Blog Two: Connected or Disconnected?
By Sophie Boden
Songlines were
a means of communication for Indigenous people. It was a way of finding others
who shared the same dreaming, ‘Dreaming-tracks lay over the land as ‘ways’ of
communication between the most far-flung tribes (Chatwin, 1987). How does this relate
to Facebook? Surprisingly there are similarities between Indigenous Songlines
and virtual networks. In Facebook the ‘Find Friends’ tab serves to connect us
with people who went to your school, lived in your hometown, and much more. Not
unlike the role Songlines played in uniting people from the same totem.
However, there
is a great gap in our understanding of Indigenous culture which is contemplated
by the Stanner (1979, p.24-25) reading, ‘The first is a matter of learning to ‘think
black’, not imposing Western categories of understanding’. Essentially, Stanner
is implying to understand Indigenous culture we have to look through an
Indigenous ‘lens’. This is not adequately provided for in Facebook, likely
because it originated in America and hence takes a particularly Western view on
events. The image above also demonstrates this predominantly Western
perspective; with the most connections stemming from America and Europe. Interestingly,
this raises the issue of self-identity on Facebook.
In the
McNeill (2012) reading it provides that ‘each keystroke and mouse click contributes
to another life narrative’. Unlike a traditional autobiography, Facebook encourages
our friends and, depending on your security settings, anyone to contribute to
your ‘life narrative’. As Dr Van Luyn (2013) suggested we assume ’That an
individual is constructing their own identity’ in biographies and
autobiographies. Flawed Facebook may be in terms of our traditional sense of
authorship and ownership. Blurring the lines between ourselves and those we
communicate and connect with. Does this pose problems for our concept of
self-identity?
Reference List
Chatwin, B.
(1987). Chapter 3, in Songlines (pp.
11-15). London, England: Jonathan Cape.
Estoisia, R.
(2009). Identity Construction and Self-Representation on Facebook. Retrieved from: http://anthrocyber.blogspot.com.au/2009/05/identity-construction-and- self.html
McNeill, L. (2012).
There is no “I” in network: Social networking sites and posthuman auto- biography. In Biography, 35(1),
101-118.
Stanner,
W.E.H. (1979). The dreaming (1953), in White
man got no dreaming: Essays 1938-1973
(pp 23-30). Canberra, Australia: Australian National University Press.
Van Luyn, A.
(2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, week 4 notes. [PowerPoint slides].
Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au
Image Credits
Butler, P.
(2010). Get connected!. Retrieved from: http://lorangeinstitute.wordpress.com/2010/12/14/get-connected/
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