Friday, May 6, 2011
FB Analysis
Let’s continue to focus on analysis…but let’s analyze something near and dear to many hearts: FB. I want you to spend some time on FB (and if you don’t have an account, ask to look around on someone else’s page). We just read 1984 and the NYTimes article on “Little Brother.” With these in mind, analyze FB. You can focus on status updates, one person’s profile, or the structure of the site as a whole. But the point is to think critically (as in analytically not negatively) about this crazily popular social networking site and what its contents say about our own society.
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Hours on end are taken by facebook each day for so many people, but it is even worse for the infrequent face booker to pop their head in. If a person checks their account every day for a few minutes here and there, it accumulates into a few hours each day. But if a person goes on the site only once or twice every couple weeks or so, the can quickly become overwhelmed by the deluge of status updates and wall posts that fill the screen and flood e-mail inbox’s.
ReplyDeleteBut even for the frequent facebooker, it can be a bit overpowering and sometimes over-informative. There is such a huge flow of information that it can seem to crash onto a computer screen like a wave. Many of it is good news and even more of it is idle, pointless posts that are confusing to anyone uninvolved. Silly jokes and craziness that could make anyone laugh.
Some of it however, is bad and can cause a significant amount of damage for anyone involved.
Pointless fights, relationship drama, friendship drama, and drama in general are everywhere on good old Facebook and they are not leaving any time soon. Stupid comments made by random people fuel laughter and cruel comments which hurt feelings and everything begins to escalate. Cyber bullying is rampant and Facebook is both the vehicle for the torment and the bulletin board for cries for help and comments about the cruelty. It was a site of torment for 15 year old Phoebe Prince and combined with other bullying drove her to commit suicide. It was one of the last means of communication between 14 year olds Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravets. Haylee had posted on facebook that she was bullied and unhappy, yet nothing was done.
Sometime after 1 a.m. on Saturday, Haylee left a Facebook post for her cousin, Jessica, wishing her a happy birthday. After leaving a post on her cousin’s wall, Haylee called her closest friend in Indiana, Settle said. Around 6 a.m., Haylee’s mother found the girls.
A slumber party in Minnesota ended in tragedy when two eighth grade girls fulfilled a suicide pact, killing themselves and leaving behind suicide notes telling their families that they loved them.
The bodies of best friends Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz, both 14, were discovered Saturday by Fentress’ mother, Tracy Morrison. (Jessica Hopper)
So yes, facebook can be a fun place to browse around but it can also be an emotional warzone, so post carefully.
Jessica Hopper.“Suicide Pact: Minnesota Teens Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz Commit Suicide at Slumber Party.” ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/US/suicide-pact-minnesota-eighth-graders-haylee-fentress-paige/story?id=13411751
Facebook is a way to control how others see you. You can delete posts, untag yourself from pictures that you don't like, and pick and choose which parts of your life you put on your status. Facebook is a made up place. People can put up falsified photos of themselves and/or others to make their lives look different.
ReplyDeleteThere are many positive and negative outcomes that result from the social aspects and interconnections of Facebook. It can affect relationships, friendships, and job opportunities. In today’s society too much is dependent on who posted what on facebook.
There is a married couple that has been together for over 5 years and married for 2 years. The husband didn’t change his status from “in a relationship” to “married” and it made the wife suspicious of his loyalties to her. She was so distraught about his facebook status that she threatened and seriously considered divorcing him. There was no other proof that he was unfaithful except that he was “in a relationship” on facebook and not "married". He even said that his facebook status meant almost nothing to him. They started out as a happy couple but now they are on the verge of a divorce because of one facebook status.
In positive light, Facebook can strengthen a friendship by giving people a way to stay connected to their highschool friends throughout the rest of their lives. With a multitude of inside jokes and pictures of fond memories, Facebook is a way to remember the great moments of highschool or college. The apparent beauty of facebook is that you can untag yourself or delete a picture, post, or comment and it is like that moment never happened. You can make your life appear perfect on the computer screen with a click of a button. But are you lying to those who view your profile?
We have all been told that we should be careful what we post on facebook because prospective bosses could view your pictures, statuses, comments, and posts. If there are inappropriate images of you in highschool, it could damage your opportunity to have a great job later in life. Even though it was one stupid moment in highschool (10-20 years ago), there are some bosses that will hold it against you. There also is the option to only allow people to see certain aspects of your profile, which allows people to change who they are (who they appear to be) depending on who is looking. So who are they really? Facebook is fake.
To analyze facebook is somewhat ironic, because all facebook really does is analyze us, its’ users. Facebook categorizes us and puts a label on every possible aspect of our personalities and characters. But here’s the catch, we do it to ourselves. We choose to label ourselves as single, in a relationship, married, divorced…etc. We pick what other users can see about us ranging from our family members, interests in music, literature, and movies. Why do facebook users today feel the need to let everyone know everything about them?
ReplyDeleteIt is our own insecurities. We flash up pictures of ourselves doing fun things for all to see, with the hopes that someone will be jealous. We update our statues thinking that people actually care about what we’re doing every second of everyday. Facebook is the world’s comforter. It’s a cover up for all the insecurities we all have about our lives. When someone comments on your status or picture, don’t lie, you get a warm feeling inside when you know that someone actually cares about you. We all want attention and facebook provides that attention 24/7.
Not only does the ability to comment and like status’s make us feel good about ourselves, the ad’s to the right of the website relate to us and interests in turn making us feel normal. Facebook analyzes your interests and categorizes them with specific ads creating your own personalized ad column. On my own page, there are ad’s for summer dance intensives and colleges I may be interested in. Not only pertaining to my passion for dance, but also taking note to my age. Facebook knows that I’m about the age of a college student and sees that it would be wise to flash college ads on my page.
Today’s society has become so open that it’s hard to hide anything about yourself anymore. Faceboook creates a page where you can be who you want. You can be the newly married wife flaunting her engagement ring, the partying frat boy, or the non-conformist you’ve always wanted to be. Just edit your page and let the world see you as you make yourself up to be. Not only will people “like” it but facebook will foster it with ads, sparking more interest into the people we’ve made ourselves out to be.
Facebook and all other social networking websites make people bold.. but not in a good way. After looking around on Facebook for a while, I've found more than enough examples of users being able to say or do something they would never say or do in person, but because they are hidden behind the computer screen they are able to be more outgoing or just plain stupid. Because of all of the technology we have today, it has become easier to control how other people perceive us.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading many people's status, it was unbelievable the number of statuses which contained information about where the user was or is going to be. Most of the statuses told of events which were going to take place and included the date, time, and place of the event. Now, I'm guilty of this too, but after reading so many of these types of statuses, it makes me think twice about ever posting another one telling of my exact location. The worst part about this type of status is that the user has no idea who is reading it and how it could be used in a harmful way. Anyone who has over one thousand friends does not know every single person they add personally, that is impossible. So as a user, knowing that you've added people you have never met in person, why would you post a status about your location when it could easily put you in danger? I think Facebook has made us more open and less concerned for our own safety. These statuses are innocent and I'd say most users post without even thinking about it, but that's the bad part. Facebook users my age don't understand just how dangerous this could be. Facebook has created a way for users to inform one another of anything, and this is a great thing when used in the correct way.
I think users have become so accustomed to being able to reach anyone in a matter of seconds, that they don't even think twice about posting a potentially dangerous status because it is the easiest way to reach a lot of people at one time. Facebook has provided us a way to connect with people we wouldn't normally be able to connect with without it. With all of this new technology Facebook brings to the table, we must also bring something to the table: common sense. As a user of Facebook it is very dangerous and ignorant to believe that everyone who uses Facebook is doing so for the right reasons. So instead of posting exact locations and telling information, we have to learn to think before we post. One seemingly innocent post could have dire consequences. So because we are so lucky to have so much technology, it is necessary for us to use it in a safe and intelligent way. It is our responsibility to protect ourselves while using social networking because not everyone is as innocent as we would like to believe. Instead of "Think before you speak" Facebook has created the need for a new saying: Think before you post.