My Place on Facebook

My timeline is my self-narrative. I have the option to rename myself, and portray myself in the best light possible, and create a virtual identity that will be seen by my 5 close friends and 100 of my closest acquaintances. As a user of Facebook however, I have chosen to keep my name, as I want to be found easily by my friends and family.

                                                       Facebook Icon

The only function of my name on Facebook is identification; it does not imply anything about my identity, like a nickname or a false name would. Ariella spoke during the lecture about how human beings create place by attaching experience to specific sites in their minds, and how these places in turn shape the lives of human beings (Van Luyn, 2013). This concept is very easily applied to my timeline. My Facebook timeline is a place that I create through witty thoughts that I sometimes spend too much time writing, and photos that I upload because they position me in the best possible light. These words that I post to my virtual place - my timeline - shape my identity in the eyes of others, as most people are exposed to my timeline for longer than they are exposed to actual me. The right to speak, and be heard and have a name that ‘sticks’ is given to me on Facebook (Taun, 1991). All of my social network can see my posts, and since my name and profile picture are placed next to my post my friends will associate me with these posts.

References

Tuan, Y. (1991) Language and the Making of Place: A Narrative-Descriptive Approach. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 81, No. 4, pp. 684-696. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2563430

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

Image Credits

Facebook Icon. Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/images/fb_icon_325x325.png

Facebook Bedtime Stories

 

 

Image from:  http://www.slashgear.com

My Facebook lurking has increased over the past few weeks, but I've found myself lurking more and more at night time. What is it about people telling all their stories to the world at night? It's strange how we can learn more from our friends through social media now instead of actually from communicating face to face. Everyone's story is so public now. But then again, would our society have it any other way?

Western society has become so engrossed in social media over the last few years that we don't realise how much of an influence that it has on our everyday lives. "Naming is power" (Tuan, 1991, p688). This can now be linked to the power that's given to people who tell their stories on Facebook. Sharing our personal stories on Facebook is not necessarily naming, but the same principle still stands. Through sharing our stories, we give an insight to our moral insight and this provides a sense of place to the reader. This applies to " space becomes place through humans imposing meaning on it" (Van Luyn, 2013).

Place and stories all revolve around each other, when it comes to the engrossing world of Facebook. How you ask? Stories are concocted from the locations they occurred at. You see this constantly on Facebook. With the check-in feature people are able to share their story along with now sharing their place with a simple click of a button. Reading these sort of posts has made me feel more connected with that person, mainly because the place puts the story into perspective and sets a scene.

References

Tuan, Y. (1991) Language and the Making of Place: A Narrative-Descriptive Approach. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 81, No. 4, pp. 688.

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

Image Credit

  http://www.slashgear.com/facebook-stories-curates-the-best-of-sharing-02241481/

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/

Digital Reality vs. Virtual Reality

                                        Image From: http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/apple_granted_patent_to_create_identity_clones

When we use the word ‘virtual’ on the internet, it gives certain connotations of being not ‘real’, but is that really so? Is it impossible to have more than one ‘real’ identity? As is further discussed by Yorick in his blog, it would seem more correct to use the word ‘digital’ as just because something is located online, this does not mean that it is in no way ‘real’. When we create an online avatar and we communicate and socialize through this avatar, even if what we relay is not the same as it would be in our physical reality, I believe we are not hiding behind a fake identity, but instead we create another identity, a digital one.

As Tuan explains in the reading, words have the power to transform invisible or nonexistent things into those that are visible or existent (1991). If a person were to make an anonymous avatar online, and then use that avatar to ‘troll’ or ‘cyber-bully’ another person could you call the identity of that avatar nonexistent? It certainly wouldn’t feel nonexistent to the victim. The person hiding behind the avatar has created a new identity that may be in many ways different to their own physical identity. It is the same when we talk about virtual space; personally, it makes more sense for it to be digital space. "A sense of place is created through humans perceiving and constructing that location" (Van Luyn, 2013). When more than 2 billion humans use the internet to communicate, research, find entertainment and so on, it becomes a little hard to consider it as an unreal space.

With YouTube, users are granted are large range of freedom in terms of how much of their own biographical data they choose to upload to the networking site. By using this separate identity as a shield a person can be greatly empowered as they are permitted to write anything they please without fear of receiving judgment. While this digital reality can give some people confidence to express their personal views or beliefs as they normally never would, it also encourages problems such as trolling or cyber-bullying. When I use YouTube it feels as if only a small number of people are showing their physical identity.

 

Reference List:

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, Stories and Place. [Power Point Slides] Retrieved from http://www.learnjcu.edu.au

 

Image Credit: Shutterstock

 

 

Our Internet Façade

Our Internet Façade

Having a ‘new’ identity in Twitter has enabled me to act as someone who would be considered “unknown.” If not completely, fairly close to invisible. I chose a new identity to really get the perspective of a small fish in the big blue sea of twitter. With this new identity, there are questions about what’s real about the users of twitter, and how real we allow ourselves to be on social networks. 

I think that the real versions of ourselves are more true than false. Some aspects of our profiles may be fake, like the name we use or the pictures of "ourselves" we post, but our true selves (what we like and how we describe our selves and what we prefer), always rises above these falsities. Is it in fact that virtual, social places we interact with that enable us to create an idealistic version of ourselves?

                                                                   Image 1: Retrieved from: http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3uc1fx/

As Dr. Van Luyn stated in this weeks lecture “Location is transformed into place through art and stories. “ (Van Luyn, 2013) The space in which we interact with others becomes our place. 

So far what I have taken away from twitter is that it is a extremely personal level of communication. It seems as if every  thought is projected. I also find that it is a great tool for people getting to know each other. The only difference in most cases, you are nowhere near any of those people in real life.

As Tuan (1991) states “The written text, which is both more private and more public than the spoken word, has its unique powers of transforming reality.”  For me this raises the idea of how we all customise our "profiles" what we choose to display, true or not, is a form of our reality.

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. Stories and Place. [Power Point Slides]

                        Retrieved from: http://www.learnjcu.edu.au

Image credits

Quickmeme (n.d) Image 1: Confession Bear                  

Retrieved from: http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3uc1fx/