By Damon Faulks
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| Image from: the-digital-reader.com facebook-thumb-down.png |
Facebook may be a virtual space but it is not, for everyone,
a place. Maybe this is just because I have never taken it upon myself to
experience it in the way that so many of my “friends” seem to. Tuan describes
experience and knowledge in “Space and Place” (1977) saying that while a man
may know his city and a cab driver may learn to navigate it, the geographer
knows the city conceptually. I have always felt more like the geographer who
knows where everything is and may know what it does but has no intimate
connection to it. As such my sense of identity on Facebook is not one I would
really take into account when thinking about my actual identity. While I was
younger I may have tried to stand out and used Facebook to attempt to share my “self-narrative”
– what I believed to be a true view of myself (van Luyn, 2015). Eventually,
however, I realised that in a public online space this is too difficult as your
identity is created by others as well. These days I only use it for messaging
and to lazily observe others’ attempts at self-narrative. It has lost its power
over me (or so I think).
That being said the power of Facebook is undeniable; some businesses put millions into social media campaigns and many have dedicated Facebook teams that manage their affairs on Facebook. These companies are aware of the way people trust their friends and families to steer them towards good products, as discussed by Linda Fisk in her article, “Leveraging the Power of Facebook”. Most individual people on Facebook do just use it as a way of informing people about what they are doing (similar to businesses) and to share things they think their network of friends should know about, whether this is important information like legislation being changed to accommodate big business or a video of a small dog farting. It will of course depend on the kind of person sharing the post. What do people mean by all this? How do they decide what is most important, and thus, what will be shared for everyone to see?
That being said the power of Facebook is undeniable; some businesses put millions into social media campaigns and many have dedicated Facebook teams that manage their affairs on Facebook. These companies are aware of the way people trust their friends and families to steer them towards good products, as discussed by Linda Fisk in her article, “Leveraging the Power of Facebook”. Most individual people on Facebook do just use it as a way of informing people about what they are doing (similar to businesses) and to share things they think their network of friends should know about, whether this is important information like legislation being changed to accommodate big business or a video of a small dog farting. It will of course depend on the kind of person sharing the post. What do people mean by all this? How do they decide what is most important, and thus, what will be shared for everyone to see?
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
Tuan, Y. (1977). Space and place (p. 3). Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.
Fisk, L. (2011). Leveraging
the Power of Facebook. Retrieved 14 August 2015 from http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/leveraging-power-facebook
Image Credits
Hoffelder, N. (2014). Facebook Thumb Down. Retrieved from the-digital-reader.com facebook-thumb-down.png
While I agree with your statements about Facebook being used for leading businesses, it is worth mentioning the countless small businesses that Facebook assists. More and more commonly now, one may walk into a café or attend a gig and find business cards and flyers with a proud invitation to “Like us on Facebook!” Most people would already feel at home in whatever place of leisure they’ve decided to visit, but this extra touch gives an impression of tech savviness. On top of this, isn’t it common knowledge that Facebook is a platform used by nearly everyone? Small businesses use this knowledge very cleverly by inviting their customers back via Facebook, therefore increasing their positive perceptions of the business and evoking “a sense of place” (Tuan, 1977). It is easy to put negative connotations on using Facebook so enthusiastically, but for up-and-coming enterprises around the world it may be the key to success.
ReplyDeleteReferences
Tuan, Y. (1977). Space and place (p.3). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.