Facebook Context 2006 Group B

Specific Circumstances:

TIME

• Recent past to present

PLACE

• Colleges (primarily), and high schools

VENUE

• Computer, Internet, Cyberspace

NORMS

• Social, ages 16-25

VALUES

• Sports, parties, music, movies, books, education (entertainment, in general)

BELIEFS

• Pro-technology, education is beneficial

EXPECTATIONS

• Fun versus serious interactions, casual and candid atmosphere, entertainment, information

VALUES OF THE GROUP:

• Sports, parties, music, movies, books, education, friendship, entertainment

Similar Circumstances and Messages:

• Facebook is similar to texting in that an SMS type of writing is often used. Likewise, it is similar to e-mail because informal language and in-your-face verbage is often used. Facebook posts are also representative of the types of exchanges found in notebooks that are passed back in forth in a real classroom...informal, but informational. It is also similar to message boards found on various other websites (i.e., you post information and receive a post in response). It is also somewhat similar to telephone conversations because, again, of the candor and informal language (and maybe due to the belief that the exchanges are strictly ephemeral and will not be printed).

• Facebook borrows the SMS type of writing used in texting on cell phones. It also borrows from the traditional resume format, and is, in a sense, a social resume.

Rhetor and Audience:

• Limited Audience--Only friends can respond to messages on the wall. Also, some participants block their profiles, and some do not, so access to some informaion is determined by the user.
• Cast as Roles--Entertainer to entertained, informant to informed, student to student, and new contacts from a user's mutual friend to another mutual friend, neither of whom knows each other--i.e., new interacter to new interactee--(and vice-versa for each respective role).
• States of Mind--Generally happy, excited, engaged in their interactions, candid and upfront in certain aspects/reserved in other (darker) aspects, informal and comfortable
• Unwritten Rules: Don't talk about the bad, but express the good. No serious attacks or threats. It's okay to say anything you want, express yourself freely--even if you're talking about urine and excrement...
• Stated and Unstated Values--Free expression of ideas and opinions. The freedom to be public (say and show what you want), the right to be private (don't show or say what you don't want). Friendship and connections. Persona and appearance in regards to how people percieve the information portrayed by individual users.

Additional Notes:

• Facebook profiles are created by individual users as a means to link to, and interact with, other users of facebook. Users are seemingly part of a small group of people with, if nothing else, their communication medium in common (all are users)--with telephones or e-mail, the elite group factor falls away. Facebook users also share the commonality of generally being college students, so they often are going through the same or similar circumstances and can easily relate to one another.
• The rhetor and his or her respective audience cohabitate the same space. They make posts not just on the assumption that they may receive responses, but on the belief that they will receive responses. It is a way of social networking that opens up a person's inner-self to a variety of people who may have common interests. In print, e-mail, etc., the persona expressed is more of a two-dimensional one, but in Facebook, users are "fleshed out," so to speak, into a more three-dimensional model. We can skip more of the small talk and initiation rituals and move right into the up-close-and-personal information of an individual.
• The creation of a Facebook profile is like creating a cyber-you. It is not, of course, a living and breathing person, but it represents you and portrays you as such, so what you add in is what people who read your profiles have to go on in deciding what type of a person you are (fun, outgoing, boastful or humble, etc.). The Facebook rhetor is trying to portray him or herself in one way, and the audience is receiving and forming an opinion from this information. The audience, in turn, responds, thereby becoming the rhetor, and the original rhetor uses the response to form his or her opinion, thereby becoming the audience. This being said, the states of mind of the rhetor and the audience are like a yo-yo...they experience both ends of the spectrum and feed off of each other's ideas and interactions in a "social continuum" of sorts.