Chelsea Rooney

Anthropology 204

MW 8:30 F 10:30

Kelly Marshall

Koobecaf Ethnography

Over the past four years Facebook has become a popular social networking tool used by millions of people all over the world. The motto that pops up while logging into your Facebook account is, “Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you”. Millions of people use Facebook to connect with friends, family, colleagues, co workers, and even strangers to stay in contact with each other. In our culture today Facebook has become extremely popular. Our culture has allowed Facebook to become popular because of our fast paced and casual lifestyle. Facebook fits under the barrel model of culture within the superstructure, social structure, and infrastructure.
Facebook has become so popular within our culture because of the fast paced and casual lifestyle we as American’s have had. American’s seem to want everything bigger, better, and faster which is why Facebook has taken off as it has. By logging onto Facebook you can achieve all the information you want about anybody in just a matter of seconds. I call this ‘stalking’ but some people call it ‘keeping up with family and friends’. Our society and culture has become so informal. We no longer have the Emily Post etiquette where everything we do is formal and fancy. Not many years ago when we would receive gifts we would write thank you notes and send them in the mail. Now, many of us get onto Facebook and write a quick note to our family or friends to say thank you. I believe the tools that are put out for us as individuals to use have made the formal society slowly go away. We no longer need the slow paced society when we have quick tools that make life easier and faster. People have also made Facebook popular by all the applications added within Facebook. Word has spread about everything you can do by having a Facebook which has made the popularity of it rise. There have been several instances within the last few years where I am out with my friends snapping pictures of different events taking place, and someone yells out, “Let’s add these to Facebook later!” or if someone says something funny, “That’s a Facebook quote!” We have totally wrapped our lives around Facebook and have made it popular. My mom recently signed up for Facebook so she could see pictures of my friends and I. If no one made Facebook popular by having it, then it would not exist.
The barrel model of culture completely ties in with Facebook. Our culture is what makes up who we are and since Facebook is now a part of the American culture it also is tied in with the barrel model. The three main parts of the structure are the infrastructure, social structure, and the superstructure. Facebook fits in with each of these in one way or another. In the infrastructure it has to do with technology. Facebook is obviously a technological advance that has been created to allow us to access the internet. This has to do with our fast paced society by finding out any information you might want to know in a matter of a few seconds. The second structure is the social. We keep in contact with our family and friends through the social aspect. We can log onto Facebook and stalk our friends to find out what they are doing, what they are involved with, and almost everything about them just by having a Facebook account. It allows us to keep in contact with people we may not get to see or talk to everyday. Facebook also fits into the superstructure by the ideas, concepts, and values of the people living in that culture. On a person’s homepage of Facebook you have the option to write what your religious views are. Since the superstructure reflects religion, tradition, values, ideas, and concepts, Facebook certainly reflects these ideas. It allows you to talk about yourself, your life, and values within your home page. Since Facebook is part of our culture it is also a part of the barrel model of culture.
Facebook has become so popular in our culture because of the fast paced and casual lifestyle that we have become accustomed to. The Facebook culture has encompassed the ideas of the model of culture for our society. It has become popular because of word of mouth and the popularity of Facebook’s uses. The characteristics of our Facebook culture fit into our model of culture.