By Stephanie Reid
In Aboriginal
groups native to North America, the ‘talking stick’ is an instrument which
gives power to a person to be the ‘speaker’ in public groups. This ‘talking
stick’ gives power to a person to spread his or her ideas to those that listen.
Throughout years
of updating and editing Facebook, they have added a feature called ‘Trending’, similar to that of Twitter’s. Or, as ‘trending’ could be known as – the
‘talking stick’. By giving a voice to people with power
already, this trending feature lets the people with less power know the 911 in
the social world. Celebrities use this feature to their advantage, with fans
‘hash tagging’ their name, charity or other association to gain popularity.
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| Facebook Statistics |
Facebook was designed to become a part of our
everyday life (McNiell, 2012), with most of us in Gen Y and Gen Z being avid social
media users – this being due to the internet and technology really taking off
in our lifetime (Social Networking Fact Sheet). People can use the ‘talking stick’ to hit us every day
with the news that they want us to
see.
While it may be
a great feature for those that are interested in the social politics of the
high-end life, it only gives a voice to these people. The narrative of minority
groups are still silenced (Van Luyn, 2015), without a voice to shed light on the
issues that they believe should be well known.
The ‘talking
stick’ is not shared fairly in our technology-reliant society. While it is a
great feature to have, only gives voice to the privileged and those with
immense amounts of social power.
References:
Constine, J. (2015). Facebook Launches Trending Topics On Web With Descriptions Of Why Each Is Popular. TechCrunch. Retrieved 3 September 2015, from http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/16/facebook-trending/
Unknown, A. (2013). Social Networking Fact Sheet. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Retrieved 3 September 2015, from http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/social-networking-fact-sheet/
You have made an interesting comparison between the talking stick and 'trending'. The concept of trending has become a mappable portfolio of "popular" global event/s. It acts like a narrative that assists in "organizing information within space/place" (Kuttainen, 2015). Much like the news reports and stories we hear and read. Stories and events are often cherry picked by people with greater power based on what they deem is of public interest. However, it could also be argued that people with little to no social capital can be given a voice; since social networking sites like Facebook, is such a vastly connected network, it allows people to share personal events on a global scale. Moreover, it is interesting though how the greater attention is given to celebrities. I agree with you in that the talking stick is not shared fairly, however given the enormity of the social network it is difficult to make yourself be seen and to be heard. \
ReplyDeleteReferences:
Kuttainen, V. (2015) BA1002: Our space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 5: Narrative and Place. [Powerpoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au