A narrative can tell a story, as well as certain events in someone's life. BA1002 learned about narratives and networks during week 4 of University and how narratives can be strongly shaped by social networks. My first blog discussed the idea of power in Facebook and how it can be abused by certain groups of people. Dr Van Lyn explained to us in the lecture how power is relevant when discussing narratives in social networks, especially when looking at how people their Facebook timeline's in order to appear differently to how they actually are.
Facebook introduced their Timeline idea in late 2011. The idea was to allow people to access all information that you have posted during the time that you have had a Facebook. This essentially means that Facebook can turn into a huge self narrative of the users life. McNeil discusses how Facebook is designed to become a part of people's everyday lives and how it shapes their offline narratives and selves. Friends and family can post on your Facebook, tagging you in pictures or checking you into places that you have been which is helping to create a certain identity. (Van Lyn, 2013). Although Facebook is the chosen social network of this blog it is also important to view other examples of narratives.
The book Songlines by Bruce Chatwin tells of the Indigenous Australians and how they would use Songlines to navigate through the Australian bushland. These methods were passed down through narratives to other generations creating an identity and culture within the Indigenous Australians. This is a clear example of how narratives can be used not just through social networks but other networks and ways of life as well.
Reference Page
Chatwin, B. (1987). The Songlines. Retrieved from http://masterfile.jcu.edu.au.elibrary.jcu.edu.au
Luyn, A.V. (2013). Week 4 lecture. Retrieved from www.learnjcu.com
McNeill, l. (2012). There is no "I" in network: Social Networking sites and posthuman auto/biography. Biographical Research Centre, 65-82
Image Reference
Facebook narrative [image]. (2013). Retrieved from: https://www.google.com.au/search?
You do make some good points here but it seems that you're only skimming the surface of facebook as a narrative. particularly the fact then when someones self narrative is accumulated with their timeline, this doesn't necessary reflect the whole story. users such as myself make certain item unavailable on the timeline which allows some sense of privacy. as far as self narratives the ability for facebook to reflect ones life is fairly extensive due to the nature of the virtual network.
ReplyDelete