by Pamela Monaghan
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Facebook has little semblance of geography. No matter where you are in the world, connections to Facebook are guaranteed. Facebook genre seems to offer boundless possibilities in style and form. I can link with all those who matter to me, communicate with friends, share my thoughts, pictures, join groups or promote a business or cause. I can move around aimlessly in networked spaces with freedom, and make it my place of secure communication, or so I envisaged. I feel like a flaneur (Prouty, 2009). I can pick daisies or walk my 'turtle on a leash,' blissfully unaware there may be dark shadows ready to reign on my parade.
Cutting edge theories argue that power is integral to notions of space. Power is everywhere and comes from everywhere (Kuttainen, 2015). Facebook appears to have many levels of consciousness or etheric planes. What I mean by that, is when you scratch the surface, Allen's modalities of power appear. These powers come in many pecularities: domination, authority, seduction, manipulation and coercion (Allen, 2003). Is Facebook a panopticon of power because it adheres to this 'diagram of power'? Unknown others may see into my private place, but I do not know who or when someone may be watching me. The power of the group (peer pressure) may use these modalities, without knowing it, to ensure 'herd like' acceptable behaviour. Also, internet trolls (Golbeck, J, 2014) may create havoc and mayhem by interfering at random or they may be an 'organised' entity to upset Facebookers through cyberbullying (Buckels et al, 2014).
Allen continues, "power, as I understand it, is a relational effect of social interaction." It is through a "succession of mediated relations or through the establishment of a simultaneous presence.' Allen cites Faucault, (p. 7) "the arrangement of spaces which make up institutional complexes, like prisons or clinics, are seen as integral to the ways in which particular forms of conduct are secured." He also goes on to say that what matters, is that we understand how this power exercises us. Only then may we have a chance of being empowered. As I see it, Facebook seems to combine cultural and psychological factors, to affect one crazy social experiment. 'Normalised', 'groupthink' behaviour results. Imaginative and creative geographies may be 'lost' forever. We are all 'on a leash' in a sense.
References
Allen, J. (2003). Lost geographies of power. . Malden, MA.: Blackwell.
Allen, J. (2011). Topological twists: Power's shifting geographies. Sage: Dialogues in Human Geography. (p. 283-298)
Buckels, E. E., Trapnell, P D., & Paulhus, D. L. (2014). Trolls just want to have fun. Personality and Individual Differences, (p. 67, 97-102). doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.016
Golbeck, J. (2014). Internet trolls are narcissists, psychopaths and sadists. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-online-secrets/201409/internet-trolls-are-narcissists-psychopaths-and-sadists
Kuttainen, V. (2015) BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 2: Power. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au
Kuttainen, V. (2015) BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 2: Power. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au
Prouty, R. (2009). Turtle on a leash. Retrieved from http://onewaystreet.typepad.com/one_way_street/2009/10/a-turtle-on-a-leash.html
I agree with you. Basically, every individual past the teenage is either familiar or a user of Facebook. Being a virtual network site, Facebook creates a global link by connecting its users both individuals and business across the world. Factually, as the blogger puts it, Facebook is both powerful as it provides users with a platform to exercise freedom and share their opinions. Moreover, it reduces information asymmetry; users share ideas while the uninformed get to acquire information from the site. But then again, Facebook has its cons just as it for any other powerful item (Knox, 2014). The excess freedom creates a venue for fraudulent users to execute havoc. Devious users influence others by spreading negative information. Additionally, the freedom is alarming, one is never sure on who can access what they have shared. Hackers and cyber bullies have also been seen to use Facebook as an avenue to contact internet fraud. All in all, Facebook is inevitable. According to Kuttainen argued that power is everywhere and comes from everywhere. Kuttainen, V (2015) It is true that Facebook has built some sort of culture by normalizing some evolving human character. Though the blogger terms it as group think, it’s evident that most normalized traits are individual ideas shared that Facebook users find acceptable. For instance, sharing ones status is no longer viewed as plagiarism.
ReplyDeleteReferences
Knox, M. (2014). How Well Do You Know Your Facebook ?LIKE??: Never
Underestimate the Power of a Simple LIKE. Create Space Independent Pub.
Kuttainen, V. (2015). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the Making of Place, Lecture 2[ Power point slide]. Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au