By Marina Douglas
Step one: devour the succulent leaves of genre. Step two: hunker down in a chrysalis of the shiniest memes. Step three: create a Facebook account and emerge victorious in a shower of glittery confetti. Seriously – the advent of the Internet and, more recently, the increasing use of social media platforms such as Facebook have completely changed the ways in which people are defined; all of this happens through genre. As we know, genres are categories into which all discourses can be sorted, and these discourses are what allow identities to be constructed (van Luyn, 2015). Facebook brings with it an infinite number of possibilities for shaping one’s identity, adding bits and bobs, and shaping the identities of those you interact with.
Step one: devour the succulent leaves of genre. Step two: hunker down in a chrysalis of the shiniest memes. Step three: create a Facebook account and emerge victorious in a shower of glittery confetti. Seriously – the advent of the Internet and, more recently, the increasing use of social media platforms such as Facebook have completely changed the ways in which people are defined; all of this happens through genre. As we know, genres are categories into which all discourses can be sorted, and these discourses are what allow identities to be constructed (van Luyn, 2015). Facebook brings with it an infinite number of possibilities for shaping one’s identity, adding bits and bobs, and shaping the identities of those you interact with.
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| Image from: knowyourmeme.com 64e.png |
After years of seeing friends, acquaintances and complete
strangers make posts on Facebook, I've found that people frequently share
through genres of comedy and popular opinion, which ultimately shapes their
identity as a certain type of person – friendly, effortlessly humorous, cool –
and which they can almost entirely control just by careful selection. Dan
Engber, in his piece, “Who, What, Where, When,Weird,” discusses a new genre called “weird news,” and affirms the idea
that the Internet gives its users a new perspective on what exactly is funny or cool. This poses the
question: are identities on Facebook “real”, or is the extensive use of genre
there a way of bypassing the awkwardness and unfair assumptions that can come
with face-to-face interaction? Constructing an Internet identity can be a way
of achieving or giving the illusion of power, something that once again is
bypassed during offline interaction.
So ultimately, genre equals power. As McNeill (2003, pp24-47) suggests
in her discussion of web diaries as a new genre, a “careful attention to
readers’ needs and generic expectations” shows that users of Facebook are very
much aware of how to gain power through genre, and it is a priority of the
majority (if you'll excuse my bad phrasemaking) that posts are pleasing, more
so than completely accurate or honest. Is this changing how modern humans think
altogether? How much power do we stand to gain or lose by becoming more reliant
on social media?
References
Van Luyn, A. (2015). BA1002:
Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place, Lecture 3: Space and
Identity: Genre and Transformation. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au
Engber, D. (2015). Who,
What, Where, When, Weird. Retrieved 11 August, 2015 from http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/who-what-where-when-weird
McNeill, L. (2003). Teaching an old
genre new tricks: The diary on the Internet. Biography, 26(1), 24-47
Image
Credits
RedSuspenders. (2013). Colombian Man.
Retrieved from knowyourmeme.com 64e.png
I do agree with your statement of how users of Facebook are beginning to realise that there is a lot to gain out of becoming famous on social media - Youtubers can make millions from doing something that they love. The Kardashians keep their power in the celebrity world by wreaking havoc around Twitter and Instagram (like a news article about Kourtney taking her kids out for a scooter ride - really? http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3199680/Kourtney-Kardashian-takes-kids-Mason-Penelope-scooter-ride-visit-ex-Scott-Disick.html). Normal people can gain so much by doing so little on social media sites.
ReplyDeleteThese sites have so many active users (Facebook has 1.49 million active users! http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/) that these people know how to manipulate it to gain those followers, likes and retweets to get noticed by the famous people - the Instafamous, or celebrities. It's interesting how many people are actually getting famous through these means instead of television, writing or science. Obviously it's changing the way our generation perceives the world.
I agree with what you said when you mentioned that the most frequent genres on Facebook revolve around humour and public opinion. In the week three lecture we discussed the different genres of text and I believe that most of the posts on Facebook fall under rhetorical functions. Meaning people know the reaction they are going to receive before they share a post. Most people share or tag friends on pictures or videos, and do not expect a reply, they just want to share the content with others. I think the goal is to make others feel the same way they did when they saw the picture or video, from laughing at a cat video, to raising awareness for animal rights.
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Van Luyn, A. (2015). BA1002: Space: Networks, Narratives, and the Making of Place, Lecture 3: Space and Identity: Genre and Transformation. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au