Keeping it real

We write our narratives on Facebook through statuses, “likes”, information and pictures which “we draw on to construct ourselves” (van Luyn, 2013) in a genuine way. When we share information especially pictures, we are portraying real life events and feelings which in turn creates an understanding of our personal space and environment around us. We can change a somewhat abstract space into a place of great meaning through our interaction with that place. This interaction is enhanced when we write a descriptive caption (van Luyn, 2013) allowing the words to “impart emotion and personality, and hence high visibility to objects and places” (Tuan, 1979, p.685). These images allow others to highlight the invisible elements of ourselves and the environment and make them visible for us to see again which helps us to understand our true selves (van Luyn, 2013).

Figure 1: Our network of friends in real life is often the same
as on Facebook

On Facebook there is high interaction with others who, as Tuan (1979) puts it, “help each other to build place” (p.689). Friends contribute to our walls via statuses, likes and pictures therefore constantly building our narratives and ensuring they are kept real and accurate. We can also contribute to our friend’s messages and statuses which can create a feeling of community, belonging and empowerment. These feeling are enhanced by the colloquial and “text” language used which creates a sense of family and security in our space. Friends’ interaction and participation on our walls and private messages make us feel “cool and famous” but if we don’t have a lot of virtual “friends” we become inconspicuous just like Gary did when he put on the Google Glass (Budelis, 2013). We have the right to say or do what we want but those with greater power or “cooler friends” have the ability to silence the less powerful narratives (van Luyn, 2013).

To me, Facebook narratives and the sense of space they portray is definitely a “shadow biography” (McNeill, 2012, p.111) of our real lives. It is a way of telling others our real stories and for us to learn more about ourselves.

References

Budelis, Kristina. (2013). The NewYorker. Retreived from http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/07/video-gary-shteyngart-google-glass.html

McNeill, L. (2012). ‘There is no “I” in network: Social networking sites and posthuman auto/biography’. In Biography 35.1 (pp 101 - 118)

Tuan, Y-F. (1991). ‘Language and the making of place’. Annals of the Association of American Geographers (pp.684-696) Taylor & Francis, Ltd.

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 5, part 3. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 5, part 1. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.

Figure 1:

Dennis Kreative Idea. (2012). We're Facebook Friends......? [image]. Retrieved from: http://dkidiscussion.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/were-facebook-friends.html