Steven Seiler
Professor Wesch
Cultural Anthropology 204
20 September 2008

Facebook and American Culture

Facebook has undeniably become a cultural sensation in the United States in a very short period of time: four to five years, a remarkably fast impact for a tool with a potential for extensive cultural change. The factors that have allowed Facebook to become so widespread as quickly as it has lie within the American culture itself. By examining America’s environment as well as how Facebook fits into America’s infrastructure, social structure, and superstructure, one can begin to understand why Facebook has taken off so fast and how Facebook is now affecting the culture that created it.
In a country filled with laptops, desktops, and increasingly sophisticated mobile phones, children are growing up in an environment where using a computer is as elementary as reading and writing. All these computers are filled silicon, one of the country’s most precious resources. Facebook allows people who have grown up in this Silicon Age to socialize and interact without having to travel, thereby consuming none of the country’s most precious resource, oil. This environment filled with computers sets the stage for the country’s infrastructure.
The infrastructure or economy of the United States is based on efficiency. Time and wealth are always expressed in quantitative values and are considered interchangeable as expressed in the popular saying “Time is money.” The American economy is also very consumer-based, making advertising very important. Facebook is attractive to businesses because they get an efficient use of their advertising money. This is done by “targeting” costumers based on the information that they put on their profile. The efficiency in the American economy also gives people much free time for recreation. People wish to be entertained, but do not like spending too much of their money that they have received for their time working. This is where Facebook enters the picture. People get to be entertained during their free time but do not have to pay to use Facebook because of the aforementioned advertisements. This efficient combination of free and recreational is one of the reasons that Facebook has taken off; however, many things from America’s social structure have aided Facebook’s advance as well.
America’s social structure is based on interaction while maintaining individual independence. People keep their individualism by living in their isolated homes with just their nuclear family while interacting everyday at work, school, church, and other events. Americans love Facebook because it allows them to do the same thing in cyberspace that they do in real space. People have their own individual profile, but they use Facebook to network themselves with people they know or people of similar interests through features such as Groups, Walls, and other applications.
Finally, Facebook’s rapid growth must be looked at through America’s superstructure or ideology. The concept of status may have more to do with Facebook’s success than any other element of the American culture. Someone with more status is thought to be more important than someone with less status. The concept of status shows up in many if not all cultures; however, America’s version of status is different than almost all other cultures. In some other cultures, status is birthright, but in America, status is made. In America, status is fame. How much people respect someone is not necessarily as important to Americans as the fact that people recognize the individual’s name. For example, consider Anna Nicole Smith, or Lindsay Lohan, or Paris Hilton. People might have little respect for what they do, but nevertheless they are glorified celebrities in American culture. Now, with the emergence of Facebook, people get the opportunity to elevate themselves to celebrity status within their own network of friends. A person will publish pictures of themselves on Facebook because they want other people to see them and recognize them, thereby elevating the person’s status.
After considering the make-up of American culture, it is not hard to see why Facebook has taken off so fast. America’s environment, infrastructure, social structure, and superstructure all find Facebook to be a useful tool. This usefulness on all levels of culture is what has allowed Facebook to sweep through the American culture in the way that it has and in all likelihood will continue to do.