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.