It is only natural for society to have norms. Norms allow for there to be a sense of what is normal, and what of course is not. In today's modern age, it is normal to have a cell phone, to have a computer, and to be able to read. These things are almost expected. If you were to tell me you could not read, my first guess would be that you are legally blind, then that you were born in a poor nation that could not educate you, then I would ask if you simply never learned in America. Norms create boundaries, and allow us to know what is creepy and what is not, what is normal and what is weird. Facebook is used by millions upon millions of people around the world, each of which has a profile that defines who they are in the Web 2.0 era. People post information ranging from age, hometown, and favorite quotes, all the way to things like religion, past life experiences, and other things that can be seen by some as intrusive and invasive.
According to the work "The Facebook Effect" the older you are, the more likely you are going to find the plethora of information overwhelming, invasive, and most of all unnecessary.
Today's society feeds off of the Internet at this point, as basically anything can be done from ones own living room. Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook says that people should not have a split between the personal and professional life, stating that it is not honest. But in a world where every company now does background as well as Facebook checks on your past profile, why shouldn't there be? Due to a wealth of information, can one not be a workaholic by day and a party animal at night? Can one not go out and enjoy themselves because of the fear of people taking Facebook pictures and posting them? People now need to monitor anything and everything they do, simply because anything can end up being posted on a Facebook page. The effect of Facebook on society will never be able to be truly measured, but one thing for certain is that Facebook has changed social norms more then anything in recent memory.
Facebook began as a place for college students to connect with one another and stay in touch. But now with the millions upon millions of users and apps, it has basically became its own society. People can now buy airplane tickets online through Delta's Facebook page. I personally have bought concert tickets through Facebook, but is this good? Can one website have this much power? Is Facebook a Monopoly 2.0? Facebook records all, and because of this it invades on anything and everything people do.
Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI find your questions about Mark Zuckerberg's thought that people should assume only one identity throughout their personal and professional lives intriguing. Although it would be ideal to have a facebook that is exactly honest and truthful about oneself, I think that it is a little bit naive to state that facebook gives us the whole truth about people's identities. Many people on facebook try to cater their profile to a certain audience. For instance, as you mentioned, many companies check on the facebook profiles of people they are looking to hire. In this case, those who applied for the job would most likely go back on their profile and delete certain pictures, wall posts, or anything else they think would be inappropriate for their possible employer to see. This alone shows an inconsistency between one's real self and one's facebook. However, more cases exist. You also posed a question about being a workaholic by day and a party animal at night. I believe that there are people, seen only as workaholics, that may want to change their image. Thus, they post pictures only when they go out or do something "cool" to boost their "party animal" image. These people may also spend hours thinking up funny comments to post on their friends' walls. This is unnatural and not exactly who they are. In other words, their facebook is sort of like a false identity of themselves. Do you agree with this assertion that many people change their image on facebook?
Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI feel that you and I have the same opinions about a lot of things not only in this article, but involving Facebook in general. First of all, I will say that I completely agree with you, and in that sense disagree with Mark Zuckerberg, about having to have almost separate identities between your personal and professional life. With all of the statistics you hear about companies looking at prospective employees' Facebooks and not hiring them due to the content displayed on them, it is hard to see where Mark Zuckerberg is even getting this notion from. Just because I may not want to show certain pictures on my Facebook, does not mean I don't enjoy having fun. I think one of the biggest things that companies, schools, basically anyone who is using Facebook as a means of evaluating a person, should keep in mind is that people aren't going to be taking pictures of the boring mundane things in life. We prefer to bring our cameras out to parties, rather than to take pictures of each other studying in the library. Perhaps if I did bring a camera around with me for a week, and took pictures of every single activity I do each day, my Facebook would look a lot different than it does now. However, I don't believe this is displaying a false identity for myself. In my opinion, and I'm sure you'd agree, Mark Zuckerberg may need to rethink this statement altogether!