One thing that I use on a daily basis for long periods at a time would be my laptop, specifically the internet on my laptop. Laptop's are definitely essential for college students to get work done on and papers, but I, as well as many many others, do not use it just for school. Much like Brandon's problem with his iphone, laptops give us access to the internet with endless possibilities of things to do. For me, the first site I go on more often than not is facebook. Facebook is a way to connect to all your friends and get access into their lives, as well as showing others yours. Honestly, facebook can be rather boring if you're not carrying on conversations with a bunch of people and continue to talk on a daily basis. It can get kind of boring, but then you continue to browse through pictures and look at friend's profiles and change your profile picture and status and suddenly you've been on facebook for an hour. Social networks get the user so involved and wrapped up in who's doing what that even when there is nothing to actually do on the site, people can still find something to look at just because they don't want to get off.
I think that facebook is a great example of the spectacle. Facebook creates a space where you can show off your life to all your friends, or people you don't even know, and look into he lives of others. We are able to post statuses on what we're doing through =out our day, and post pictures and videos of us doing it. We can also tag friends to show who we were with and all the people you are close to. You can also post on others walls where your conversation can be seen by all with access to your page. You can add your relationships and family members to your page. You can also view "friendships" where it shows all the similarities and connections between you and that person. All of these factors contribute to the overall spectacle of the page. It makes your life something that others can comment on, contribute to, and be involved in. Like in Andrejevic's reality TV piece, he describes how people have overtime put heir lives out to the public view and how it has become such a big movement among the "normal" people. Facebook is a way for people to put their lives in public's view without being too intrusive. In big brother, the cast's lives were seen nonstop unedited and out of their control. But facebook allows the user to control, for the most part, what part of their lives they choose to show. With all the emerging social networks and different outlets to society it makes the idea of the spectacle more easily attained to all the "normal" members of society as if it is just a part of everyday life.
I really agree with the idea that Facebook is like a spectacle. Like the Youtube videos we watched in class, Facebook takes the everyday and makes it seem like an important, unsual event. I know I’ve read a lot of status updates about ordinary activities, but that activity somehow becomes more important when people start commenting/liking it. I also wonder what it says about current society if we’re all so accustomed to making the “spectacle” a common part of our lives.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about how you compared facebook to a spectacle. We definitely use social networking to check up on other people and to put ourselves in the public eye. I also liked how you noted that facebook sort of draws you in and provides actions to engage in so that it doesn't get too boring. I find myself spending a lot more time than necessary on facebook because of these actions.
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