In the article "Be Who You Want to Be" (2010) by Katie Ellis, the idea behind one’s social identity is explored as seen through Facebook, the online social networking platform. As a mild user of Facebook myself, it has been interesting to see how people willingly provide personal information in order to create a “true-to-life” identity for social connections. The implicitly anonymous factor of the Internet doesn’t hold true for Facebook, where its privacy issues and sometimes overreaching feature set seem to make headlines every few weeks.
George Mead’s distinction between ‘I’ and ‘me’ in his interpretation of identity was one I could resonate with. In an arena like Facebook, people want to portray themselves under a particular light and perception. The information we provide for others to see—through photos, status updates and the like—create a social persona that relates us to others.
Tara Brabazon stating that the news feed in Facebook is “corroding our capacity to determine the important, relevant and significant” (40) is another point that I never considered when using the service. The overwhelming amount of largely uncategorized information coming from our social groups is numbing to the mind, and the movement to stay “offline” from Facebook and other social networking sites is a desirable one to disconnect myself from the bombardment of notifications.
I find it interesting that you bring up the privacy issues that I’ve been hearing about. It seems as though I haven’t heard any positive news on Facebook because of its lack of confidentiality, and people’s overuse for personal issues. It is crazy to see how face people will go to provide this life like identity on the Internet as if many people don’t have access to it. Your response makes me think if those types of users know that anyone can see this information that they are just willing to spew out, or if they are really oblivious to the fact that Facebook isn’t all that private. Some people try to hard to make their social identity as close to real life as possible. This can sometimes be harmful to their real life identity.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about the random and bombarding information people post on facebook. I don't even bother looking at the news feeds because the things people post are ridiculous. I don't want to hear about where you ate lunch, or that your boyfriend is a jerk! " I agree with what you said about debating about going offline "The overwhelming amount of largely uncategorized information coming from our social groups is numbing to the mind, and the movement to stay 'offline'" I don't like that Facebook's privacy policies seem to change constantly and the fact that they don't always make it blatantly obvious to the users, it takes a newspaper or article to expose the constant changes.
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