Facebook: Creating a self narrative
By Tasman Murch
Facebook. It is a
story and narrative of your life. ‘It has been designed to become part of
users’ daily lives, and to scope their online narratives and selves’ (McNeill,
2012).
When creating an
account on Facebook, you are asked to fill in details about yourself such as
your birthday, gender, relationship statues, your religion, where you live and
so on. This information is used for self-identification, creating an
autobiography through narrative (McNeill, 2012). I never thought much of this,
however after this week’s readings and lecture I have gathered an understanding
that when creating an account on a social network you are not only creating an
online self but a narrative of your life.
In 2011,
Facebook changed its settings and created a timeline profile, allowing people
to see what you have done during your whole time with Facebook. With this,
timeline has created a life narrative that can be saved and looked at by
everyone. These narratives are created by your activities and posts on
Facebook, however are also shaped and constructed by your friends and family
that you have on this social network. Your friends are constructing your
identity and narrative by posting on your wall, tagging you in places, suggest
friends for you and tagging photos of you (Van Luyn, 2013). With this
‘individuals life narratives engages with others in a collaborative enterprise’
(McNeill, 2012).
Timeline has
changed the way of Facebook by creating a narrative of our lives. Lessin (2012)
states, “Now you and your friends will finally be able to tell all the
different parts of your story- from the small things you do each day to your
bigger moments”. Since the beginning of timeline, I have been able to
search through my friends profiles and experience their online narrative just
as they are, therefore sharing their experience and life story within
Facebook.
Facebook timeline
[Image]. (2013). Retrieved from https://www.google.com.au/search?facebooktimeline
Hi Tasman, great blog. I remember when Timeline was first introduced, a lot of Facebook users were unhappy because everyone on their friends list could now see everything they had ever done, who they dated and where they had been, just like you have said. I think people were unhappy because they no longer had a choice on the construction of their virtual narrative. McNeill (2012) points out that this new type of profile allows our friends to contribute to our narrative and co-produce our story through our interactions on the social network, so we don’t really have much control over what is ‘written’ about us. I can see what you are saying about sharing stories and working in a collaborative enterprise, but I think it is disempowering in the sense that now that people can see everything you have ever experienced or written on Facebook and the fact that we do not have much say in what goes up there on our ‘wall’. There is a great quote in McNeill’s essay that states, “…members are at the mercy of their social networks” (McNeill, 2012, p. 108).
ReplyDeleteHey Tasman, awesome blog. As mentioned in the comment above, I also remember that the timeline feature wasn't very popular when it was introduced. Personally I wasn't a big fan of it as I didn't want people to be able to have access to my previous activities. I agree with McNeil when you mentioned how your personal information is used for self identification. I remember McNeil (2012) discussing how he thought that on facebook, "the software itself and other people are producing your online self". This is interesting and relates to your point on how narratives are created by your friends and family and not just yourself. I look forward to reading your blog next week.
ReplyDeleteHey Tasman, this is an amazing blog. I love how many can relate to the timeline when it first came out. I remember my friends getting it before me so I loved it as I could stalk them from years ago and remember the great times we had had together. When my own personal Facebook changed to timeline I was not so amused anymore. However while going through my friends profiles I did realize one important aspect of the 'self narrative.' As mentioned in my own blog, the narrative can be played with a lot, stretching the truth. This occurs when people delete their own posts, photos and status' as the realization had hit them; they were ashamed of what had been posted. In conclusion, even though their life stories have been shared, many could have been deleted over time, leaving main points out of the narrative for their own sake.
ReplyDelete