because we would all rather take on this role to ensure that Facebook can carry on, rather than refuse to take on this role and watch Facebook (heaven forbid) perish before our own eyes.

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