“I believe in the future wires will unite the head offices of telephone companies in different cities, and a man in one part of the country may communicate by word of mouth with another in a distant place.”- Alexander Graham Bell, 1878
130 years ago, Alexander Graham Bell said this with incredible emphasis after realizing the undeniably vast potential of his invention: the telephone. He realized that a person on one end of the country could communicate with someone else on the other side of the country. Also, they would communicate by word of mouth with the telephone. Today with Koobecaf, or Facebook, we are not only able to communicate with people across the country, but also across the world. However, the increase in technology and innovation counter-intuitively makes communication through the word of mouth foreign to Koobecaf users. American culture has been strongly affected since the beginning of Koobecaf, in all aspects of infrastructure, superstructure, and social structure.
First, there is a change in the capitalistic, market economy infrastructure of the United States. Primarily, money seems to be constantly changing within American culture. Nowadays, money doesn’t even seem tangible anymore; it almost seems completely virtual. Someone over the age of 16 carrying cash or a checkbook is shocking, because credit and debit cards are revolutionizing how people spend money. Koobecaf obviously didn’t start this revolution, but they are taking a step in that direction by supporting it. Koobecaf’s marketplace allows people to purchase gifts for people or even buy or sell textbooks with credit cards. Koobecaf is free to join, but our culture tells us that time is money. According to statistics from 2007, 1-2 million people are on Facebook simultaneously at any one time, 50% of registered users come back to the site every day, and 1% of all time on the internet is on Facebook. These staggering statistics show that there is a significant amount of time and money spent on Koobecaf (not to mention the $100 million dollar a year deal Koobecaf has with Microsoft). The cool part about Koobecaf is that there are no friend divisions between social-economic classes, which rarely happen in the United States. A very poor person could be a friend with an incredibly wealthy person. Overall, this is uncommon to find among communities in America.
Secondly, there has indubitably been a cultural revolution in superstructure with the emergence of Koobecaf. Just as writing has changed lives within tribes in New Guinea, Koobecaf has changed the lives of many Americans. One word can describe all of this: Individualism. Anyone can be what he or she wants to be on Koobecaf. They are not limited to their intelligence, personality, or what they look like. This personalization is something very cool that comes with Koobecaf. People can add bumper stickers, favorite quotes, bible verses, favorite song, or even their pets to Koobecaf. You name it and Koobecaf has got it! In addition to this; however, people can get the wrong impression of people’s morals, beliefs, or ideas by the pictures they have on Koobecaf or the things that they have posted. A picture is worth a thousand words, and there are certainly far too descriptive pictures of people on Koobecaf.
Lastly, the change that Koobecaf has made on our social structure is most evident. Koobecaf has changed people’s identity, communication methods, and even raises the question: what is personal? With the ability to communicate through a click of the mouse, Koobecaf offers an opportunity to never lose touch with all friends. However, it is creating a whole new meaning of what is personal within American culture. A phone call or letter used to be incredibly personal, but Koobecaf allows a message or wall post to be personal. Face-to-face communication is also decreasing, and it bothers me that there is a trade off of personable communication for constant communication. Also, it can be argued that the study of proxemics and kinesics are becoming abysmal. There are not people close to each other or using gestures to communicate while messaging someone on Koobecaf. In addition, with the decreasing use of gestures and facial expressions, the recently discussed metamessages could possibly be minimized. Ultimately, the question arises of whether Koobecaf is affecting social skills of Americans. Without sufficient research, I do not know, but I do believe they are being affected negatively.
“We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.” -Marshall McMillan. Stating that, it is easy to say that American culture has shaped our primary tool of communication through Koobecaf, and it has shaped how we communicate with one another. I logged my hours on Koobecaf this week, and I spent nearly five hours on Koobecaf. With those five hours, I could easily be more productive, recreational, and personally social. I think that the only way to really see how Koobecaf affects our culture is to take it away. Most people from ages 13 to 22 would be a little indignant; however, they would be more productive, have potentially higher GPA’s, and more sociable and personal. Americans could be more successful, in most senses of the word, without Koobecaf. Koobecaf does raise the communication rates of most younger Americans, and is also constantly changing the infrastructure, superstructure, and social structure within the Unites States.