THE AGE OF FACEBOOK

Social media has been so widely accepted in our society and is seen as a necessity in our daily lives. Facebook is promoted as a way of staying connected and has the ability to create referent power (Kuttainen, 2016).  In our capitalist society it would be almost a crime to let such a great revenue raiser go begging, with businesses worldwide jumping on board. Facebook reported yearly sales of $5.4 billion with 1.65 billion people registered to the social networking site (King, 2016).

                           What are you sharing with the world? (“Facebook Memes,” 2016)

Facebook has enabled every user to have there own profile page. The site initiates communication between you and the network asking you to update your profile picture and details. It even asks the question, what’s on your mind? It gives the user a voice to say what they really think or what they think people want to hear.

Yi-Fu Tuan explains, “People tend to suppress that which they cannot express” and describes deeply that the experience of space is developed over time and becomes a place (Tuan, 1977). Facebook has empowered the user to engage in conversations and interactions that previously were not possible.

John Allen, the author of the ‘The Lost Geographies of Power’ says, ­­­­“ Power, as I understand it, is a relational effect of social interaction.” (Allen, 2003, pg 2) While Facebook is a great platform to be heard, how often is it used to empower, apposed to disempower? Power is always power in a place and the user can lose their sense of power after going public with a comment.  

Is Facebook actually connecting people, or is it enabling the keyboard warrior to engage an audience in a topic they may not be qualified to speak in to? Technology is a wonderful thing, when used well. This begs the question, are you actually respected within society to have your own opinion and voice it freely? Daniel Miller, a Professor of Material Culture at the University College London raises some interesting challenges that Facebook may have to overcome, The Conversation.

References:

Allen, J. (2003). Lost geographies of power. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

Facebook Memes. (2016). Retrieved August 10, 2016, from http://www.relatably.com/m/facebook-memes

King, H. (2016, April 27). Facebook’s reach gets even bigger: 1.65 billion monthly users. CNN. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/27/technology/facebook-earnings/

Kuttainen, V. (2016). BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, lecture 2: Network Theory. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au

Tuan, Y. (1977). Space and place: The perspective of experience (2nd ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.