Data Discussion Presentation: Facebook, Friends & Liking Stuff

So here's my presentation:

SOC250 Individual Presentation on Prezi

And here are my notes that I had, and are basically just me writing down everything I thought:

Introduction

Today I’m going to be looking at mediated interaction through a variety of structures. I’m going to be focusing on Facebook interactions and looking at the notion of the “Like” button, as well as the idea of being ‘friends’. The overrunning theme I’m kind of going with is how these interactions are quantified and what that means.

Just in terms of ethics, all of this was available publicly (even the ones taken from individual profiles) and I have blocked out people’s names just in case.

A virtual society

I’ll start off with just a basic look at Facebook and the underlying structures which support our interaction within it. It kind of exists as its own society within our society, but it brings together people of different cultures, and values, which can make for some pretty interesting data. It allows us to extend from our basic social circles to look at those of others (sometimes without them knowing).

Looking at Facebook ethnomethdologically we can see there are both explicit and implicit rules that govern the way we interact with one another, which is further supported by various internet code and images. On one level we have the infrastructure that carries our interactions, and on the other we have people actually interacting. I’m going to explore the actual interactions that are in play.

Okay, so like our society Facebook has it’s own sets of norms. Just some of the ones I can think of are:

• ·         Don’t overshare
• ·         Do not approach sensitive matters in this way
• ·         No nudity
• ·         Don’t put anything on there that you wouldn’t want everyone to see

Do any of these things and you could find yourself jobless, deleted and therefore isolated, and you could just become really really embarrassed. On top of this there are other rules which are enforced by Facebook administration and moderators, as well as law enforcement within various jurisdictions, for example, if you do something illegal, you’re going to go to jail. I’ll also look at some more norms/rules stuff after I do a basic run down on identity

Identity

So basically our Facebook existence is what we want it to be. Our profiles reflect who we think we are. So that self-portrait photo of you with some inspirational text really tells us how deep of a human you really are.

So this brings up exactly how accurate our representations of ourselves are. If your profile shows you in a completely different light to what oyu actually are, your real life friends might stop associating with you. You might impress some strangers, maybe even get a few internet friends, but if it’s not your ‘real’ self, you’re the only one that’s being kidded.

This can relate to the whole front vs. back idea, where in the front you’re showing everyone what they want or need to see, but in the back you’re hiding anything they don’t need or you don’t want them to see.

Another idea related to this is that of the likes and comment features of Facebook, I’ll talk about that later, but I’ll bring up this quote. This is essentially saying we are a product of our interactions.

Going on Cooleys reflective looking glass idea and elaborating further on this quote, is that our view of our self is how we view society sees us, and Facebook easily allows us to portray what we think we are or are trying to be, and can then look at numbers, such as likes, comments and friends, to see how many others actually ‘approve’ of us. Further, the value of these likes and comments can vary depending who they are from, whether you know them, and where you think they sit in relation to the ‘general person’.

Some rules

So as mentioned, there are both implicit and explicit rules both on Facebook and in use of Facebook. Break an explicit rule and you will probably be banned, but if you break a more serious one, such as those that are prohibited within your country, such as child pornography, and you’ll land yourself a lengthy prison sentence.

This is taken from the Facebook community standards:

“Facebook gives people around the world the power to publish their own stories, see the world through the eyes of many other people, and connect and share wherever they go. The conversation that happens on Facebook – and the opinions expressed here – mirror the diversity of the people using Facebook.

To balance the needs and interests of a global population, Facebook protects expression that meets the community standards outlined on this page.

Please review these standards. They will help you understand what type of expression is acceptable, and what type of content may be reported and removed.”

So this pretty much proves the whole identity thing and summarises that there may be issues as there is much diversity in the cultures of people using Facebook – we are going to have different views on what is right and wrong. For example, the use of the C word, and exactly what constitutes as nudity. Here is a summary of the areas that the community standards cover:

• Violence and Threats

Safety is Facebook's top priority. You may not credibly threaten to harm others, or organize acts of real-world violence. We remove content and may escalate to law enforcement when we perceive a genuine risk of physical harm, or a direct threat to public safety. We also prohibit promoting, planning or celebrating any of your actions if they have, or could, result in financial harm to others, including theft and vandalism.

• Self-harm

Facebook takes threats of self-harm very seriously. We remove any promotion or encouragement of self-mutilation, eating disorders or hard drug abuse. We also work with suicide prevention agencies around the world to provide assistance for people in distress.

• Bullying and Harassment

Facebook does not tolerate bullying or harassment. We allow users to speak freely on matters and people of public interest, but take action on all reports of abusive behavior directed at private individuals. Repeatedly targeting other users with unwanted friend requests or messages is a form of harassment.

• Hate speech

Facebook does not permit hate speech. While we encourage you to challenge ideas, institutions, events, and practices, it is a serious violation to attack a person based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or medical condition.

• Graphic Content

People use Facebook to share events through photos and videos. We understand that graphic imagery is a regular component of current events, but must balance the needs of a diverse community. Sharing any graphic content for sadistic pleasure is prohibited.

• Nudity and Pornography

Facebook has a strict policy against the sharing of pornographic content and imposes limitations on the display of nudity. At the same time, we aspire to respect people’s right to share content of personal importance, whether those are photos of a sculpture like Michelangelo's David or family photos of a child breastfeeding.

• Identity and Privacy

On Facebook people connect and share using their real identities. This culture creates accountability and builds trust and safety for everyone. Claiming to be another person, creating multiple accounts, or falsely representing an organization undermines community and violates Facebook’s terms. Finally, you may not publish other people's personal information.

• Intellectual property

Before sharing content on Facebook, please be sure you have the right to do so. We ask that you respect copyrights, trademarks, and other legal rights.

• Phishing and Spam

We take the safety of our members seriously and work to prevent attempts to compromise their privacy or security. We also ask that you respect our members by not contacting them for commercial purposes without their consent.

Some consequences

So we need to look at the social rules that exist (further) and where they come from. Do they come from our already existing social rules and norms? You could probably say they do, and that if you break one in the cyber world it could have real world ramifications, and vice versa. Each will be treated as a breach, but depending on the medium there may be lessened ramifications.

Just a few ideas, there might be the establishment of real world conflict, exclusion, and a breakdown in the trust that others have in you not to break the social norms, taking from the breaching experiments discussed the other week. We saw how that went, a lack of trust in you will lead to decreased desired interaction with you, and you may end up very lonely. These rules apply to we can all coexist without worry, and someone who does not adhere to these threatens the longevity of the group.

What is a like?

On nearly every interaction on Facebook there is a 'Like' button.

It varies from comments on peoples walls, to status updates, to 'pages' and content on these pages.

When you 'like' something, it is recorded and a tally is kept of how many people like this particular communication.

Depending on privacy settings, this can appear in peoples news feeds and show up on your profile

Every interaction you perform on Facebook is logged, you can generally access this through the 'Activity log' feature. Also, instant messages are kept and archived.

What’s going on here?

The 'like' is symbolic depending on the circumstance, it means different things to different people, as I will show you in some of the following examples. Further, each like is a reflection of your own identity. You are interacting with something/someone when you hit the like button by acknowledging that you have seen it and have given the reaction that the ‘like’ prompts’.

A like is also a quantification of the feelings/emotions various people put towards a type of communication. There is a tally and everyone who can see the initial communication can see how many other people have had the contextual ‘like’ response.

The number of ‘likes’ can mean different things to different people as well. In some circumstances it helps an individual assess their identity and where they perceive they sit in relation to their peers. It is a way for them to validate themselves as the more likes they get, the more meaningful the interaction was. I, again, will emphasise this point in the examples.

When you like something you are also contributing to your own representation of your online identity, in that others can see that you have liked the object. This also brings up the idea of dramaturgy, with the whole front stage vs. backstage thing. For example, after seeing something on facebook you may give no feedback to the person who created the content, it stays in the backstage. But once you like it or comment on it, it has moved to the front stage for everyone to see.

Your online identity may be extremely different to your other identities, but it is exactly that, another one of your identities. However, you do have a greater deal of control over who sees what and when, at least in your own profile.

So I’ll move to the examples now

‘Alian’

This particular interaction was made by a young teenage girl. And is typically something we have all seen, and the girl is attempting to get a large number of likes. Unless people are actually liking it because they want everyone to know that they can live without oxygen.

So we can question why would this be created in the first place? Well the person wants to receive an amount of likes so that she has a quantitative measure of how validated she is in the eyes of others. Some would call this attention seeking.

So why would anyone like this? Some probably find it funny and gave it a like as their response to the content, others may find it relatable, and some may feel that this represents their identity and choose to like it in that respect.

$

This one is similar to the last in that we can see it as people looking to obtain a large quantity of likes in order to validate their identity. People are obviously paying attention to what is being said, therefore the individual figures their online identity has some sort of validation amongst their peers.

SO this one calls on people to like it if they have ever had a dollar. People may like to prove that they indeed have had a dollar, and use this in the formation of their online identity. This person may also like to compare their number of likes to that of others which will indicate their place in relation to others, in that more people may be paying attention to this particular individual.

Call from God

In this one the meaning of the like is explicitly specified, in that it is asking for people to reaffirm their religious Christian beliefs. It is implying that if people do not ‘like’ this that they are unchristian and that they will be doubted in relation to their beliefs. The idea of religion is whole other story. But again, this ‘page’ which is actually a person is attempting to gain more attention than other pages. By saying something which may be controversial and cause people to doubt themselves they are more likely to get a response. In relation to identity, if someone liked this they would want their Facebook friends to know that they are Christian, or have a belief in God, contributing to their online represented identity.

Soldier

The attributed meaning to this one is also explicit. It wants people to like and share the image to show respect to soldiers. Again, this is trying to force people to do it so they don’t seem selfish or something like that, because soldiers are mean to be heroic. If you were to like and share this you would be contributing to your online identity as a sense of pride and respect for your nation (I think it’s a US soldier). It could indeed be some sort of propaganda but that’s not what I’m investigating.

Front vs. back.

The person posting this could be trying to spread this emotion of respect and validate the soldiers actions, or they could be attempting to get large quantities of likes and shares, to prove that people are interacting with them.

Next lot

These are some different sorts of likes, in that they are in conversations and interactions on various pages, as well as pages themselves

They still are similar to the others, but again there is a different context

Facebook has become a platform for promotion and interaction with business

People also use it as a public forum to discuss things that they normally wouldn't in front of a large audience

Is anyone actually listening or taking note though?

McDonalds

So this one is a guy trying to form some sort of petition to McDonalds so that they will bring back the original mcflurry, so the meaning of the like has changed in this context. This has become commonplace on many businesses facebook pages as various customers begin to petition them for various things. To like this would reaffirm your position on a particular matter, but something as trivial as this many people wouldn’t. Further, the individual posting this is looking for validation as some sort of hero within his identity, but has obviously failed. The resulting conversation is a result of people seeing this mismatch in identity and has called him out on it.

Facebook fight

Okay so this next one is a Facebook fight that appeared in my news feed a few days ago. As we can see this is a response to an individual breaking the established social norms that exist on Facebook.  It is made up of a series of likes and comments, with the comments varying from messages of support through to arguments.

Many of these people were in the younger age bracket, and probably don’t understand that this whole thread is public and could be seen by potential employers in the future. Further, what they are saying is a coping mechanism enacted in response to the initial threat by the person who posted the status update.

This is almost a virtual representation of schoolyard bullying and could be investigated within the framework of that. Further, the original poster is attempting to look for validation of his self by looking for likes and stimulating a response. Many of his other updates are like this. From his profile, (which is also public) I could see that he enjoys illicit substances and commonly attacks individuals.

Further, we could look at this from Goffmans dramaturgy view. The idea of the frontstage versus the backstage. Many of people would not want to be portrayed as aggressive or as a bully, but this is now brought to the front stage for all to see. Further, there still is a backstage as the person is not revealing everything behind the physical barriers of the screen and keyboard. They are only giving the people what they want them to see and they have a great deal of control over this.

Keyboard warriors

Okay so now I have a few pieces, and I’m going to begin with Woolworths response to the recent remarks that Alan Jones made.

They made an announcement on Facebook that they were withdrawing support for his program as he had made ‘offensive’ comments at a Young Liberals event.

As we can see there are a number of responses from various individuals, and there are a fair few people giving their opinion, but where does this stem from?

Are these people posting in a public place to prove that hey I’m tough, or look at this comment “the Woolworths logo is made up of 666” it’s hard to tell whether or not this is a joke, demonstrating issues we have in understanding mediated communication, because it lacks body language and situational context.

A key question I ask is would people actually say these things if it was in a real world context? Probably not.

Further, we can see that people have ‘liked’ comments on this and shown their support for the comments being made. In this context it is the number of people agreeing with what that person is saying. Some people are obviously saying some things in an attempt to gain likes and therefore some sort of validation to their peers.

People may even go as further to compare the number of likes they have received to others, which they are then using as some sort of measure to gauge themselves in relation to others.