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| A screenshot from Instagram (personal communication, February 2, 2016). |
I will emulate Jenn's format, because she did it oh-so-cleverly. As I started studying my Facebook timeline, it was difficult to find statuses that weren't shared links. That’s likely because I often unfollow "friends" who post effusive, highly personal status updates.
Most of my timeline posts are content from institutions or personalities I follow ie. The New York Times,
George Takei, Jezebel. Clearly, they’re looking to promote their own content or causes, so I’ve decided not to examine their narratives.
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| A sample post on my Facebook timeline. |
I decided that I would only examine Facebook posts that were original content, native to Facebook. Like Jenn, out of concern for my friends’ privacy, I won't be sharing identifying information about my friends.
1) G. is a former work colleague of mine, who changed his profile picture to an image of himself and his wife looking pensive or skeptical. They're outside sitting on steps of a large public library. I think G. intended all of his friends to see this photo. Indeed, the profile photo is used as an avatar across the site and can come up in Google searches. From this, I’m guessing G. wants to show the importance of his relationship with his wife.
2) K. is a former high school classmate who I haven't spoken to in years. She writes that she thinks she's lost her wedding ring in a garbage bag filled with dirty diapers. It's accompanied by many anguished emojis.
The message is brief and powerful. I think the post is made to garner sympathy and words of encouragement. From this message, I'm imagining that she's a busy mom and wife with many responsibilities.
3. N. 's photo shows herself and young niece at a birthday party. The accompanying text says how N. loves and cherishes the niece, S. This "friend" often posts pictures of her family and friends. I'm a former colleague of N.'s and yet I can see this personal picture, so this photo is very public.
N. is quite pretty, and most of her FB posts are selfies with family and friends. This portrays that she has strong relationships with others and values her family and friends.
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| A screenshot of B.'s Facebook post. |
4. The next post is a lengthy, esoteric post promoting a yoga retreat in Southeast Asia. It was posted by the organizer of the retreat, a high school acquaintance named B.
B. posted a picture alongside the text, showing her posing under a gorgeous, bougainvillea tree. The picture is washed in warm light, and B. is smiling invitingly while wearing a tummy-baring yoga outfit. The photo captions suggests B. is having "a midday frolic through Eden" (personal communication, February 2, 2016).
I think her post is to evoke emotion in the reader. Because B. is promoting her event, she's intending the post to be widely read and shared. The appealing image is meant to attract the reader and get them intrigued by the yoga retreat. Most of our mutual network would be in rural Alberta, suffering through the winter. The post is enticing and says "come join me in the sun in Southeast Asia".
5. S. is a high school friend who posted regarding the broken pilot light on her furnace. Three commenters gave S. advice, after which she responded that the furnace was fixed.
From this post, I’m gleaning that S. is a homeowner with responsibilities. She's trying to be pro-active and solution-oriented. Also, she’s living in Calgary and she’s still suffering through the brutal Alberta winter.
S. is quite prolific with Facebook postings, so I think she intends them for a wide audience. I don’t know her very well anymore, but I can still glean lots of information about her job, recreation activities and marriage.
References
Jezebel. (2016, February 2). Sarah Palin, February 1, 2016: "You ready for peace through strength and that Reagan-ous posture that would tell any enemy, 'Uh uh, we’re America, so we win, you lose!'" [Facebook status]. Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com/Jezebel/posts/10153166141642434.
"As I started studying my Facebook timeline, it was difficult to find statuses that weren't shared links."
ReplyDeleteI think there are three catagories that are the building blocks of a FB macro-narrative: 1) our own words and pictures (what we directly produce); 2) what we choose to share with our sets/subsets of friends; and 3) what we 'like'. 1) and 2) demonstrate intent, they are the stuff we *want* people to see, we know it's public because we are consciously putting it out there. The aggregate activity spins our narrative of who we are and how we want to be seen. We are the authors of own narrative.
"Like" is the funny one. "Like", being separate from "Share", suggests a private interaction between a Facebook user and other content. It's an acknowedgement or placeholder. Our likes are attached to other people's post in our timelines, yet they show up in other people's timelines as our endorsements ('Mark liked this'). They are designed to be mostly invisible to ourselves (we can search what we've liked in our activity log, the activity itself does not appear on our own wall), perhaps so we forget their visibility to others. Our likes can betray our constructed narrative. What we post and share show who we want to be. What we like shows who we really are.
Wow- I really "liked" what you wrote about that. I've never really thought about how my likes are telling others a story about me, without being visible to me in a direct or obvious way. I looked up my likes after reading your post, and it was strange because I don't "like" a lot of things, and when I looked back I felt as if now that the moment had passed I feel okay about those things, but not so great (in the case of step-mother walking around like a storm trouper in a white coat after a snow storm) that I want everyone to know about it forever. Great point.
DeleteMore telling, perhaps, is the actual log file. Facebook knows your real story and is quite willing to share it to those willing to pay.
DeleteAlso- to Gwen, thanks for the compliment on my formatting :) I was thinking about your point on having someone who is a "prolific" FB poster, especially those you don't know very well in real life. It's sometimes strange and feels almost intrusive for me when I know so much about someone I've made no effort to contact in years- case in point my grade 1 best friend. I feel like I've been to her wedding in Mexico, watched her become a mom, and know all about her art career. In reality, I haven't actually spoken to her in at least 15 years. We have mutual friends of friends, but most of what I know about her life I learned on FB. When FB tells the story we want people to know about us, I wonder what she would be like in real life, compared to the person I've created in my mind from her FB posts.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine made a comment to me the other day about our Facebook profiles, something along the lines of "Our life looks so much more interesting than what it actually is." The majority of my posts are photos that are linked from Instagram, and I typically only Instagram when I'm hanging out with friends, doing something interesting or experiencing something new. So of course it looks like I'd be having a lot of fun all of the time, even though the photos only capture a very small moment in time out of millions of moments. Facebook tells a version of our story, it leaves out major facts about all of our lives, because we're selective in what we choose to share. Some people only use Facebook for rants, some people mostly post photos like me, others only share memes or share posts by other people. Another person I follow mostly uses his Facebook for fundraising, gaming and raising awareness on social topics. My Facebook feed is a mixed up timeline of different kinds of selective stories. I feel like even though I can follow updates on lives of friends, or people that I haven't talked to in years, everything I think I know about their lives from Facebook is just the surface facts!
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine made a comment to me the other day about our Facebook profiles, something along the lines of "Our life looks so much more interesting than what it actually is." The majority of my posts are photos that are linked from Instagram, and I typically only Instagram when I'm hanging out with friends, doing something interesting or experiencing something new. So of course it looks like I'd be having a lot of fun all of the time, even though the photos only capture a very small moment in time out of millions of moments. Facebook tells a version of our story, it leaves out major facts about all of our lives, because we're selective in what we choose to share. Some people only use Facebook for rants, some people mostly post photos like me, others only share memes or share posts by other people. Another person I follow mostly uses his Facebook for fundraising, gaming and raising awareness on social topics. My Facebook feed is a mixed up timeline of different kinds of selective stories. I feel like even though I can follow updates on lives of friends, or people that I haven't talked to in years, everything I think I know about their lives from Facebook is just the surface facts!
ReplyDelete