How a Chosen Feature or Domain of Social Life Connects to Social Organisations - Research Paper Example

Introduction Unlike any generation before, college bound freshman have been raised in an environment predominated by the world-wide web and the social networking sites it has engendered. From the types of friends people make to the very language they speak, now is shaped and influenced by the increasing use of social networking sites such as Facebook. Current research demonstrates that Facebook is the most frequently used site on college campuses and the fifth most used site on the internet, with over 85% of all college students utilizing its social networking capabilities. In a recent study it was determined that the average number of times students use Facebook is near 6 hours per week, with most people logging on nearly 6.3 times per day (Arrington, 2005). With the influx of usage a number of pertinent questions have been raised concerning its all consuming popularity and influence within current generations. While traditional sociological notions would situate Facebook in regards to its subculture status, this study follows Cohen (1985, p. 12) in developing a broader concept of community as “boundary-expressing symbol.” It is within these expanding currents of social networking, and broadening structures in sociological analysis that this study is situated. It follows that this essay examines the culture and social organization of the Facebook community through: (a) inclusion and exclusion; (b) membership and group identity; (c) notions of identity; (d) classes, categories, and systems of distinction; and (e) cultural values. The research is conducted through a number of analytic strategies that include: (i) relevant theoretical and sociological approaches; (ii) my own experience with and observation of social networking sites; (iii) participants on the Facebook accounts of friends and family; and finally, (iv) direct sociolinguistic analysis. In expanding and elucidating research approaches a number of theorists, including Geertz (1993), Cohen (1985), Giddens (1991), Foucault (1979), and Boyd (2007) are incorporated for their relevancy to sociological analysis of the subject group. Parents and teachers across the nation are decrying the addictive nature that their children and student’s have demonstrated in devotion to Facebook. The site has even been banned in a large amount of workplaces and schools across the nation. There is a corresponding trend within sociology that points to the modernized world as embodying debased forms of experience. Referring to the increasingly comodified nature of social relations Marx (1856, p. 451) said that, “All our invention and progress seem to result in endowing material forces with intellectual life, and stultifying human life into a material force.” Tonnies (Cohen 1985, p. 22) also refers to a shift in society, a gesselschaft, that is indicative of “highly specific and possibly discontinuous relationships.” Durkheim (Cohen 1985) has similar categorizations and Giddens (1991) goes as far as claiming there is a ‘crisis of identity’ and detraditionalisation process in effect. While there is research that supports both sides of the argument, it seems that the negative effects of the site have been largely exaggerated. A large amount of this research on focuses on the positive and negative influences on the individual’s social capital. In discussing ‘social capital’ researchers (Valenzuela 2009, p. 2), “have defined the construct in terms of social networks, trust, civic engagement, life satisfaction.” Valenzuela defines the term as the resources available to people through their social interactions and uses statistical research to discuss the cultural value of Facebook use. She finds that the impression of high intensity Facebook users as isolated in ‘real life’ is inaccurate and the opposite is actually true. However, the question of whether Facebook defines social capital shows no positive correlation, Valenzuela notes that “it would be quite troubling if a sole technological platform such as Facebook determines young adults’ stock of social capital (p. 7).” Research from the Stanford University Human Interaction Laboratory has noted that habits and forms of social relations developed within the internet-based networking site are oftentimes carried over and exhibited in daily, face-to-face existence. In this regard, it seems that rather than alienating social relations Facebook has the reverse effect and actually brings community members together in traditionally intimate ways. In reviewing the posts from the previous week a consistent trend was noticed of participants posting problems they had encountered in their daily life. There are twenty-five postings on a newsfeed page. In reviewing the last twenty-five postings, there were four posts that can be categorized as ‘problems users encountered’. One woman writes about getting wine spilled on her at a restaurant and being asked to pay for it; a man ‘hates with a passion micro-micromanagement by administrators’; another man complains, ‘Punk kids throw a rock at my window. The third occurence in the span of a month. I hate my neighborhood!’; and finally, a woman complains about the unwanted advances of a guy in her office. What’s notable in all these posts is that they all include comments from friends supporting the poster. It seems that this is directly related to the inclusive aspect of Facebook, in that the users are able to gain direct social support at any time or place and carry on a dialogue to alleviate their stress. This anytime, anyplace level of support marks a unique and seemingly positive development in contemporary social relations. While there are clearly definable inclusive aspects to social networking, Facebook also functions in exclusionary ways. Foucault (1979) discusses the ways language can act in exclusionary ways as a matter of distinction. While brought together under the common ties of the English language, a number of hybrid or perhaps exclusionary forms of grammar can be exhibited within the Facebook community. It’s been noted that many similar grammatical shifts have occurred through gamer and internet messaging sites. The spread of terms such as ‘lol’ for laugh out loud, or ‘brb’ for be right back has become common usage among internet fluent populations and text messagers. Even more interesting is the use of terms such ‘pwned’ in gamer communities to signify defeating an opponent, as this term has come to be acknowledge by mainstream spoken culture such as MTV. Fig. 1 is a sample from the discourse community that demonstrates grammar as a mean of symbolic distinction: Fig. 1 The eccentric use of spelling and grammar here characterizes in ways that are open for interpretation. Cohen (1983) discusses how such social actions function as inclusionary and exclusionary forms of expression, as it’s through such marginalized forms of expression that the group member’s are able to develop systems of distinction. As members of the discourse community are exposed to the linguistic alterations and adapt their grammar to fit them, those excluded will increasingly become divided from the culture. Ultimately, the social networking capabilities that are bringer together a generation of computer users at rapid speed is also excluding members – often older, computer illiterate generations – from active participation in the new culture. The group membership aspect of Facebook language use has not been lost on participants, as recent times have observed a surge in the number of Facebook groups for almost every conceivable imagination. It seems that the function of the groups is less one of attempting to meet others who share similar interests, but rather to achieve social solidarity when faced with confusing circumstances. Indeed, Garfinkel (1972, p. 76) discusses, “socially sanctioned grounds of inference and action that people use in everyday affairs.” Bauman (1993, p. 163) extends this categorization of group identity to incorporate post-modern elements of inclusion/exclusion: The phagic strategy is ‘inclusivist’, the emetic strategy is ‘exclusivist’. The first ‘assimilates’ the strangers to the neighbours, the second merges them with the aliens. Together, they polarize the strangers and attempt to clear up the most vexing and disturbing middle-ground between the neighbourhood and alienness poles. Fig. 2 is an example from a Facebook group for people who pretend to text in awkward situations. While the title surely contains a strong amount of irony and humor, the exact ramifications of the group can be situated within the characterizations of group identity exclusivity and characterized, respectively, by Bauman and Garfinkel. Through participation in this group, the members are gaining a democratic consensus that others also text when placed in awkward situations and their instinct to do so doesn’t need to be construed as a neurotic impulse. In this way, social networking aids in confirming group identity. It’s also worth noting that, like Facebook, text messaging is an equally new form of communication and its acceptance within a Facebook group is a means of technology coming full-circle and actually embracing itself. Fig. 2 Advertisers have also become savvy to Facebook as a form of solidarity and have began incorporating advertisements and promotions into groups. There is now a group for Walt Disney World discounts and an application where participants can play Uno with the only requirement being to allow the company to post an advertisement through the user’s newsfeed. Jean-Francois Lyotard (1984, p. 15) discusses how the future narrative of the self will be determined by the electronic culture. He postulated that social connections, already “a language game” and a “game of inquiry” would increasingly become more dependent on the linguistic utterance in developing self-identity. It seems that in a way Facebook has come to embody this fractured post-modern identity, where personality and image are rapidly changed with the click of a mouse and keyboard. Identity construction has been a major concern of sociolinguistic investigations into social networking sites. Valenzuela (2009, p. 6) argues that Facebook functions to establish personal identity, “by enabling multiple channels for interpersonal feedback and peer acceptance” More directly, Danah Boyd (2007) uses the Burning Man and Suicide Girls subcultures to discuss the question of identity construction through the now largely defunct Friendster networking site. It seems that Boyd revels in the artificiality of social networking user identities – the title of her research essay is even None of this is Real – and points to the controversy of fake profile, ‘fakesters’ to develop her point. During a period of Friendster’s existence fake profile of celebrities and historical figures were taken down to solidify the actual and legitimacy of the site’s users. She argues that the nature of social networking is such that this fake profiles are just as real as the supposedly legitimate profiles in that they are both constituted through artificial means and don’t constitute ‘true identity.’ It seems that in these instances sociological notions of a dichotomous social and personal identity are actually substantiated in physical form – this being through profile construction. Boyd raises an interesting question about notions of identity in these spaces. An analysis of the sample newsfeed posts in this study speaks to the ability of social networking sites to more thoroughly embody identity and individual self-expression. Taking on a humanistic approach to identity construction the ability of the individual to post news and links enhances and ads to the social construction of the identity. The newsfeed offers a ready means for linguistic self expression. Even a person’s picture changing to a specific angle or even something completely new represents a form of linguistic utterance towards the individual impulse towards creative personality construction. To borrow a term from the Situationist movement, new pictures and elaborate posts have a detournement effect where previous users are shaken from their past perceptions to realize the identity change of the individual. Other elements of language, such as the frequent hyperlink of Youtube videos of music – currently there five such posts from users in the sample group – or discussions of movies serve, in some regard, to express the individual feelings and emotions of the poster. In these instances the access to electronic means of expression actually goes beyond what is possible in daily life. Lakoff (2001) discusses the way humans construct identity by structuring their experiences in narrative form. The newsfeed offers a perfect representation of this, as current users will often post messages discussing how they are going to sleep, or how they are now ending their day. Notably, these posts receive limited comments, and it seems their purpose is to offer a concluding narrative to their daily activities and cathartically release the individual to sleep. In reviewing the individual profiles and discussing usage with a handful of members of the Facebook network a number of consistent observations were noted that compared positively to research indicating Facebook’s use in identity construction. While the participants realize that some amount of artifice goes into profile construction, it seems generally assumed that a level of authenticity is assumed when interacting and networking with members of their Facebook discourse network. The participants greatly trusted that the information they had listed was safe and secure, perhaps in part due to Facebook’s privacy restrictions that allow the user to determine who has access to their profile. While participants trusted the authenticity of the profiles and the people in their approved networks, many spoke about the high frequency in which they checked on their friends or acquaintances profiles to attempt to gain a better understanding of their identity. While this research doesn’t include an extensive analysis of intrinsic elements of profile construction, from a Marxist perspective one can surmise the materiality inherent in listing specific interests over others. Another interesting feature of profile development relates to the exact ramifications it holds for contested notions of identity. When speaking with the participants, it became clear that they consistently viewed identity as fluid and profile construction as an ever-changing means of development. Whether this is a recent feature of electronic-culture or merely the manifestation of shifting identities within the new hybrid forms of technology is debatable. On a recent episode of CNN’s Nancy Grace, when discussing the demeanor of a reported murderer host Grace discusses -- as if it were primary evidence -- the Facebook and Twitter accounts of the perpetrator. While Nancy Grace isn’t an entirely reliable source, it’s worth noting that she worked as a Judge and has an extensive legal background. Ultimately, it’s indicative of the major cultural shifts society has undertaken in embracing the effectiveness social networking sites to determine personal, social, or cultural identities. When notions of identity are extended into the visual realm larger ramifications of Facebook identity construction can be observed. It’s clear that the use of pictures is used to create and maintain an image within the community. One member consistently posted pictures with an artistic theme, while others posted pictures that equally functioned to categorize themselves: a student involved in gymnastics consistently posted pictures of herself in gymnastics tournaments or in athletic situations such as running or swimming; another student regularly posted pictures of herself in care-free situations – at football games, with her friends at a carnival, and at a watermelon eating contest. Whereas in the past it had only been relegated to celebrities and politicians, it seems that this new form of social interaction has required a generation of computer-users to become their own publicists and public-relations experts. In his analysis of culture, Geertz (1993, p. 10) abandons traditional forms supported by Durkheim for a sociological view that seeks to find the deeper interpretive meaning of the cultural utterance. He writes: Culture, this acted document, is thus public.,,once human behaviour is seen as symbolic action – action which like phonation in speech, pigment in painting, line in writing, or sonance in music, signifies – the question of whether culture is patterned conduct or a frame of mind, or even the two somehow mixed together loses sense. The thing to ask is what [their - a gesture like a wink or an act] import is: what it is …that in their occurrence and through their agency, is getting said. An interpretive cultural analysis of Facebook as Geertz intended can be under-taken using the Actor-Agency approach fore-grounded by theorists such as Del Hymes and Kenneth Burke. As Burke (1969, p. 3) spoke of human interaction as "a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by nature respond to symbols." What follows is a micro-level analysis that implements Burke’s pentad to determine class and notions of identity in a Facebook conversation. The setting for the particular scenario is the Facebook newsfeed section. The situation occurred on the ‘wall’ of a participant who had posted a status update. The status update read, “ok if you had a choice: Swanson’s (expensive restaurant) or christmas party?” Time of day is also a contingent factor in determining setting, as certain times of day create intrinsically different settings as the people the message is exposed to differ. The participants of the situation are limited to those who have been approved ‘friends’ by the individual, creating a situation unique to social networking sites. Furthermore, the participants have a picture attached to their name that may be different from their physical representation. The image is reflective of their view of themselves, so that it ultimately is closer in social significance to clothing than to individual physicality. Occurring as a status update, the writer of the message understood the conventions of the setting and structured the message to elicit a series of responses. There also seems to be a performative aspect to status-updates, as the speaker is literally indicating their social status by demonstrating they have the opportunity to attend either a restaurant or a party, and the responses the message receives will often reflect the participants’ position in relation to this status. The responses to the message indicate a desire to keep in social contact with the individual posting the status update, but within this impulse deeper impulses are reflected. In this instance, the majority of participants responded with resounding support for attending the expensive restaurant. This seems to be more a means of identifying with the socio-economic status this entails, than actually valuing the restaurant over the abstract ‘party’. One marginal opinion was voiced that the party would be better than the restaurant and the participant went to great length to describe the reasons why. It seems the ends of this individual’s intentions was to compensate for his outsider status in relation to the restaurant and to prove his social worth by demonstrating that he is able to compete with the main group dynamic. In this situation, the act sequence is unique to social networking sites in that the responses are logged onto the wall of the original poster, so that all future participants in the conversation are privy to all that has been said before and will develop responses in relation to the entire conversation. Also unique is the method the participants respond: whereas live conversations involve organic means of communication with participants directly speaking when the thought occurs to them; on Facebook walls, the speakers must type out their responses, oftentimes editing them. The responses are also necessarily read in sequential order. The key in Facebook conversations generally remains playful. The genre of this exchange seems to be merely rapport building among the participants, with no direct generic elements limiting it to a specific function of socio-linguistic interaction. In this instance, as the topic of interest is which entertainment event is better to attend, the conversation is particularly geared towards fun and levity, as the participants attempt to demonstrate their points in interesting ways so that the individual poster and the audience group will agree with their assertions and confirm their social status. Conclusion In conclusion, the function of Facebook as a means of social capital among its participants is evident. While researcher points to exclusionary aspects of Facebook use in accessibility and language use, its inclusionary functions of social support and group membership together must be noted. The function of Facebook groups to confirm and determine social identity -- as seen in groups for people who text in awkward situations -- is also evident. Profile construction is shown to be possibly indicative of a fractured post-modern identity, where the self is understood as much more fluid and undetermined than previous modern conceptions; It also an example of materiality in the Marxist sense. Finally, through sociolinguistic analysis the language use on walls is shown to be indicative of class and group membership distinctions, as well as shifting cultural values. The exact social organization of the Facebook community clearly exceeds one critical approach and the increasing popularity of the platform is a testament to its ability to satisfy a number of human interests. It seems that the increasing popularity of the platform needs not to be feared but understood, as its prevalence in the twenty-first century electronic culture is inevitable. The research into the form and use of language on Facebook point out the intricacies of the platform as it aids in establishing social status, and contributes to notions of identity. The global ramifications of the findings can’t be ignored. Facebook, Twitter, and sites like them are not only bringing the world together at rates rapidly faster than any time in history, but through democratic methods of consensus are shaping and being shaped by its very participants. 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