Seriously, who doesn’t have a Facebook nowadays? In a society dominated by social media, some people may even be looked down upon for not having a profile. People know everything about everyone because of Facebook, and it’s like a person’s whole life story was placed right in front of you.
It interests me to think why do so many people use Facebook? Is it because they’re just following the norm of the mass or is there another underlying reason? My perspective of the whole idea of social networking websites is that it serves as a medium for people to feel, to be accepted in society.
The issue of acceptance and self-image is demonstrated in the film The Social Network and it also apply to the society. It really shows how shallow the society is for people to be mainly concerned on how they look and how others perceive of them. Nevertheless, everyone is society has to find a place to fit in, in order to be accepted and if Facebook is the place, then let it be.
Facebook, with more than 800 million active users as of July 2011, is a social network phenomenon that will fundamentally affect aspects of our daily life and change the identity of ourselves or even society as a whole. Having the ability to create profiles online, regardless if the information is true or not, gives people the power to update any information that they feel appropriate in order to be “cool”. The idea of acceptance can be drawn from the movie The Social Network since one of Zuckerburg’s underlying reasons for creating Facebook was to be accepted and recognized around campus. Acceptance can also be conveyed through the website Facebook because users seem to reconstruct themselves online to “fit in” and improve their self-image on the website when they cannot do so in real life. The action of selectively picking what statuses or comments to post and what pictures to upload supports the notion of creating identities that are deemed as socially acceptable in this society today.
“Did you like being a nobody? Did you like being a joke? Do you wanna go back to that?” Zuckerburg’s insecurities in his reputation and the desire to be accepted by everyone motivated him to make Facebook the new “it” thing. He rejects Eduardo’s proposal of cooperating with advertising agencies because Mark had no interest in money or power, but was searching for recognition and approval from his peers. As a result of Facebook, Mark gains the appreciation of students on campus and was dubbed the next Bill Gates. This yearning for acceptance is a universal sentiment; Facebook only continues to feed these needs. One of the major appeals is that Facebook fails to discriminate between who can make an account and who cannot. In the movie, there was a marked difference between the students in Harvard. For example, Mark Zuckerburg and the Winklevoss twins, Tyler and Cameron, are obviously strikingly dissimilar. Compared to the Winklevoss twins, socially, Zuckerburg appears irrelevant and insignificant. The twins are in the Porcellian Club and are a major part of the rowing group at Harvard, whereas Zuckerburg was a stuck up nerd that didn’t get on people’s good side. Tyler and Cameron had a solid reputation around campus which made them well-respected and Zuckerburg longed for the same social status.
Facebook helped Zuckerberg realize this dream. People on Facebook achieve social prowess by utilizing resources on social networking sites. If someone updates a picture of them in Australia or touring the cities in Rome, people might think, “Wow, so-and-so is lucky to go to all these places! I wish I could be like them.” Someone can also update his or her status saying how they are at a renowned singer’s concert and people would think that they are praise-worthy and thus giving the people who updates these things a sense of recognition. Facebook gives the “normal” people a chance to be acknowledged and be perceived as one of the “cool” people in society.
Social networking websites allow people that you have not met before to add you as friends and they will know the person that you have created on the profile, not necessarily the “you” in life outside of the internet. The ability to compose the material on their profiles enables users to alter their identity and become a person that they may not be able to be in the non-virtual world. It gives them a second chance in “redeeming” themselves if they did something that was socially unacceptable. Users can show the best side of themselves by selectively choosing what to update, “like”, or upload. I think the reason why people are more comfortable in “changing” themselves online rather than in person is because it does not seem as dishonest and is more subtle online rather than in person. They won’t be confronted by others that may question the validity of their Facebook content. In real life, people must face the consequences of their actions. The Internet gives them the power of choice: the choice to delete unwanted posts and bad pictures, the choice to filter criticism, and the choice of creating the perfect false identity.
When one person uploads a profile picture, his or her friends on Facebook will be inclined to judge them. According to a survey in which the participants were asked why they chose this particular profile picture as their default, people display a particular profile picture so others can perceive them in a specific way. For example, a girl had a picture of her smiling with her sister and this shows the viewers that she has strong family relations. Another participant said that he chooses the default pictures on the basis of how he looks in them. He chooses the attractive pictures because he cares about how others perceive him and he wants a positive reaction from the viewers (Estoisia, Pithia, Rodriguez, and Yu). What if he chooses a picture of himself vomiting, a very unattractive picture? Negative comments on the unattractive picture can affect self-image and lead to someone having a poor perception of their appearances. The unattractive picture also puts that person in a bad light because vomiting is associated with drinking and people who disapprove of drinking may not accept him. People who are involuntarily tagged in unappealing pictures have the tendency to untag themselves in order to improve acceptance. Carefully selected or written statuses or pictures that users upload demonstrate that they are conscious of self-image and of constructing a positive representation of themselves. The image that one construes over the internet and how others perceive of the image is important in deciding one’s acceptance in society.
The idea of acceptance can also be conveyed through the existence of groups and pages that people can join on these social networking websites. There has to one at least one group or page on Facebook that one can relate to. Since Facebook is a global website, there are so many different communities on the website that people can participate in. If one likes to cook, there is a cooking group that shares recipes and all the wall posts on that group are about food. If one likes videogames, there will most definitely be a group that discusses the various videogames and new videogames that will soon be released. In the non-virtual world, people do make fun of people because of the video games they play. However, on these pages, the users can discuss their favorite games without the worry of being judged.
Social networking websites have become a major part of society and are beneficial to its users in many ways. People can find another identity of themselves on these social networking websites and these websites can serve as a safe haven for those who seek a place to fit in. In a way, Facebook builds confidence to use in real life because if they have the confidence to change their identity online then through practice, they will slowly be comfortable in incorporating these characteristics in real life and be accepted. The virtual world gives the opportunity to be better received in society by directing and influencing how people can perceive them online.
The picture I placed down on the bottom of the blog really accurately depict how Facebook has the ability to shape someone into someone that they are not. Facebook helps one to change the image, in this case a potato couch and a bum, into a cool skater boy that every girl loves. The whole idea of acceptance is brought in because why would that guy want to create the skater boy image for himself if he was comfortable with his original image. The picture also demonstrates the importance of how people perceive of us and the issue of self-image since the guy disliked how he originally was.
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