“Everyone knows it is only true if it is on Facebook,” but what does that actually mean? As stated on the website “Facebook is a social utility used to connects you with the people around you.” This statement is no lie, Facebook does connect people together. It connects people in so many ways it is insane. The reality is Facebook is becoming a large building block in today’s modern, high tech society, but why?
Communication is the key aspect to the social utility commonly known as Facebook. There are endless possibilities to what kind of people you can meet online, but also what kind of person you can become when logging into the virtual world of Facebook. If you want to know information about what a friend is doing currently you just need to grab a computer and log into the Facebook Community; more than likely, the friend you are so eagerly Facebook Creeping has updated their status so you can know just where he or she is at and what he or she is doing. If getting that information is not good enough and you needed to know what happened last night and why your friend never called you all you have to do is look at the recently tagged photos and see where he or she was. But if you still feel the urge to Facebook Creep you could write on the buddy’s wall or send a message which is much more personal.
It is amazing how much Facebook controls the lives of many people. Someone in the world is probably constantly on Facebook and it has very much become a part of today’s culture. Looking at the Barrel Model of Anthropology, Facebook is actually more than a social structure, it is very much part of the super structure. Facebook is a whole concept that has completely changed the way people view their lives! For example, when a boy asks a girl to be his girlfriend the girl may tell a few people, but the world knows in a few short hours because the status of their relationship changed from friends to “in a relationship.”
The most amazing thing about Facebook and anthropology is that Facebook fits into all the categories in the barrel model. I have already discussed the superstructure of a Facebook Society, but the social structure and others are also very important parts of a Facebook culture. Looking at the social structure, if you remove someone as a friend on Facebook, you are pretty much removing him or her from your life. This could be very offensive to many Facebook users. If the person being removed is a real Facebook Creeper, he or she may do everything in his or her power so you can be Facebook Friends again. The infrastructure is also important because it is what makes up Facebook. It is the way people communicate without ever having to leave their computer. The infrastructure of a Facebook Community has so many ways of communicating without actually speaking one verbal word. For example a person has the ability to add or remove friends, send messages to anyone, and lastly chat and write on their friend’s walls.
The environment of Facebook is crazy because it is so addicting, many people would actually rather be on Facebook than doing something productive with their lives, the users can sit for hours and waste time on Facebook because of the environment it creates. Facebook creates the type of secure environment many introverted people love. Facebook has no boundaries to what can or cannot be said and it is much easier for the shy people to say just what they want to say because it is not a face-to-face conversation, it is more of a face-to-screen conversation which could turn into a relationship or something else all inside this crazy world of Facebook.