Observations in Context

comments, Sat 14 Oct 9:30 am

Rhetorical Decisions (the author)

• between the ages of 18-20something

(for college networks)

• pop music dominates list in musical tastes field
• favorite music field is commonly the largest entry
• television and movie favorites field is more fleshed out than the books section
• profile photos are smiling
• photos are predominantly the individual

thought there are many featuring couples or a couple of friends, some groups, usually smiling

• no one uses a picture of themsleves

with their mother (or naked baby photos);)

• opportunity to express political views and

candidates of choice

• opportunity to express sexual orientation

and dating status as well as nameing the significat other (boy/girlfriend, husband, wife, fiance')

• people on facebook belong to a lot of "Groups"
• Groups are specific to networks
• many groups have satirical comments for names, jokes, fan clubs,

they are not very serious or established groups and don't seem to have any prime objective other than to associate the individual and his/her profile with the subject in the group's name.

Between Rhetor and Audience (the exchange)

• "checking in" messages appear frequently on walls

(ie how are you?, have you been?, what's up? etc).

• school related wall postings (ie. inquiries about tests, what happened in class,

or asking general progress questions)

• wall comments acknowledge big life events

(ie. wedding, trips, moves, promotions)

• usually positive life events are emphasized
• subject matter of wall comments is usually positive/lighthearted
• some candid discussion of political issues and opinions, but no

serious and involved writing

• excessive use of exclamation points on wall comments
• excessive use of caps on wall comments
• lots of questions (not necessarily answered) rhetorical?)
• audience remains anonymous until they post to wall,tag photos

send a private message, or comment on profile photo

• audience is not anonynous to rhetor; news feed shows what "friends"

have been doing (on facebbok)even if not related to the individual rhetor's page. News feed is the first thing the rhetor sees after login.

• references to alcohol or partying are common on wall comments.
• alcohol/partying are described positively

and seem to be the norm/accepted (never criticized).

Specific Circumstances

Time, place, venue

• time is present out to nearly 5 months ago, or far back as the wall goes

• place: high schools, colleges, alumni groups, businesses (i think)

unless place means where this site is viewed, that would be: home pc, laptop, a library, cell phone, blackberry...

• venue: Internet

• user expectations: bio information is kept on a more positive side: no one lists the things that they don't like or hate
• sarcasm is expected in most wall messages
• text in wall messages and in bio takes elements from SMS
• wall posters genuinely expect someone to read their posts, obviously. many ask questions within their posts, and, i assume expect a reply. if you don't get a reply from a 'friend' is that as big as a faux pas as ignoring someone in real life? do 'real' friendships suffer from these e-offences?

Similar circumstances and messages

• many of the messages are of the "sorry i missed you" type, and it seems the facebook message board is an evolution of the dry erase board that hangs outside a dorm room
• facebook is the combined elemental forces of match.com, icq.com, flickr, amazon wish list, and the age-old study group

Additional notes

• many of the rhetors "favorites" lists are collections of widely admired pop culture figures; there doesn't seem to be a 'dark horse' element to any bio
• all wall messages seem to start mid-story, the writers don't feel a need to reiterate what has been said before, or need to give background for others that might.

the wall messages as a whole seem to be one large conversation that can stretch for months at a time, but actually never stops - this is kind of related to that: i can sit in an empty room and say something out loud, but would be dead before a reply came. with the wall, time or location doesn't matter, you can still say somthing in an empty room, but here you type it, and it'll last forever. in the first instance, the user outlives the message, but on facebook, the message is eternal

• users can pretty much make up their idealized self with the bio section and you have to take their word for it.

• bios do not list anything in degrees or ranking at all, you either like something or it doesn't exist in that users world