Facebook V.S Reality
The digital media artifact I chose to work on was facebook.com. This is one of many new website I was introduced to that grasped my attention. I became hooked. I was made aware of the website by a classmate back in high school. Honestly, I didn’t think that Facebook would grasp my attention. Now, after seeing the responses I get from information I post, Facebook has changed my whole perspective of how I view social network websites. The facebook.com is a website which first started for college students then branched out to reach the public. This website offers many different resources: networking, love connections, creating new friends, reconnecting with old friends or love ones.
The website allows you to post pictures, as well as give your status. You can even Skype which is a form of visual communication through a digital camera. In order to use “facebook” you must become a member and create a profile. You can limit the information you want to display, as well set privacy settings. The website also allows you to play games, plan or invite friends to events. You have a listed count of you accepted friends and have the option to confirm or deny their friendship. Facebook is a network that allows you to connect and interact with others on a level beyond just sending an email, text or even writing a letter. The setup of the page is very simply to navigate through. Facebook is setup to help those that are in the beginning stages of using today’s technology.
Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook at the age of nineteen in his Harvard dorm room. When Zuckerberg created Facebook he was simply trying to allow, “people share whatever information they wanted, but also have control over who they shared information with’’. Now, because of this idea 23 year old, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest self-made billionaire of the social networking website Facebook. Zuckerberg has accomplished more than just his original plan with this technology. His main goal was just to keep people informed and connected. Facebook’s audience is yet changing from the average college student to now the stay at home mom. This Website targets internet users who blog or frequently visit chat sites.
In order for a user to have to facebook membership the recipient must own or have access to one of many handheld devices such as a computer, cell phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or pager that includes wireless internet access. Facebook does a great job of making sure their targeted audiences stay connected. Today’s society is yet growing and the media and technology is yet changing. Variability as stated in Lev. Manovich’s book “What is New Media?” is “a new media object is not something fixed once and for all, but something that can exist in different, potentially infinite versions” (pg36). Because, of this statement I believe that this website Facebook will have long Gevity and will go down in history as one of the best ways to stay connected to your world today. And still today the creator Mark Zuckerberg is finding other ways to expand the social network.
Facebook crosses the globe with numbers reaching 500 million and yet growing trying to target places like China and Africa which numbers are fairly low. Before Facebook, there was Yahoo.com and AOL.com these both had their own spin on social networking. Facebook came in the changed the social network completely. Some others that try to compare are myspace.com, twitter.com, and mocospace.com. These all are social network websites but Facebook is one of a kind. Facebook is an IPO (Initial public offering) which offers advertising for businesses.
Face book collects income through support and advertisement of businesses. In this sense face book has been setup to control the world as we know it. Advertisers have greater influence over social networking sites because it’s more direct. Even politics have changed with social media because this new media.”A new form of ‘’politics’’ is emerging, and in ways we haven’t yet noticed.”Marshall McLuhan “the medium is the massage” (pg22). Not only is the media changing and playing on the worlds emotions but they are doing it under our very noses. This technology known as the World Wide Web can be great to some advantages but also has its disadvantages.
We no longer have privacy anymore; everything that is placed on the World Wide Web is public to everyone. No longer can we share new or old information discretely because “”You are news, you are the social, the event is you, you are involved’’ Jean Baudrillard “Simulations” (pg15). This means you have no longer have rights to privacy on the internet. Neither, can we go back to the way things were before because now we have been consumed by the media. As, Marshall McLuhan stated; “The new interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global village” “the medium is the massage” (pg67.
Because of this we have learned to depend on the media and technology to keep us informed on news in our world today. So, if we have to choose to take part in the media and the web; Why not choose Facebook? Or in other words “If you can beat them join them. As, Jean Baudrillard said, “that in fact power, genuine power, no longer exists, and hence there is no risk of anybody seizing it or taking it over” “Simulations” (pg10).
Work Cited
Baudrillard, Jean. Simulations. New York City, New York: Semiotex (e), Inc.1983
Manovich, Lev. What Is New Media? Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press 2002
McLuhan, Marshall and Quentin Fiore. The medium is the Massage. Berkley, CA: Gingko Press Inc.1967.
http://blogalize.typepad.com/micro/facebook/
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