Andrew McKee
Professor Wesch
Introduction to Cultural Anthropology 204
19 September 2008
Koobecaf: Socializing for a New Generation
Facebook has taken over our lives. People who have an account check it everyday or at least try to. It is has become a part of daily socializing for our generation, we use it to check what our friend our doing (status), we use it to check out what new friends are interested in (Info), and we use it to organize our friends (groups, events, etc.). But why do we do all of this? Do the people who use Facebook really use it like this, as a tool for socializing, or is it something more?
People that use Facebook simply see it as another social aspect of their lives, a way to communicate with people they know. It is the social news of the people they know, they can see what they have been doing recently with updated pictures, who they have been talking to with wall posts, and what they are doing this very second with the status updates. American culture is obsessed with socializing and entertainment, Facebook offers both. It offers its users entertainment with the all the applications, pictures, videos, and games that you can play on it. And as Americans we like to be constantly stimulated, so on Facebook we can click through photos until something catches our eye or play one of the ridiculous games, like Attack! for example, to stimulate us for about 10 to 15 minutes. We just want something to do for a little bit, so it is just helping Americans to have shorter and shorter attention spans and want something new and stimulating more often and often. But after we are done entertaining ourselves, people use it for the social aspect. To connect with their friends and keep in tune with what they are doing. The website is setup to be social. You post on other people wall, which is just like talking to them, you comment on the pictures of parties, that are a social event, and people host events so there can be a social gathering. Facebook is helping to get people to socialize, which some find easier when they can hid behind their PC. It is forcing us to socialize but also degrading our actual skills at doing so. It is a lot easier to say something controversial or false over the internet than it is too someone’s face. You can make yourself more seem tougher, but also make yourself seem softer or more affectionate if you will.
But another thing that I would like to address before I wrap this paper up is how people are reacting to how Facebook has begun to change. It has recently redesigned the interface of the website, and people have very mixed emotions about it. They were use to the conformity and blandness of the old Facebook, and now that they have re-tooled it to emphasis different things, people don’t like it. The new Facebook, bolds and emphasis your status updates, which is to show how self-centered this new Facebook is trying to make its users. It is subconsciously telling people that what they are doing is the most important thing of their social experiences.
So all in all, Facebook has undeniably become part of this generation’s culture. It is a part of our social networking; people will continue to use it or something similar to it in order to connect with those people that they want too. They will use it re-create themselves as the image they want people to see. It is something that has grabbed hold of us and locked in our attention, it is a fad.