Blog Entry 1 (Mid Term)

For my first blog post, I would like to reflect a little bit on the change that Facebook created in society and how it relates to the theory of technological determinism and the medium theory.

When it was created, Facebook was intended on being a website for college students to permit them to get to know each other better and glance into each other's lives. Prior to Facebook, forum websites, blogs, and myspace pages were the main methods in which people would express themselves online and although they were popular, they lacked class in many situations (at least according to my standards). They also lacked unity, and in a way, no two myspace pages were the same and it was difficult to compare and contrast people based on their pages.

In my opinion, Facebook provided the unity and the class that permitted its own growth and popularity to prosper. Facebook uses a very particular template in it's user profile pages which allows for the simple and easy access of information on people's pages. By using a uniform system, comparisons and contrasts can also be made.

This basis brings me to my main point. It all began with an observation of myself and my best friend Jon. When I first began to have feelings for my girlfriend, I immediately checked out her facebook page to learn more about her. The same could be said for Jon. He, recently, within the last month, developed a crush for another girl and when I asked about her, one of the first things that he told me was that she didn't have a facebook (and then he made a disappointed face).



Jon and I at the C.W. Post Homecoming

The medium of Facebook has created new standards in our society. It's properties of being readily available to anyone at the click of a button has created the belief that one can easily view another person and learn a lot about them at their own convenience. In fact, it can even be argued that by simply viewing a Facebook profile, one can learn more about a person than if they talked to them for hours!

In my case and in my friend Jon's case, the technology/medium that is Facebook changed the way we acquire social information. This in itself is the perfect example of technological determinism and the medium theory. Before Facebook, we still had access to information about other people's lives, but we had to access it through verbal communication or communication over the phone or internet. In essence, Facebook eliminated the human element; it permitted the relay of information to commence with only one party. This is true because the owner of the Facebook profile page does not have to do anything in order to have people view his/her profile.

Thursday, November 5, 2009