Cyberspace, in the form of the Internet, is a prison in that
it is captivity without boundaries (Barnes 1997)
The virtual network I have chosen to blog about is one of
the most well-known sites in the world, Facebook. I chose this network as it is one I am
already a part of, I’ve been on Facebook for five years and therefore I know a
bit about how it works. I find Facebook
to be both empowering and dis-empowering at the same time, on the rare occasion that
I go on Facebook I am overwhelmed by all the posts that I’m presented with, I am
immediately attacked with advertising for products that are related to groups
or pages that I “liked” when I first joined, for example, I liked a page about Elvis
Presley and so Facebook “suggests” Elvis Presley memorabilia sites to me every
time without fail, I do not like Elvis enough to buy memorabilia online, but if
you do click Here.
Once I scroll through the advertising I find posts from people that I haven’t spoken
to in 5 years and so I must go through and remove them as my friends. When all
of this is happening I feel dis-empowered and like Facebook has taken over my
virtual identity.
The empowering comes
when I update my status to something as simple as “I’m hungry” and I have at
least 10 people 
this.
Most of the time I only know about 4 of the people who liked that status but I still
feel as if I have some sort of power over people because for all of 5 seconds I
made them stop what they were doing, read my status and then press the button. “Authority, as I have said, is a
peculiarity distinctive act which works through recognition” (Allen, 2003) this
supports my theory that I have power simply through people recognizing my status
updates.
this.
Most of the time I only know about 4 of the people who liked that status but I still
feel as if I have some sort of power over people because for all of 5 seconds I
made them stop what they were doing, read my status and then press the button. “Authority, as I have said, is a
peculiarity distinctive act which works through recognition” (Allen, 2003) this
supports my theory that I have power simply through people recognizing my status
updates.
Alas, I am not the only person
with the power here, there are people called administrators and they are the
guys who allow you to do such things as block/remove people and update your
status and profile picture etc. The power of the administrators appears again when they tailor the advertising to what they
think you would be interested in and again when they very often allow me to
remove someone I haven’t spoken to in over 5 years’ time.
References-
Image.- Facebook
like. Retrieved from: commons. Wikimedia. Org.
Allen, J.
(2003). Lost geographies of power. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Barnes, G. (1997). Passage
of the cyber-flaneur. Retrieved from: https://learnjcu.jcu.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_312_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_42849_1%26url%3D
Hyperlink- http://www.elvisnow.com/memorabilia_personal.htm
I do have to agree with you what you have said about Facebook. I am also a Facebook user and those adds really annoy me. When I post a photo or update my status, I get a thrill out of how many people "like" or comment on it. As (Allen 2003) states Power is a relational effect of social interaction. And yes i agree with me, as the only time i feel power on Facebook is when someone has commented or "liked" something i have posted.
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