Blog Post week 6: The making of Place.

Blog Post week 6: The making of Place.

Image 1: Entering the Conversation.

Facebook allows users to create a sense of place in their construction and perceptions of the social network (Van Luyn, 2013).  As a user I see my own person timeline as a place in which I feel safe and can freely and happily communicate with friends.  However words can be very powerful, and have the ability to influence ones perception of a certain place either negatively or positively (Tuan, 1991). Just as historians created narratives through the selection of particular events, and the exclusion or inclusion of detail, resulting in some events being minimised and others being emphasised Facebook to builds a narrative of a person on their timeline; and the way in which people may see this this place can be influenced by the narrative that Facebook has constructed (Van Luyn, 2013).

 If a person’s own Facebook wall were to be covered by uplifting comments and photos by friends a positive sense of place could be achieved. Just as in wind and the willows when Rat describes moles house with such warmth and joy, the remarks of a person on someone’s Facebook page can either illuminate or disenchant their perception of a place (Tuan, 1991).  A person suffering from cyberbullying through the use of Facebook may perceive this space and place as a place that haunts them rather than one that uplifts them. Facebook is said to be one of the most prevalent website for cyberbullying , and this form of torments often results in the victim feeling belittled and embarrassed in their own sense of place.  Thereby it can be determined that through the use of negative or derogatory language or pictures a negative sense of place may be acquired (Tuan, 1991). 

As Facebook users we have the power to build or destroy a person’s sense of place, and just as it takes time, skills and patients to build a modest house, it takes little skills to tear it down (Tuan, 1991).So next time you log onto Facebook I urge you to consider the implications of your actions, as your choice of language could easily build up or tear down an individual’s sense of place.  As my wise grandmother once said, ‘if you have nothing nice to say, then say nothing at all’.

References.

Tuan, Y. (1991). Language and the making of place: A narrative-descriptive approach. In Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 81(4), 684-696.  

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place, Lecture                 5,  [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au

Image Credits.

Image 1: Juhi. (2011). Cyberbullying: blame them, not me.  Retrieved from                 http://blogs.saschina.org/aplangpd/category/cyberbullying/