Peek a Boo! I see everything Facebook says about you!

All of us believe that if we have our security settings on “friends only” or “private” only selected people can see our profiles but with social networks, especially Facebook users can see, share and write our life stories for EVERYONE to see.

Facebook is global and can shape the cultural practices and lives of all users (McNeill, 2012, p.103). I believe Facebook is not evenly spread across the world as the wealthier countries with greater access to the Internet would have more users than the minority countries. However, due to its breadth Facebook has a great diversity amongst its users and promotes equality. It appeals to users of different religious, language, age and cultural groups as evidenced when we can add information to our profiles (or biographies) about all these groups. This information is readily available to all despite the great security we may have on our pages.

So if the majority of the world is on Facebook how do we know if they are being their real selves? Well, The COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandburg states, “You can’t be on Facebook without being your authentic self” (McNeil, 2012, p.104). “Friends” can comment or write on our wall, share photos etc helping us construct our identities (Van Luyn, 2013). However, when creating our profiles, Facebook uses categories and questions like where we live, what interests we have and what our relationship status is to guide us to create our Profile (or autobiography). If we do not fit into any of the choices provided, we cannot accurately write our autobiography (McNeill, 2012, p.104) and Facebook has the power to promote the social norms and silence our narratives which do not match these predetermined assumptions (van Luyn, 2013)

We can tell our autobiographies by writing on our “walls” compared to how Aborigines tell their autobiographies through song and dance, called Songlines. Aborigines believe their ancestors “sang the world into existence” (Chatwin, 1987, p.11) as a “kind of narrative of things that once happened” (Stanner, 1953, p.24) and still happen today. However, as Songlines is also on Facebook it is a great oppurtunity for Facebook to show its diversity and equality as well as Aborigines to teach the world about their culture.

Regardless of whether we believe Facebook is “authentic” or not, Facebook enables us to become “friends”with others who share the same interests or backgrounds. A thriving community is then formed but other “friends” who do not share the same interests are left out. Facebook uses this information to promote products of global corporations according to what pages we “like”, what our friends “like” and any interests listed in our profile. This creates a more commercial community where our so called private stories are available to everyone.

So before you post something on Facebook make sure it is something you don’t mind the whole world having access to.


References

Chatwin, B. (1987).The songlines. London: Jonathan Cape.

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

Stanner, W. E. (1979). White man got no dreaming: essays, 1938-1973. Canberra: Australian National University Press.

Van Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 4, part 1: Networked narratives. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

 

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The Waves, 2012, Like us on Facebook, Retrieved from http://www.wavesportmacquarie.com.au/