Drew Proctor
Cultural Anthropology
Wesch
19 September 2008
Koobecaf
Facebook: a phenomenon that has taken over high school and college students all over America. Is it simply a fad or will it become a part of our everyday lives creating a vital part in our culture today? People become “facebook addicted” and not only has this “fad” become part of our everyday lives, but its users check and update multiple times per day. Will this change communication in the language as well or just affect our interactions with the rest of the world?
Facebook has taken over America and seems to be taking over the rest of the world as well. People use this network everyday to update friends over a distance on how they are doing and what is going on in their lives, and also the people who live right down the street or in your own building. It’s a way for students to help each other by studying and helping out with assignments and projects. For others it’s simply a social networking tool that diminishes the need for actual conversation in person or on the phone. Not only is it a tool just to keep in touch with friends, co-workers, and classmates, but it also gives a fun way to spend time. It comes with such applications that create anticipatory feelings every time you login, including the idea of having “friend requests” and being “poked.” After logging in you can also receive and give “flair” and hold a “top friends” list which is apparently your best friends even though the idea of friendship on facebook is nothing but simple acquaintances most of the time.
When it comes to the idea of taking over our language and slang terms, it is noticeable that people incorporate facebook in their everyday lives. Such phrases would include “facebook quotable” which means that when someone says something funny or heartfelt, you add it to your favorite quotes in your about me information. Another would be that you are going to “add someone as a friend.” How do you just add someone as a friend? What makes this crazy is that someone can reject your friend request.
In the barrel model of culture there are four pieces, which include the superstructure, social structure, infrastructure and the environment. The superstructure is the ideas, concepts and values within the culture. Each person in the American culture holds different values, yet value things differently. Through this idea of facebook, people value different portions of the site greater than other people. Some people find that “writing on people’s wall” is an important thing during their day to keep up with their “friends.” The social structure deals with the social and political organization, kinship, and power relations. Like in the superstructure which includes a little bit of the social part because of what a person values, people find that keeping in touch with their acquaintances is easy on this networking tool. People can keep in touch from around the world simply by sending a message, writing on a wall, or sending an instant message. Not only can you keep in touch with just your friends but it is becoming a better way for families to talk more and more as well. Through the infrastructure we deal with the technology, demographics, and economic system. When dealing with this we look at how technology is advancing in this culture everyday. Internet access is easier to find everyday, as wireless networks are easier to link up with along with the connection speed. Not only the technology to access facebook, but facebook is also putting out different versions of the site and updating constantly. It is a people driven site as you can add your own applications and even play games now. It’s a college student’s procrastination tool that deems to be the death of straight A’s for any person who struggles with distraction day in and day out. In talking about the economic system, we must see that there are beginning to be applications where real money can be won by Campusfood Cash. Kansas State University students have launched a matching game that offers coupons and cash to various restaurants in the infamous business district called “Aggieville.” When talking about the environment we are speaking of the physical environment. This would deal with the ability that students and people everywhere are able to log into this place simply by being with range of a wireless network. A college student can sit outside under a shaded tree in the quad, connect to a wireless network to open up the web browser and have their home page (which is becoming facebook for most people these days) to login to this procrastination tool.
So I end this by questioning again, how will this affect us in the long term? Will facebook become a tool that is so depended on by our culture that we cannot live without it for periods at a time? I believe that this impacts our lives more than we know it. We will see that it changes our language already and has become a vital piece of our everyday lives. So to end this I say, get me a facebook patch… I’m hopelessly addicted.