“Oh my God, I saw that on facebook.” “Oh yeah, I saw those pics.” “He asked me to be his friend and I was like, ‘I don’t even know you!’ so I hit deny.” “I posted about that on your wall.”
I heard this conversation all Friday night, and I could think about was this class. It is somewhat weird that I thought of electronic communication on a Friday night, but I guess that’s what this class is doing to me. I was in Latrobe, PA at my friend’s house, sitting around a campfire. I was there with my friends from school, but my friend had her friends from home visiting as well. I know that my friends and I talk about facebook sometimes, but with these girls, facebook came out of their mouths in almost every sentence. They talked about vacations and all of the girls saw the pictures on facebook. They talked about posting on each other’s walls, what they posted on other people’s walls, what other people posted on other people’s walls. I felt like the facebook conversation was never going to end.
As we discussed in class, facebook, as well as CMC in general, has its pros and cons. For example with this group of friends, they are able to stay in contact with each other with facebook. However, if we look into this deeper, is looking at your friends pictures really contact? Yes, you know what they are up to and who they hang out with, but I think this is a shallow definition of contact.
I hope that you don’t think I am writing this blog and thinking that I think I am a great communicator and stay in close face to face contact with my friends, because I definitely don’t. Once I get together with my friends, we try not to focus our discussions on facebook and talk about issues that are too personal to talk about online. Maybe it is time that we all stop talking about facebook and let go of the facebook conversation.
I heard this conversation all Friday night, and I could think about was this class. It is somewhat weird that I thought of electronic communication on a Friday night, but I guess that’s what this class is doing to me. I was in Latrobe, PA at my friend’s house, sitting around a campfire. I was there with my friends from school, but my friend had her friends from home visiting as well. I know that my friends and I talk about facebook sometimes, but with these girls, facebook came out of their mouths in almost every sentence. They talked about vacations and all of the girls saw the pictures on facebook. They talked about posting on each other’s walls, what they posted on other people’s walls, what other people posted on other people’s walls. I felt like the facebook conversation was never going to end.
As we discussed in class, facebook, as well as CMC in general, has its pros and cons. For example with this group of friends, they are able to stay in contact with each other with facebook. However, if we look into this deeper, is looking at your friends pictures really contact? Yes, you know what they are up to and who they hang out with, but I think this is a shallow definition of contact.
I hope that you don’t think I am writing this blog and thinking that I think I am a great communicator and stay in close face to face contact with my friends, because I definitely don’t. Once I get together with my friends, we try not to focus our discussions on facebook and talk about issues that are too personal to talk about online. Maybe it is time that we all stop talking about facebook and let go of the facebook conversation.
4 comments:
I completely agree with this post. I have been noticing more and more how much I am actually on facebook, and how much I talk about being on facebook. I'm not saying that every other word out of my mouth is facebook, but the occasional 'did you see it on facebook' question comes up all too often. It's a way that I keep tabs on relationships from high school, and on upcoming birthdays. Its ridiculous how much I relay on a computer to talk to my friends, or to see photos of their life when I can't be there.
I like the fact of having facebook to help me keep in contact with my friends from home however we become less personal with each other because of it. I feel like facebook for many people is used as a "stocking" device to find out about other people, what they are doing, or the kind of life they are living. Facebook has become a big part of many peoples lives to stay in contact with one another but I dont think people should depend on the computer for information on a friends life it takes away from the personal aspects of friendship.
Facebook has become a very intricate part of numerous peoples lives. I agree i hear it too much, i know personally me and my friends back home nearly never talk about it. Half of them dont even keep it updates, and a few have only recently gotten one within the last year. I think that, not to be sexist, but girls overwhelmingly rely on facebook much more than guys. But i agree with your stance, and i think it's important to balance your CMC with your F2F chat.
I do agree that some people send almost all day on face book and I am so glad that I am definetly not one of them. I am never on facebook. I really don't see the point of it. I do like it becasue you can find out things about your friends that you may not have know before. But on the flip side, you can hurt somebody by what you post. I would know when I was in high school I had a very mean and hurtful myspace page made about me. Maybe that's why I am not on facebook that much.
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