Community, Membership and Fitting In...
Ah, looking back at some of these more recent final entries I realize there is no chronological order of coverage as perhaps initially intended, more so a flow, but alas, I am sure we can see how certain entries tie in and relate to other ones.
Anyways, I promised myself this wouldn't come up again, especially in regards to Community, but who am I kidding? Maybe out of malice and to piss myself and others off, Facebook once again resurfaces! They might as well call it Facebook University because that's all I get to hear each time I go to that school! By this time I want to smash many computers and I swear if it gets mentioned in my face once more hereafter, I shall snap=)
All this nonsense is indeed what Silverstone calls an Imagined community and I hope to make that clear. What constitutes a community? Well, first and foremost it must be based on locality and/or shared values, habits per say, acts that bring people together. A sense and identification of membership is required and often resonates back to the ceremonial. Take for instance certain African or Pagan tribes, they had modes of communication, dresses and dances constructed around the ceremonial which they could identify with one another (as belonging to the same community) and therefore could identify those of other outside communities as well. Hence, this “fitting in” is a foundation for any community and participation stems from such a requirement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/weekinreview/02wright.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/education/21friends.html
As Wesch stats in the first article, “In tribal cultures, your identity is completely wrapped up in the question of how people know you,” he says. “When you look at Facebook, you can see the same pattern at work: people projecting their identities by demonstrating their relationships to each other. You define yourself in terms of who your friends are.”
In tribal societies, people routinely give each other jewelry, weapons and ritual objects to cement their
social ties. On Facebook, people accomplish the same thing by trading symbolic sock monkeys, disco balls and hula girls.
Though the article argues that there is still an underlying ancient human mode of orality and
communication even through Facebook, what truly constitutes a friend? An online relationship can certainly lead to bonding and meeting in the flesh as shown in a positive way in the second article (Make New Friends Online and You Won't Start College Friendless). This can sometimes be the case but often than not, the distance is inevitable. What ever happened to normal face-to-face contact or meeting people naturally? It is as if people today are afraid of socializing first hand and need to establish a connection, a friendship through the computer prior to meeting and sitting down with someone! This is made clear in the article,
“When she first got there,” Miss Hollier said, “she didn’t have to worry, ‘Who am I going to sit with at lunch?’ because she already had familiar faces from Facebook.”
Imagine that. Having to sit alone at lunch! God forbid.
A shared symbolic space is where such community members reside and conjure and it is very much imagined. Like any faceless medium, issues of identity can easily be tampered with and masked.
Another somewhat literary example of this membership/community depiction can be seen in Hawthornes marvelous novel, The Scarlet Letter, one of which many are familiar with and thus I will not cite it due to the hundreds of publishers it has received. Hester Prynne is cast out and labeled as an outsider of her community by wearing a shameful red letter on her dress, marking her shame of giving birth to an illegitimate child. Such acts were highly frowned upon in older societies and once one committed faults against the community, their membership was cast aside and this was exactly the case in the Scarlet Letter.
And believe me, from my own personal experience, I have felt the repercussions of being an “outsider” not possessing membership to the Facebook community. Oh, say about two dozen people, including some attractive ladies have asked me throughout the school year, “Do you have a facebook?”, perhaps awaiting my membership confirmation only to be either let down, disappointed or disgusted. Ho ho. Hence, the fact that I do not have an account nor participate in these ceremonial habits as some can say, excludes me from the community, labels me as an outsider and many people upon realizing this have excluded me from face-to-face, regular social contact as well. Cry me a river. Frankly, I am much happier in the real world. As the first article concludes,
“The sheer popularity of social networking seems to suggest that for many, these environments strike a deep, perhaps even primal chord. “They fulfill our need to be recognized as human beings, and as members of a community,” Dr. Strate says. “We all want to be told: You exist.”
Maybe so, but still there is no denying, to reiterate Wade's outlook and opinion on the matter, one which I wholeheartedly agree upon, many people simply use this medium to make their feeble lives appear more meaningful than they are in actuality.
Anyways, I promised myself this wouldn't come up again, especially in regards to Community, but who am I kidding? Maybe out of malice and to piss myself and others off, Facebook once again resurfaces! They might as well call it Facebook University because that's all I get to hear each time I go to that school! By this time I want to smash many computers and I swear if it gets mentioned in my face once more hereafter, I shall snap=)
All this nonsense is indeed what Silverstone calls an Imagined community and I hope to make that clear. What constitutes a community? Well, first and foremost it must be based on locality and/or shared values, habits per say, acts that bring people together. A sense and identification of membership is required and often resonates back to the ceremonial. Take for instance certain African or Pagan tribes, they had modes of communication, dresses and dances constructed around the ceremonial which they could identify with one another (as belonging to the same community) and therefore could identify those of other outside communities as well. Hence, this “fitting in” is a foundation for any community and participation stems from such a requirement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/weekinreview/02wright.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/education/21friends.html
As Wesch stats in the first article, “In tribal cultures, your identity is completely wrapped up in the question of how people know you,” he says. “When you look at Facebook, you can see the same pattern at work: people projecting their identities by demonstrating their relationships to each other. You define yourself in terms of who your friends are.”
In tribal societies, people routinely give each other jewelry, weapons and ritual objects to cement their
social ties. On Facebook, people accomplish the same thing by trading symbolic sock monkeys, disco balls and hula girls.
Though the article argues that there is still an underlying ancient human mode of orality and
communication even through Facebook, what truly constitutes a friend? An online relationship can certainly lead to bonding and meeting in the flesh as shown in a positive way in the second article (Make New Friends Online and You Won't Start College Friendless). This can sometimes be the case but often than not, the distance is inevitable. What ever happened to normal face-to-face contact or meeting people naturally? It is as if people today are afraid of socializing first hand and need to establish a connection, a friendship through the computer prior to meeting and sitting down with someone! This is made clear in the article,
“When she first got there,” Miss Hollier said, “she didn’t have to worry, ‘Who am I going to sit with at lunch?’ because she already had familiar faces from Facebook.”
Imagine that. Having to sit alone at lunch! God forbid.
A shared symbolic space is where such community members reside and conjure and it is very much imagined. Like any faceless medium, issues of identity can easily be tampered with and masked.
Another somewhat literary example of this membership/community depiction can be seen in Hawthornes marvelous novel, The Scarlet Letter, one of which many are familiar with and thus I will not cite it due to the hundreds of publishers it has received. Hester Prynne is cast out and labeled as an outsider of her community by wearing a shameful red letter on her dress, marking her shame of giving birth to an illegitimate child. Such acts were highly frowned upon in older societies and once one committed faults against the community, their membership was cast aside and this was exactly the case in the Scarlet Letter.
And believe me, from my own personal experience, I have felt the repercussions of being an “outsider” not possessing membership to the Facebook community. Oh, say about two dozen people, including some attractive ladies have asked me throughout the school year, “Do you have a facebook?”, perhaps awaiting my membership confirmation only to be either let down, disappointed or disgusted. Ho ho. Hence, the fact that I do not have an account nor participate in these ceremonial habits as some can say, excludes me from the community, labels me as an outsider and many people upon realizing this have excluded me from face-to-face, regular social contact as well. Cry me a river. Frankly, I am much happier in the real world. As the first article concludes,
“The sheer popularity of social networking seems to suggest that for many, these environments strike a deep, perhaps even primal chord. “They fulfill our need to be recognized as human beings, and as members of a community,” Dr. Strate says. “We all want to be told: You exist.”
Maybe so, but still there is no denying, to reiterate Wade's outlook and opinion on the matter, one which I wholeheartedly agree upon, many people simply use this medium to make their feeble lives appear more meaningful than they are in actuality.