Facebook Mini-Ethnographic Study

I chose to do a small study of facebook by asking three people in three different "generations" - baby boomer, gen x, and millenial to see if there was any difference in how they used facebook. Here are my questions and their responses:

Approximately when did you first join facebook and why?
What role does facebook play in your everyday life?
What functions do you use most and why - Posting to walls? Sending messages? Reading the news feed? etc.
How do you experience community on facebook?
What have you learned about yourself or how others communicate by using facebook?

Baby Boomer:

I joined Facebook about two years ago because I saw my daughter using it to stay in touch with friends and that's what I wanted to do.

I check Facebook several times a day to see who's posted something on my wall. It keeps me up-to-date on what friends are thinking-particularly their political opinions at this time. I also am exposed to many interesting media/political/humorous clips that people share.

I rarely post anything (last time was on my daughter's graduation day). I often respond to other peoples' posts or messages. I never read the news feed. I often get "work" messages through Facebook: choir members will let me know when they can't be at rehearsal or I'll find out if a member is sick through what they post on Facebook. I don't "friend" any students but I'm friends with a number of teaching colleagues so I sometimes get work news that way. I'm also using Facebook to contact high school classmates as we get ready for a reunion. Facebook has also helped me to find out about events through friends' invitations and it's easy to RSVP them if I can attend something.

Keeping in touch with high school and college classmates is a way of experiencing community that I would not have had without Facebook. These "friends" are not necessarily people I would have sent letters to just to stay involved in their lives but since they're on Facebook it's been easy to friend them and learn more about them since we last saw each other.

I've confirmed what I've always known: I like to be entertained by people. Facebook entertains me with the life stories of adults who were once kids in my church handbell choir, people who were once the cheerleaders, band members, athletes in my old high school, grown-up children of a dear friend who is diseased. Without Facebook I would have little or no contact with most of my 150+ "friends." Now all I have to do is to make a friends request~and read...


Generation Xer

It's something to do while I'm on the bus, during my lunch break or during otherwise unoccupied times. It mostly just keeps my brain active when I don't have something else with which to engage it.

I mostly stick to the news feed and post comments/likes. I maybe post a status update once a month - I'm more of a user than a giver. I also use the mail system regularly to keep in touch with friends. I use it in place of my email account for most of my personal contacts. I used to play Farmville and other similar time-wasting games while my dogs ate their breakfast, but it eventually got boring.

Facebook is kind of like walking into a cocktail party. Everyone's trading witty quips, swapping stories about their lives in an abbreviated form. They're keeping up with each other in a way that is fun, but ultimately kind of surface-level. Messages with friends are usually along the lines of "wow, it's been a long time, let's make some time to get together soon..." so in some ways it's also a social organizer.

I have learned that instant messaging is dangerous. I overshare way too easily in that format. I have learned that different people have different beliefs about when it is appropriate to use all caps in a status update. I've learned that reaching out and connecting with other people has to be one of the most common features of human beings. I have sent and received friend requests (the equivalent of a small head nod across a crowded room) from more people than I would have expected when I first started with Facebook. There has to be a reason that I've either requested or agreed to be friends with people that I never intend to see again. Like some value or positive emotional reaction that comes with connecting with someone in even the most simplistic of ways - Friend Request means: "I remember you or I know who you are and I don't hate you." Confirm Request means: "Thank you for acknowledging me. I will do the same."


Millenial

I joined Facebook in the Fall of 2005 because my cousin Mary suggested I check her page out and I liked what I saw.

Now that I am out of college, I feel like Facebook is less integrated into my daily life. I still look at photos and talk with friends but I don't think to check it as much.

I mainly post to friends, scan the news feed and post photos.

On Facebook, I feel like I experience community when people I know join groups or causes together. I also feel a sense of community when I post an update or read an update from a friend and many people will comment on the status creating a place for discussion.

I think I've learned a lot about what I wouldn't want to put on the computer through Facebook, there is a lot of oversharing on the internet and Facebook seems to be the catalyst for this behavior. Overall, I enjoy Facebook but I feel it has a lot of negative behaviors associated with it.

My own assesment:

One of the first things I noticed was the idea of "oversharing." Both the Gen X-er and Millenial were aware of the problems of giving out too much information, but the Baby Boomer was not as concerned probably more because this person uses facebook mainly to see what others are doing rather than make many public comments. I really liked the Gen X-er's comment about facebook being like walking into a cocktail party with people trading quips and stories. It is rather like always already walking in on something in progress. You can either jump in and comment or hang in the background for awhile listening to others talk about the news of the day.

The Baby Boomer and Gen Xer who responded talked about rarely posting in a regular manner and I would include myself in this group as well, but the Millenial was more of a "poster." I tend to stick to private messages and I do enjoy the feature like in email of being able to send a message to a select few people.

In terms of posting I am not entirely sure yet if it is tied to age or an outgoing personality. It could be a combination of both, but it would be interesting to do further research. I think you could pretty easily do a quantitative study with four different age groups tracking their number of posts for a 2 week period and run a simple 2-way ANOVA to look at differences.

Community was also an interesting topic. No one flinched at the idea that facebook could be a "real community" whereas several years ago I wonder if the idea that a community could exist without a physical "place" would have been more contested. I think we have begun the think of virtual communities as important spaces to relate to one another, but in decidedly different ways than we may relate face to face. We seem to enjoy the opportunity to stay connected with those who would have fallen out of our social circles, but at the same time desire that distance that doesn't require us to put in a huge effort.

As the gen x-er said -

Friend Request means: "I remember you or I know who you are and I don't hate you." Confirm Request means: "Thank you for acknowledging me. I will do the same."

There may be real truth in that assesment of how we deal with "friends" in a digital age.

Media Ethnography and Facebook

I joined Facebook a few years ago when I began to realize that more and more friends had left myspace. I was very new to the social network phenomenon and had just started thinking about what it meant to present an online persona.

I remember immediately being drawn to the more "clean" look of facebook - no blinking signs or loud music popping up every time I switched profiles like on myspace. It seemed more "grown up" maybe even "safer?" I decided too from the beginning that on facebook I would only be friends with people I knew in "real life." That is why I still have about 200 or so friends and acquaintances which for me feels like a lot, but I have seen many people with well over 1000 friends listed on their page.

In the beginning I did follow posts, invites and all the other pieces that make up facebook more closely, but now I generally use it to keep up with close friends. As a tail end generation x-er being on facebook feels neither completely organic nor does it feel completely out of my comfort zone. I do greatly appreciate the ability to stay in touch with friends I would surely have fallen out of communication with at this point in my life. As a mom of two, I do love to share a picture here and there of my kids and keep up with others who are now parents.

There are however annoyances and deep concerns that go along with a commitment to facebook. I hear as a common complaint and I tend to agree that the "post" section garners a lot of meaningless and "too much information" kind of dialogue. In fact, dialogue is a term that may not apply to often when it comes to these seemingly benign posts - "Just went to the gym!", "Just ate cereal!" "Just wanted to let everyone know I can write!" Okay maybe I've never seen that one, but it will probably be up tomorrow. Reading those types of posts makes you wonder more about our need to be heard, to exist as if we may not if we don't post.

The deeper concerns that I briefly want to address regard the problems of how people navigate new relationships but also questions about class, race, gender, identity online. The idea that sites like myspace and facebook would effectively reduce racism, homophobia and other issues has not proven true. "Digital gating" has been brought up in a number of journal articles on social networking showing that the same problems that exist in society are happening in social networking as well with people essentially staying securely in what they consider their own peer groups and here I challenge my own use of facebook as well.

In a media ethnography I would like to survey friends and ask about their own feelings about using facebook as well as how the site addresses questions of identity and relationships. What is the connection between our online and offline lives? Is there one and do we act differently on a social networking site like facebook than we do in person? How do we decide to "friend" someone and what does that mean? I would like to take a look at these and other questions regarding facebook.

Images of Women in Alcohol Advertising

This is a lesson I would do with undergrads. I would have a sheet to fill out with the questions below. We would take time to look at the ads together and then break into small groups to have a discussion.

However, before we got into the specifics of the women and alcohol ads I would have a more broad discussion about how advertising in our capitalist consumer society has changed over time. We would look at how advertising was originally more about providing information and how advertising strategies now sell ideas about social status and identity.

First, what do you think is the message about drinking in this ad? What is it promising consumers?

Who might be the target audience for this ad? (Include age range, culture, gender, race, socio-economic level.)

What underlying message or value is being sold by the ad? Is it obvious or subliminal?

Which aspect of human sexuality is being appealed to? (Emotional/physical? Spiritual? Biological?)

In this a postive or negative portrayal of sexuality? In what ways?

How does power play in to this image?

Using Narrative Analysis and Semiotic Analysis in Levi's O Pioneers Commercial

First I want to take a look at the narrative structure of the Levi's O Pioneer's commercial. Even through this commercial doesn't seem to follow a traditional story pattern (a specific hero, a quest etc.) I would argue that there are key narrative elements that represent cultural values like freedom, vitality, and initiation that make it move like a story.

You feel from the beginning that whatever the story is behind these young people, it's moving and at a fast pace. We travel with these wild, free youth through the jungle, the prairie and the "urban jungle." The underlying Whitman poem underscores the action often with snare drum hits punctuating the action (sometimes coinciding ever so briefly with a shot of the jeans themselves, lest we not forget what the real purpose is here...)As we move through the various shots and scenes we can almost feel this momentum which could maybe be interpreted as a movement, a wild free youth movement, a gathering storm. Even through the commercial clocks at about a minute I think we feel like we've been on a journey with these young people glimpsing into their world.

On another level this commercial lends itself to a semiotic analysis. I want to take a look at a couple of specific examples using the idea of denotation and connotation.

Denotation is the first order of signification: the signifier is the image itself and the signified the idea or concept--- what it is a picture of.

Connotation is a second-order signifying system that uses the first sign, (signifier and signified), as its signifier and attaches an additional meaning, another signified, to it.

Image #1
Denotative Level - A male holding a torch

Connotative Level - This image shows a young male staring intensely into the camera, holding a torch on fire and seemingly yelling, but one could argue he looks like a wild animal growling

Image #2
Denotative Level - Two men embracing

Connotative Level - Young men are passionately engaged in intimacy - Levi's could be expressing support of same sex relationships, that this image fits into the worldview of the young person who wears Levis

Image #3
Denotative Level- Blond female turns to camera

Connotative Level- The woman appears almost flushed, her hair wet like she was in a rainstorm and you can almost hear her breathing hard. The background is strikingly green like a jungle and she appears much like the first male, a wild creature

Image #4
Denotative Level - Youth are gathered around a fire

Connotative Level- Most people we can see in this image and the ones leading up to it are taking off everything, but their jeans. You could imagine that Levi's are part of the nakedness, the rawness in being free and wild. As we had only seen one or two people in shots at the beginning of the commercial we now see many running across a field (feeling of a movement) and now in the final shot dancing around a fire together. The jeans are associated with lust, energy, fire (element of life), youth and freedom.

I think there is so much that can be done from a semiotic analysis standpoint in this commercial. I would do a critical media analysis with students and take them through the commercial several different times looking at these questions in particular:

1. What do you notice about the way this message is constructed? –Colors? Shapes? Sound effects? Music? Silence? Dialogue? Narration? Clothing? Sets? Movement? Lighting?

2. Where is the camera? What is the viewpoint?

3. How is the story told? What are people doing?

4. Are there visual symbols? Metaphors?

5. What’s the emotional appeal? Persuasive devices?

6. What makes it seem “real”?