Koobecaf by Kirsten Crandall:
There are basic human needs in every culture: food, shelter, and eventually love. I believe that Facebook is so appealing to American culture because it satisfies the need to be connected, networked, accepted, and loved. Furthermore, Facebook likely grew at the rate it did by doing this duty in the desired “American way.”
Americans seem to have a love affair with the concept of ‘easy’. They flock to any idea, invention, or tool that gets them what they need or want as speedy and painlessly as possible. For example, the average American possess, not only one, but two functional legs yet they choose drive their cars down the street just to get their 5 minutes earlier and with significantly less physical effort. This fact about the American lazy life is no new discovery, however, Facebook shows a new social and community laziness that is now on perfect display every time the site is accessed. Social satisfaction in an instant.
When a Facebook “profile” is on the computer screen, you are looking at a person’s virtual self, waiting to be socialized with. With further exploration of this page, you discover all the ways of doing so. Private messages, public message, list of friends, networks, private and public groups, picture albums, events being attended, and even a “mini-feed” displaying a person’s current Facebook activities. What can you not tell about a person from browsing their Facebook? Nothing. What can you communicate to a person through Facebook? Anything and everything. There is even a list of unspoken social rules for Facebooking, just like in regular American culture. Facebook is an exact online translation of American social life...made easy.
The significant difference between the two worlds is effort. Before the world of Facebook, socializing was “getting out there” and interacting. Now, you do so by sitting on your computer desk swivel chair, clicking the post button. Social fears are minimized: you can delete something you previously did, say something and have the person not find it for another hour, even get to know someone through their profile without them ever knowing. Facebookers create event groups and invite people with a simple mouse click, no fear of rejection or awkward no thank you’s. Facebookers know what old friends, enemies, and ex-boyfriends/girlfriends (that they otherwise would never talk to) did last weekend and whom they are dating now. The growing population of Facebook culture is seeking to satisfy their basic need for human interaction with no human interaction at all. Just imagine what this could do to a society.
The only constant in our world is change. Look at this in terms of technology, constantly advancing. But is this Facebook technology really expanding social abilities and horizons? Or, is the speed in which it is growing actually parallel to the tempo it is closing people into smaller and smaller cages under the façade of socializing and life made easy.
Facebook was a tool made for us to socialize the way we want. But just like every tool given to Americans it can transform to so much more. Will this tool eventually not only be created by us, but become what defines us? And eventually what turns around and creates us into something new?
With a social world designed to emulate what we already have, and with page designers deciding what goes onto Facebook, are we not slowing leaving it up to Facebook how we socialize. Formally unacceptable social interactions could become acceptable simply because it is an option on Facebook. Facebook shows an imagine of the culture it was created for, while also showing the power it has for social boundaries to be changed because of the power Americans have given to this tool.




Koobecaf assignment: Cassidy Fowles: Before the 1900’s the only means of communication was by word of mouth or by mail. Letters took days, even months to reach the intended recipient. By the 1900’s a new wave of communication was sweeping over the nation. Telephones were beginning to become the most popular form of communication. Telephones were used heavily for all forms of communication until around 1990 when the World Wide Web was launched. The internet took everyone by storm and along with it came e-mail. E-mail gave us an even easier way to keep in touch with others. Non-verbal communication began to develop into a trend around the nation as well. Around 1990 the cell phone also began to become popular. Text messaging through cell phones became and still is one the major ways that teenagers communicate to each other. But then in 2004 along came facebook. Primarily set up for college students, facebook is now used by all ages of people. Facebook is currently the second largest network on the web, behind only myspace in terms of traffic. Why is facebook so popular and how is it affecting our culture? The popularity of facebook can easily be explained. Facebook is fast, easy, and takes little to no effort. Facebook is one of the simplest forms of communication we have, other than talking face to face and over the phone. Using facebook you can send private messages, write things on each others walls that you might want others to see, and quickly chat over the chat function. Americans are always looking for the fastest and easiest way to do things, and with facebook you receive both. You can keep in touch with your friends by sending messages like e-mail and you can also check up on them by looking at their most recent pictures, wall posts, and status updates. Americans have almost become obsessed with facebook. We know that when we get on facebook we are not going to just check out what was on our profile, but others profiles. We want to know about other people, and the reason that we have let this almost ridiculous trend get out of hand is because now we don’t know what we would do without it. We want; we need to know what is going on with people, not even friends, but just people. Looking at pictures give us a feeling of jealousy, or admiration. We look at others people’s pictures because we wish we could be like them. We wish that we could dress like them, or go to parties like they go to. Facebook allows us to live through others for split seconds by looking and wandering deep into their profiles. Facebook allows us to do many things that we might not be able to do without it. We can “meet” people that we never would have met without facebook, we can in a sense know everything about everyone, and we can check up on our friends with the click of a button. Facebook is slowing affecting our culture by teaching us that we can “creep” on people and it is okay. While researching for this paper I realized a few things about my own facebook profile. The most significant thing being that everyone in the Kansas State network can see my profile. I was completely unaware that anyone besides my friends could see my pictures, read my wall posts, and check out all of my information. I was quickly able to change that feature using my security function, but the thought of strangers checking out my facebook profile was still a bit nerve wracking. Facebook is a simple way to talk to your friends and keep them up to date on your life. But what facebook is teaching our youth might not be the best example of what communication should really look like. Is facebook just another trend, or will it stay around for good, like e-mail? Only time will tell, but what time has already told is that facebook has affected and will continue to affect us and our culture.