Facebook Context Group E~~Tammy

Specific circumstances

• Time, place, venue
  • Facebook is only about 2 years old, so users are "in the now." Facebook can be accessed where ever a computer and internet access is available, and any time.

• Broader norms, values, beliefs, expectations of the rhetors and audience members
  • A majority of its users grew up on the internet; this audience expects to be able to communicate online. Facebook seems fairly easy to use; younger users expect to be able to keep in touch with high school friends.

Similar circumstances and messages

• Resemble messages from other forums? Borrow from and build on other forums, genres, and other kinds of communication?
  • Barton essay (Crusin' the Strip: A Flippant Look at Facebook and My-Space) fittingly compares Facebook to the high school yearbook.
  • For searchability, which is a strong feature, it requires users to pick some choices ( ) from pre-selected forms. This is similar to personality quizzes, multiple choice tests, etc.

Rhetor and audience

• Limited audience—until recently only available for people in educational institutions, but now available networks include work organizations and by region. Anyone w/ a facebook account can view your profile but to post on your Wall, you must accept them as a friend.
• Entertainer/Entertained—People write to inform? But also to entertain their friends, potential relationships. Seems less about communicating information (thought this happens) but more about entertaining.
• Because of interactiveness of facebook, “relationship can flip”
• States of Mind—the writer feels protected by the resource in that they reveal much about themselves, particularly the younger users.
• Unwritten rules—Doesn’t seem to be much arguing or negative comments made about you on your own page; some messages on the wall are responded to, others not—what does this say, socially? You respond to the ones you like the best? Your closest friends?
• Stated /unstated values--To be seen. Do they visit their friend’s pages to see their own postings? Do they check frequently to see if they get a response to their postings?

Additional notes

• Are you more likely to accept people as friends, even if you don’t really like them, but say, they are in your class? Social norms.

• Differs from email, print, f2f? Your profile page is your public persona. You self-select what information you want to be available; select the privacy levels, or what you don’t want to be made available. Audiences differ in that there is an expectation of what information they will be able to find on you in your profile.