Facebook! (Participatory Culture)

Recently, I met a twenty-one year old woman who was discussing why she does not like to use the telephone to speak directly with friends; she would much rather text or Facebook message to chat with them. I noticed, that when speaking to her, she did not have a lot to say, kept quiet and hid behind her many text messages she sent out while participating in a ‘real life’ conversation with me. It was as if she would text a friend whenever there was a pause in our talk.

This made me think of how our culture has been completely changed by technological advancements. People have become so accustomed to using text and Facebook messages, that they have lost the confidence to speak face-to-face with individuals. In Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs, author Chuck Klosterman discusses the impact media has acquired with an explanation of the virtual-life game known as, The Sims. Facebook and The Sims have something in common, they are “an escapist vehicle for people who want to escape to where they already are” (Klosterman 13). On Facebook, we become socially connected and we can make new friends and maintain older friendships. This social networking tool is useful, however, it is different from our ‘real’ lives. My professor, Ian Reilly has mentioned that we have hundreds of “fake friends” online. The first time he said this, I took offense and did not agree. Later, I decided to check how many of these friend I write to on Facebook, and let’s just say that out of my six-hundred and ninety-four friends, I keep in touch with twenty of them.

Facebook provides strong incentives for active participation, by providing users with options to upload pictures and videos, write to friends, join groups, and create groups. Many Facebook users will judge a person by the photo they use as their profile picture, or the photos that our tagged of them. This makes for a very judgmental online community because people are always uploading information to Facebook, allowing people to view their details and from this conclusions are made about their personalities.

Before Facebook was created, there was Myspace, a website where people would post pictures, videos, and chat with friends. When myspace was popular, there was what was called the “Myspace picture,” a photo taken from a high angle pointed towards a mirror reflecting the Myspace user. This type of image was used by many as a profile picture, I admit I used to take these photos too...

I thought these images were sexy and appealing because everyone had plastered these kind of photos all over their Myspace pages. Luckily, I now understand that I would hide my true identity behind fake looking images to fit into this participatory culture. Much like the way I put up attractive photos on Facebook, but look for images that are more unique and artistic in comparison to our “fake friends”. Klosterman writes, “The impact of this understanding comes later in life, usually at college, and usually around the point when being “weird” starts to be periodically interpreted by others as “charming” and /or “sexually intriguing” (Klosterman 123). Now when I look at profile pictures of friends in my age group on Facebook, the most unusual or creative images are those that attract me the most.



Works Cited:
Klosterman, Chuck. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. New York: Scribner., 2003.