06 September 2013
Dear Diary,
I used to write and
tell you all my secrets which you would keep “hidden away under lock and key” (McNeill,
2011,p.315). But with this great new social networking site called Facebook
there has been a re-evolution of writing online (McNeill, 2011, p.323)! I can
write all my personal thoughts, feelings, exciting news down and others can see
and ‘like’ it making me feel so powerful and in control. It’s heaps more
exciting than writing my news and secrets down and nobody can see them…..
 |
| Facebook - the re-evolution of the print diary |
Facebook is the most popular form of diary writing today
with us as users keeping out posts “real” by saying whatever we want. To ensure
its authenticity, we can tag our friends, post pictures or links to other pages
or websites. However, many users including myself; try to ensure our posts are “designed
for a particular discourse community” (van Luyn, 2013) so they attract the most
attention and therefore get lots of likes or comments to increase our online “street-cred”.
To do this, we use colloquial language, emoticons and abbreviations to fit into the Facebook
community even though the minority of us may be silenced due to not understanding
the use of this form of text, or as Thoreau says in Di Yanni (2005, p.4) “…perhaps
[we] are hearing the sound of a different drummer” and we can’t go our own way.
To protect our space from online bullying and abusive or
inappropriate content, Facebook constructs rules which are quite similar to the
social one must adhere to in society. As stated on the Facebook Community Standards page, the conversations and content of Facebook demonstrate the
diversity of its users (Facebook, 2013). However, some users abuse their “free
speech” power by swearing, using overly sexually explicit or racial posts which
are frowned upon by others users. Other users can control this content by commenting
on the post stating it is inappropriate; deleting that person as a Facebook
friend or reporting the post to the people in charge of monitoring Facebook.
Although, there are a few “naughty” words, Erica Scourti has
developed a series of Youtube videos summarising her friend’s Facebook posts.
This just goes to show the diary like entries we post on Facebook and the power
we have to write just about anything!
*PING* Sorry I g2g as it has bin 5 mins since I last checked
my fb’s newsfeed and I just got a notification! C u l8r….maybe.
References
DiYanni, R. (2005).
Introduction: Reading and writing essays. In Twenty-Five Great
Essays. (pp. 1-30). New York: Penguin Academics.
Facebook. (2013). ‘Facebook Community Standards’. Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards
McNeill, L. (2011). ‘Diary 2.0? A Genre Moves from Page to
Screen.’ In C. Rowe & E. Wyss
(Eds.), Language and New Media. (pp.313 – 325). Cresskill: Hampton Press
Inc.
Scourti, E. (2008). Facebook Diary. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6E6DADE3EA939F15
Van Luyan, A. (2013).
BA1002: Our Space: Networks narratives and making of place. Lecture 6: Genre.[power
point slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au
Image credit:
JesSe8746 (Artist). (2012) Breakup ECards [Image] Retrieved from: http://www.someecards.com/usercards/viewcard/MjAxMi1iNGQyZmI1Yzk2ODZiMTQ1
I love the way you have addressed this weeks blog. As McNeill (2011,pp. 319) states that "a blog is a personal diary." This supports your statement "I can write all my personal thoughts, feelings, exciting news down and others can see and 'like' it making me feel so powerful and in control." This statement also intertwines with week 4 readings (networked narratives) as McNeill (2012) highlights that Facebook is like an auto/biography; as we can write/comment on our own and others life events. This can be done via 'liking' statuses, sharing Facebook pages such as 'buy swap and sell' and also by tagging photos. These Facebook activities enables others to become apart of the surrounding atmosphere and place of the virtual network via the communication of our autobiographies. It also helps develop aspects of network identities (Vaas, 2012). Although through developing a blog/diary on Facebook such as our status updates it is also creating a particular power of relationship between each Facebook member; as "people are placed by power, but they experience it at first hand through rhythms and relationships of particular places" (Allen, 2003, pp.3).
ReplyDeleteReferences
Allen, J. (2003). Lost Geographies of power. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
McNeill, L. (2011). Diary 2.0?: A genre moves from page to screen. Rowe, C. & Wyss, E. L. (Eds.) language and new media: linguistic, cultural, and technological evolutions. (Pp. 313- 325). Cares skill, NJ: Hampton.
McNeill, L. (2012). There is no "I" in network: social networking sites posthuman auto-biography. in biography, 35(1), 101-118.
Vaas, L. (2012). Facebook privacy control overhaul will remove ability to limit who can find us. Retrieved from: http://naked security.sophos.com.