Oh the wonders of Facebook. (Participatory Cultures)

If you guessed that I was going to talk about Facebook as a participatory culture, you would be right. I also assume the giant blue logo that almost anyone can identify with helped you make that semiotic connection. However, what Facebook is to some, is different to others. Besides the mere recognition with what Facebook is, there are many layers of difference based on who is using Facebook, and for what purposes.

I’d like to draw the attention to my Facebook account for a second. What my account settings are, and the choices I make on Facebook affect other people as well. The obvious fact of a participatory culture is that you are sharing a space on the internet with other people. Most of the people on my Facebook account I know in real life. I can only say two or three of the friends that I have, have not met me in real life. Now, this differs from the friends other people I know have on Facebook. Many of the friends on their lists they met through the internet, and don’t actually know in real life.

Participatory cultures are a fundamental part of our internet at the moment. They bring a freer atmosphere to sharing information and collaborating. However, this does not come with negatives as well. As Neil Postman noted, our current society needs to be studied from a moral point of view (THE ECOLOGY OF MEDIA, 1). For example, a formula was “invented” online to describe a certain type of people on the internet called “trolls”. The formula basically stated that a normal person, mixed with the anonymity of the internet, created a person that conveyed strong and mostly controversial opinions about a certain person or user-generated content online. This happens when using Facebook as well, referring to people who make fake accounts and harass people online.

Participatory cultures are what is defining the internet at the moment. These cultures may be more restricted if net neutrality were to dissolve. No longer will user-generated content be free to produce and display.

Fortunately, we currently make up most of the internet at the moment, so let’s see them try.

Works Cited:
Postman, Neil. "The Humanism of Media Ecology." Media Ecology Association. 17 June 2000. Fordham University, Web. 5 Oct 2009. .