Space & Place
The space and place involved with
Facebook comes from the idea that users are comfortable with the ‘space and
place’ Facebook has provided 3them, where it be the freedom to post statuses,
upload photos, change your user to private and so on. With most Facebook users
it seems that the majority of them like to keep their profile open to the
public either to gain more friends or having users like uploaded photos or
statuses.
However, other
Facebook users like to keep their profile on the down low as to not draw
unwanted attention to themselves. These users set their setting to private so
Facebook users they do not know are not able to view any photos or statuses.
With ‘space and place’ there is also the lack of place, due to users expecting
more of what other users may be able to open up about over Social Network.
“The demands of a public audience
shapes the construction of the text.” (Van Luyn, 2015 Lecture 3) With this said
this is accurate due to many users becoming a different person online to who
they are offline. A screen allows people to become someone they never could be
in the real world. The public audience, being Facebook users, evidently
manipulate other users to write a status that isn’t exactly what the user is
thinking.
“Recent ethological studies show
that nonhuman animals also have a sense of territory and of place.” (Tuan, 1979)
This quote from this author relates back to Facebook as users tend to protect
their Facebook page, by integrating the privacy setting that only allows their friends
to access any personal information. The territory of Facebook users is like
their home away from home, they can update their status to what they are
feeling or whatever they are doing, without any interference from ‘intruders’
as such, while still keeping into contact with any relative or friends.
In the end ‘space and place’ on
any Social Networking site can be seen as a user’s, personal territory with
them controlling who has access to their page and who they think is a good
influence to allow them onto their page and
be welcomed into their territory.
This video shows how ‘space and place’ can influence what
users write on Facebook.
Morris, M.
(2015). Samuel Morris
Foundation. Retrieved 21 August, 2015, from
http://samuelmorrisfoundation.org.au/keep-us-facebook-feed/
Tuan,
Y. (1977). Space
and Place: The perspective of Experience. London:
Edward Arnold. Retrieved, 21st August, 2015
Van Luyn,
Ariella. (2015) BA1002 Space: Networks,
Narratives, and the Making of Place. Space and Identity: Genre and
Transformation. Retrieved 21st August, 2015
This feels too true in regards to people and their place online. People on Facebook often create new personas online, perhaps to say what they didn’t have to courage to say offline (Ross, Orr, Sisic, Arseneault, Simmering, & Orr, 2009). It gives the site meaning and purpose, and therefore place in most people’s everyday lives. This is a whole new space in the world that, as you mentioned, they have complete control over unlike real life where almost everything feel like it’s out of one’s control (Zola, 2011). Having total and utter rule over your life is something everyone craves, and the freedom it gives more often than not alters thought patterns, morals, beliefs and much more. It is social platforms like Facebook that have opened the world to this change, through new freedoms of secure place and open spaces, leaving doubt as to whether this is a blessing or a curse.
ReplyDeleteBibliography
Ross, C., Orr, E. S., Sisic, M., Arseneault, J. M., Simmering, M. G., & Orr, R. R. (2009). Computers in Human Behaviour. Elsevier, 578–586.
Zola, I. K. (2011). MEDICINE AS AN INSTITUTION OF SOCIAL CONTROL. The Sociological Review, 487-504.
I agree entirely with your comment on how the Facebook user is not entirely in control of their territory on Facebook. While there is the free will to choose the connections filtering information that is coming through, many campaigns of the network's administration have been observed editing information "to improve our services and to make the content people see on Facebook as relevant and engaging as possible" (Booth, 2014). It would be interesting to see what exactly the social network can do as described in the terms and conditions that every user agrees to, yet very few truthfully pay attention to.
ReplyDeleteYou put an intriguing point forward about Facebook users personal territory in your conclusion. The users portraying themselves in a certain light and showing a specific number of people who have some sort of sentimental weight could have a variety of effects on the posting individual. It reminds me of a Japanese proverb about three masks which may be found useful somewhere, somehow (Mind2Whisper, 2015).
Good on ya, it was a great read!
Booth, R. (2014) the Guardian: Facebook reveals news feed experiments to control emotions. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/29/facebook-users-emotions-news-feeds
Mind2Whisper (2015) Seeker of the Soul: Different Shades. Retrieved from https://seekerofthesouls.wordpress.com/tag/japanese-proverb/