I was really happy about this assignment since I am an avid Facebook user. Although I do not fit into the “typical” user age range of 18-24 years old (I’m 29) you can find me on Facebook daily. Yes, I am one of those people that changes my “status” throughout the day so everyone can see what I am up to at all times, I add pictures all the time and use all the silly applications that are available! No, I do not think that anyone really cares about my daily activities, but I enjoy seeing what others are up to and like having that connection with people, so whom I may not see very often. I use Facebook to connect with friends, those I see daily and some who I have not seen in years. I love that I am able to post pictures of my family to share with everyone; using Facebook for this saves me time and is so much easier for me. I think that Facebook makes me feel like I have a closer connection to many friends who live far away and makes it so much more convenient to communicate with multiple people in one place.
I really enjoyed evaluating the way I portray myself through social networking. At first, I thought I wouldn’t learn much since I am constantly changing my status to reflect my daily life…but, I quickly noticed that I do not always reveal everything and often times only say things I think that will show me in the best light. Before I write things, I think about who is able to read what I write and take caution to only write what I want everyone to read. For instance, this week I was having a particularly bad and stressful day, if I had wanted to be completely accurate, I would have set my status to show: “Melissa is pulling out her hair and going crazy today. I wish this day would end.”, but instead I posted: “Melissa thinks this day is going very slow”. Why would I lie like this? The honest truth is that I don’t want to reveal to all of my “friends” that I have faults, that I get stressed out and annoyed and just want to sleep the rest of the day away. Instead, I want to portray myself in the best light possible, especially considering some of the people who can see that information are people I work for or that I see often, although I want people to know what I am up to, I don’t want to be 100% honest all the time.
After reading chapter 3 in Wood & Smith, I realize now that I am using self-presentation online “the process of setting forth an image we want others to perceive”, I think this is especially true since a large number of the people I have as “friends” on Facebook are people who I see and interact with often. In my case, I am not creating an online identity, but filtering what I say and do so that my online identity closely matches my real-life identity because this social network is not one where I am anonymous or where I am using a pseudonym, but it is just an extension of my real life. I think this is true for a lot of society that is on MySpace or Facebook since it seems like the majority of people are interacting with people they know and may even see on a day-to-day basis. I think social networking sites likes these do give us a small sense of anonymity, but not enough for us to try to break out of our “normal” mold or to have an identity much different than who we really are.
I agree about tailoring things so that you feel comfortable with everyone seeing them. As mean as this may sound, I sometimes accept friend requests from people that I went to high school with or knew in the past that I don't especially like. To me, accepting their friend request seems like a better alternative to not accepting it and letting them know that I didn't especially like them. With that in mind, I try to make my Facebook something that I would feel comfortable with even those people looking at it. However, sometimes I fail in surprising ways; sometimes what I think is something totally fine for everyone to see, is something that someone else perceives totally differently. For example, my mom is a teacher in our very small hometown, and so everyone knows I'm her daughter and most people I know have had her as a teacher at some point or another. Everyone really likes her, and while that's good for me, it can also have side effects. One year, there was a girl who you might call a "loner:" she didn't have many friends, and wasn't very good with people in social settings. Because she liked my mom so much, she wanted to be my friend too. Well, she recently got a Facebook and added me as a friend. While I don't really consider her a friend, I added her because I knew she didn't have many others. Anyway, about a year ago, my boyfriend and I adopted our first pet: a small cat we had gotten at the local humane society named Ivy. Upon seeing this, the girl corralled my mom at a local grocery stored and asked her if Eddie (my boyfriend) and I were getting married, and if we'd adopted the cat because we were trying to have children! I was completely stupified when I heard this, as was my mom. She had to explain to the girl that we had adopted a cat because, believe it or not, we just happen to like cats. I thought what I was putting up was ok for everyone to see, but apparently not.
ReplyDeleteSocial networking sites are funny like that where you become friends with people you either haven’t seen in a long time or with people you see on a regular basis. If I had to run down my friends list on facebook I would say that about 60% of my friends I talk to once or twice a month the rest I met at parties or are old co workers I don’t see anymore. The other day I got a request from someone I hadn’t talked to in nearly 10 years and it took me aback because they requested me because they saw my parents and were asking what I was up to.
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