According to Michael Riordan (2003) in his book on the information age, the West has created many forms of communication including mobile phones, television, satellites, and the internet (Riordan, 2003).
Facebook utilizes all of these Western constructs; users can video call each other, this comes with sound, for Facebook to even work, an internet connection has to be established hence it uses this communication form as well. Facebook also uses standard written messages as a form of communication.
As Facebook does not include other methods of communication such as smoke signals, floating bottles, or smells I would say that the Western tradition of communication stands above the rest.
Western society does not reflect a single communication form as many are in existence. In terms of social constructs, Westerners prefer a multitude of communication forms for their wide groups including "online selves"as demonstrated in Laurie McNeill's (2012) article on the lack of the individual in social networks (McNeill, 2012) .
Facebook can translate many languages thus it allows for a diverse crowd to use it. If Facebook usage was mapped, it would reflect an evenly distributed global usage. Facebook Users in the World
Facebook allows for a "real" and an "authentic" version of the self to be communicated across the network. As stated my McNeill (2012), "online selves" are mostly fabrications and do not reflect the individual in the real world (McNeill, 2012).
Facebook can be considered a blend of the "profane" and "sacred". Users can create secret groups and relationships to keep close information held without compromising secrecy, they are also able to profanely and openly speak their minds.
References:
- McNeill, L. (2012). There is no "I" in network: Social networking sites and posthuman auto-biography. In Biography, 53(1), 1010118
- Riordan, M. (2003). Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age. New York: Random House. USA: Blackstone
I really enjoyed your image used for this blog, it relates perfectly to how the evolution of communication can be perceived. The final 'twitter' stage is definitely evident in many of the virtual networks that are currently popular. Through the evolution of communication there is also an evolution of communication users, depicted by the changing states of the people in the image you found.
ReplyDeleteMcNeill (2012) suggests that through the creation of this 'online self' people depict themselves to be more appealing than they may be in the physical world. They only usually show snippets to their friends on Facebook. Also discussed by McNeill is the behoove of people to have good-looking friends on Facebook to help with their popularity. I believe this directly relates to how people fabricate this online persona.
References:
McNeil, L. (2012). There is no “I” in network: Social networking sites and posthuman auto-biography. In Biography, 35(1), 101- 108.
Great post Callum, really interesting! You’re section on the “real” & “authentic” versions of self, made me think a lot about some more questions that McNeill (2012) raises further in the reading, including “Who determines ‘Authenticity?’…. Who is this ‘Authentic self?’”. It really makes you think more about the methods that facebook uses and the way that it has created these ‘posthuman’ qualities. Scary really!
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