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Koobecaf paper By: Brittany Carolus
Brittany Carolus
11 September 2008
Professor Wesch
Koobecaf assignment
Facebook has become a worldwide phenomenon in the past four years, becoming something even creator Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t handle on his own. What started as “thefacebook”, a Harvard student’s hobby, it became the second largest social network on the internet. Facebook turned into a teenage addiction, causing its bloggers to itch for the opportunity to log on and check their homepage as much as ten to fifteen times a day. What caused people to become so engaged in this world of identified personal invading culture? There’s something intriguing about being able to communicate freely with those in distant countries and seeing how they aren’t so different after all, they post their pictures and update their status just as much as the Americans do. On average, there are 1.5 million photos added to the site daily, and people are curious enough to look at them for hours, commenting below them, letting people know their true thoughts. There’s some sense of anonymity on Facebook, although most people are listed under their legal name. The fact that one can sit in privacy and type their thoughts, rather than face-to-face expressing how they feel, creates a heightened confidence in what’s being said. It’s challenging American culture, causing the people in the country to slip on their personal communication skills. We no longer worry as much about talking to people in our classes and in our everyday lives. It’s now the contemplation of whether to add them as a friend on the website or not to see what kind of a person they are, without ever saying a word to them. It’s not just the teens that have become Facebook phenes, it’s adults being listed under their college’s Alum network, and young teens, not yet in high school, lying about their age so they too can be a part of the virtual world. Facebook has become a verb, it’s no longer “You should put that on your Facebook”, it’s “Facebook it!” People know what’s being referred to when the reference is spoken, because it’s not just a website to many, it became its own culture, another life. People are given a second chance at a reputation on the site, they can add people as friends they don’t know, send them a message that makes them seem outgoing, and that’s their personality according to that person. It is making people lose their identity, their initial values and morals. Some will see events and happenings as good opportunities to add new pictures, or change their status to something more appealing to those who read it. It also threatens privacy since some people will post practically all their information on their page, such as their address and class schedule. People are finally starting to catch on that although it’s mainly college and high school students reading this information, there are still people out there that have bad intentions for people who post too much information on their profile. That brings the important point of the privacy settings, sure one can set their page to private, where only your friends can view it, but people generally become lenient about that, they don’t want to look rude by pressing the “reject” button on the friend request page. It’s so consuming, yet so much a part of today’s culture, it has taken the place of simple phone calling; now people would rather write on each other’s walls to communicate. The pressure to have as many pictures tagged to one’s name as possible can cause some to tag themselves in pictures, which is the same thing as saying to someone “Hey, I want people to see that I too was there!” It seems like it’s all a game, who can get the most friends, pictures, wall postings..but why? It has no significance in anyone’s actual everyday life, unless we’re speaking in terms of “I was Facebook creeping last night and saw that you got a tattoo, can I see it?” That could potentially give someone flattery, or a feeling of belongingness, but that’s something the people today need to restore again and make it into a face-to-face matter, not on the WWW.
11 September 2008
Professor Wesch
Koobecaf assignment
Facebook has become a worldwide phenomenon in the past four years, becoming something even creator Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t handle on his own. What started as “thefacebook”, a Harvard student’s hobby, it became the second largest social network on the internet. Facebook turned into a teenage addiction, causing its bloggers to itch for the opportunity to log on and check their homepage as much as ten to fifteen times a day. What caused people to become so engaged in this world of identified personal invading culture? There’s something intriguing about being able to communicate freely with those in distant countries and seeing how they aren’t so different after all, they post their pictures and update their status just as much as the Americans do. On average, there are 1.5 million photos added to the site daily, and people are curious enough to look at them for hours, commenting below them, letting people know their true thoughts. There’s some sense of anonymity on Facebook, although most people are listed under their legal name. The fact that one can sit in privacy and type their thoughts, rather than face-to-face expressing how they feel, creates a heightened confidence in what’s being said. It’s challenging American culture, causing the people in the country to slip on their personal communication skills. We no longer worry as much about talking to people in our classes and in our everyday lives. It’s now the contemplation of whether to add them as a friend on the website or not to see what kind of a person they are, without ever saying a word to them. It’s not just the teens that have become Facebook phenes, it’s adults being listed under their college’s Alum network, and young teens, not yet in high school, lying about their age so they too can be a part of the virtual world. Facebook has become a verb, it’s no longer “You should put that on your Facebook”, it’s “Facebook it!” People know what’s being referred to when the reference is spoken, because it’s not just a website to many, it became its own culture, another life. People are given a second chance at a reputation on the site, they can add people as friends they don’t know, send them a message that makes them seem outgoing, and that’s their personality according to that person. It is making people lose their identity, their initial values and morals. Some will see events and happenings as good opportunities to add new pictures, or change their status to something more appealing to those who read it. It also threatens privacy since some people will post practically all their information on their page, such as their address and class schedule. People are finally starting to catch on that although it’s mainly college and high school students reading this information, there are still people out there that have bad intentions for people who post too much information on their profile. That brings the important point of the privacy settings, sure one can set their page to private, where only your friends can view it, but people generally become lenient about that, they don’t want to look rude by pressing the “reject” button on the friend request page. It’s so consuming, yet so much a part of today’s culture, it has taken the place of simple phone calling; now people would rather write on each other’s walls to communicate. The pressure to have as many pictures tagged to one’s name as possible can cause some to tag themselves in pictures, which is the same thing as saying to someone “Hey, I want people to see that I too was there!” It seems like it’s all a game, who can get the most friends, pictures, wall postings..but why? It has no significance in anyone’s actual everyday life, unless we’re speaking in terms of “I was Facebook creeping last night and saw that you got a tattoo, can I see it?” That could potentially give someone flattery, or a feeling of belongingness, but that’s something the people today need to restore again and make it into a face-to-face matter, not on the WWW.
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