Facebook Famous!
“Before God
we are all equally wise – and equally foolish” Albert Einstein expresses the
fact that through God we were given equality. However, we also can be misled
and easily influenced. I believe that we are born equal but then given
opportunities in our lives, either negative or positive to change our position
in the world.
Laurie
Mcneill mentions that the creators of Facebook, main purpose was to create an auto biography
and to give the users the power to share and make the world a more open and
connected network (2012). However, through the reading this theory was proven wrong.
Do I
believe that there is equality and diversity through facebook? I agree in the
fact that facebook has been created with equality in mind. This is shown
through allowing users to have free speech and post their own opinions and
views online, for their family and friends to witness. However, I do believe
certain personal have more power and control over facebook then others.
I don’t
believe a certain culture, language or religion has more control over facebook
then the other. No, I have noticed that a certain form of group does;
‘Attractive people’.
“God’s not
giving power, it’s humans” (Van Luyn, 2013). Everyone wants to be friends with
someone that is popular, attractive and facebook famous. Through the amount of
likes and comments they receive on facebook, they gain their power and control
by understanding the amount of people that view their profile. They can send
messages influencing people’s different aspects on certain situations. This can
be either negative or positive for example a high negative would be cyber
bullying or; a positive can be supporting a local business by convincing people
to attend.
Don’t allow
yourself to fall into this trap, there is more to life than the one you have
online.
Reference List
Van Luyn, A. (2012). BA1002: Our Space:
Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 4: Networked Narratives [PowerPoint
slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au
Mcneill, L (2012): There is no “I” in
network: Social networking sites and post human auto/biography. Biographical
Research Center.
Einstein, A (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved August 20, 2013, from
BrainyQuote.com Web site: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/alberteins100645.html
Image Credits
Image Credits
Van-A-Gram (2008): Freedon AND equality is a
dangerous myth. Retrieved from http://therealrevo.com/blog/?p=860
Hi Kiara,
ReplyDeleteWhat you have mentioned in your post about famous people on Facebook is such an accurate portrayal of what I myself have seen evidently whilst navigating this particular virtual network. We as human beings are constantly striving for acceptance from those who we deem as being higher up in the social hierarchy than us, which really does highlight the inequality between us all. As explored by McNeill (2012), in a study male and female users of Facebook were judged as being seem as attractive or not depending on the type of information they posted onto their Facebook profiles. Who is it though that determines that just because a person is more physically attractive than another they therefore have the privilege and opportunity of being more highly regarded than someone else ? Is it our own selves that reach this conclusion, or society as a whole?
McNeill, L. (2012). There is no “I” in network: Social networking sites and posthuman auto-
biography. In Biography, 35(1), 101-118.
Excellent title ‘Facebook Famous’. I like the fact it’s self-explanatory. Living in the virtual world of Facebook, people must maintain the persona they have created. Mcneill (2012) states that Facebook is designed to be ‘sticky’ so to “attract and retain engaged readership”. I think this is the first step in becoming Facebook Famous: making your own virtual identity ‘sticky’ by means of liking, commenting, and sharing. The most important factor in gaining popularity is having a large friend base (and friends with large friend bases). Without them, your virtual self will not be recognised and you risk becoming a - as twitter puts it -follower. I myself am not Facebook Famous, nor do I want to be. As you said, it can have both negative and positive implications. Media and news companies make a point to mention that Facebook is the place where open house parties are advertised or bullying took place thus putting Facebook in a bad light. Contrary to this, it can promote the virtual identity of the person who created the post. I agree with your statement “Facebook has been created with equality in mind”, however, just as we have classes in reality, we are also divided in virtual reality by things such as large friend bases. The key difference I find is we can say almost anything to our computer screens where we imagine the reader on the other end, whereas people tend not to say ‘What’s on their minds’ so freely when confronted with face-to-face conversation.
ReplyDeleteReferences
McNeill, L. (2012). There is no ‘I’ in network: Social networking sites and Posthuman/Auto-biography. In Biography, 35(1), 65-82. Retrieved from http://www.learnjcu.edu.au
Hey Kiara, what an interesting blog, your use of the title 'Facebook famous' was a real attention grabber! Your statement that attractive people hold more control over Facebook is a concept recognized by McNeil, noting that users identities emerge in relation to that of their friends, and the appearance of these so called friends affect the users impressions of them (McNeil, 2012). Furthermore it was also noted that male and female members of the social network were treated differently, often being judged due to their consumption of alcohol and sexual behaviors (McNeil, 2012). It does not take long to find an example of this, simply look at the post of a group called embarrassing night club photos. The comments made be individuals regarding the behavior of an a male vs a female are often far more derogatory towards the later, whereas the males actions are seen to be heroic. From this is can be seen that Facebook is not an environment that revolves around the equality of individuals but rather their appearance.
ReplyDeleteMcNeill, L. (2012). There is no ‘I’ in network: Social networking sites and Posthuman/Auto-biography. In Biography, 35(1), 65-82. Retrieved from http://www.learnjcu.edu.au