Thesis Title: Subtitle

Facebook and popular discourse

Rapid technological change has many benefits such as connectivity and convenience, but it can also be unsettling and has caused some to react with concern. Growing alongside the popularity of social networking sites (SNS) are public concerns that participation in social media sites undermines the traditional structure of social relations, weakens ties between individuals and isolates them from meaningful social interactions (Pierce and Lovrich 2003; Turkle 2011). Understanding these concerns is an important part of understanding the context in which Facebook exists, and consequently the context in which this project is located.

One commonly expressed fear is that late modernity’s push towards individualisation has made people lonely and that this sense of loneliness is only heightened by social networking, which offers the illusion of connection. Connection, it seems is the catch-all- word used to describe relationships that are at least partially mediated. The idea is that


¹ Google Glass is a hands free wearable computer with a head mounted display. Google Glass responds to voice commands from the users, and is capable of recording photographs and video.
social networking creates the illusion of sharing and engaging with others, but instead it provides a hollow substitute.
Despite the fact that people continue to use Facebook to share personal information about their lives with those they know, Sherry Turkle’s (2012, 2013) opinion editorials for
The New York Times are overwhelmingly negative about the possibility of Facebook encouraging sociality. Turkle (2012) broadly argues that technology means that we have “sacrificed conversation for connection” as technology has seduced us into not paying attention to each other. Turkle (2013) further argues that we have abandoned conversation for documentation (e.g. posting photos from events, checking in and updating statuses); a symptom of modernity which has encouraged individualisation, instead of connection. Turkle (2012) also argues that technology provides a way for us to avoid the risk of everyday interaction as it allows us to present the self we want it to be.
Presenting an ideal self, which is carefully curated, allows us to avoid the messiness of human relationships. However, mediated communication and social networks also offer new possibilities for connections, presenting the opportunity to connect more, and more diversely by allowing us to cultivate relationships outside of the realm of our immediate experience. These new connections may in turn offer new opportunities and strengthen relationships otherwise strained by time and distance.
In popular discourse, the negative implications of SNS are emphasised at the expense of its positive possibilities. The fear that technologies like Facebook are alienating us from each other and somehow stripping away our humanity runs deep. Trend pieces are highly particularised and tell stories of individuals’ obsessive Facebook use and subsequent addiction (Hafner 2009). The negative assessment of SNS comes primarily from traditional media outlets and these media panics amplify the anxieties associated with social media, often asserting that today’s young people have no privacy or desire for it (Livingstone 2008). These responses to technology are not new and similar anxieties surface whenever a new and widely adopted technology emerges. The telephone is one technology that also sparked a wave of concern about its moral implications (Fischer 1992).Before the telephone; concerns were raised that the bicycle would take people away from church on Sunday (Fischer 1992). Similar concerns were raised about the automobile. Critics expressed concern that the speed of the automobile placed moral temptations within reach, which undermined family life (Fischer 1992).While these comments may seem absurd now, Fischer (1992) points out that at the time these arguments reflected widely held concerns about the latest modern inventions. Concerns about Facebook and its effect
on our selves and our social relationships reflect a continuation of these anxieties, which can be generally linked to broader concerns about the role of the individual in modern society.
These anxieties and concerns about mediated communication have not arrived in a vacuum. Rather they have been fuelled by the unparalleled growth of SNS; one of the most popular new technologies to emerge over the past decade. As at 2014, Facebook has been operating for 10 years. Despite its longevity, anxieties and questions about what Facebook is and the effect it has on its users persists. The topic of privacy has long been of central concern to Facebook. Not only are the social mores around the use of Facebook are still developing, there also concerns regarding what Facebook is doing with users’ data. Most recently, Facebook has been named as the subject of a class action lawsuit pertaining to privacy violations related to the use of users’ data (Shields 2014). A lack of consensus about what kind of space Facebook actually is often seems to result in situations wherein unsuspecting users are ‘outed’ via Facebook. A recent example of this is an American woman who was arrested for theft after posting photos of herself in a dress she stole on Facebook (Associated Press 2014). In 2012, a woman was robbed after her granddaughter posted photos of her (cash) savings to Facebook (Golijan 2012). Facebook posts are increasingly being used as evidence in court cases. In England, a woman who falsely claimed benefits for being single with children had her Facebook relationship status used as evidence against her (Wilkes 2014). These are but a few examples of many that make it to print. There are undoubtedly many more that do not. These stories spark discussion and debate (often in the comments sections of articles published online) over what claims to privacy an individual using Facebook has. Questions about privacy are fundamentally linked to concepts of social space as expectations regarding privacy are shaped by the space one is acting within.
Alongside these broader discussions are regarding Facebook’s effect at an individual level. It is argued that SNS are merely avenues for self-promotion that encourage narcissism and a large number of shallow relationships (Buffardi and Campbell 2010). Social networks such as Facebook can seduce with their convenience, shiny interfaces and ‘always on’ capabilities and offer a seeming respite from the loneliness of everyday life by providing an ever-present audience. Social networks, it seems, allow us to be connected (and heard) at any time. Over the past few years there have been numerous pieces of work that connect Facebook to social disconnection such as Rosen’s (2007) piece that links Facebook to narcissism. In 2012, Stephen Marche of The Atlantic asked Is
Facebook Making Us Lonely? Marche (2012: np) argued that Facebook has caused us to have broader but fewer connections, and that we are currently suffering from “unprecedented alienation” and that society is being subsumed to the act of socialising online. Marche (2012) further argues that Facebook arrived in a time of increased loneliness and appears to offer a panacea to these woes. Marche (2012) spends time documenting the rise in loneliness caused by social disintegration. Facebook it seems fits into this broader pattern of disconnection. In addition to Marche’s (2012) piece, Konnikova (2013) explores the relationship between Facebook and unhappiness in The New Yorker. Konnikova (2013), borrowing from several studies, argues that time spent on Facebook makes its users unhappier and more envious. These media articles represent just some of the many thousands of words of public opinion about Facebook. It is interesting to note, that while both Marche (2012) and Konnikova (2013) make attempts to stress that contemporary loneliness and unhappiness are more complicated than being on Facebook or not, the titles of these articles are resoundingly negative, perhaps to tap in to commonly held anxieties about new and persistent technologies. There is little critical discussion about the affordances, or positive possibilities, that Facebook provides for its users, or how its users might be engaging with the options Facebook offers in a critical or cautious way.
This is a rather symptomatic approach to Facebook, which regards it as emblematic of deeper processes (Fischer 1992). This is a symptom of late modernity, which has encouraged individualisation, instead of connection. However, this does not account for the user in the cultural context or answer issues regarding the interplay between psyche, culture and the technology itself. These opinion pieces argue that we have abandoned conversation for documentation (Turkle 2012, 2013) and that somehow we have allowed technology to do this to us.

This thesis seeks to position itself in relation to current anxieties and discussions regarding Facebook within the context of late modernity. The key processes of late modernity discussed here are those of individualisation and the dislocation of place-based relationships, as these correspond with the aforementioned concerns surrounding SNS generally and Facebook specifically. From this discussion of late modernity, this chapter further discusses SNS in relation to these concerns. Following this, I elaborate on the research questions and provide a rationale for these questions and the present research. This chapter concludes with an overview of the remainder of this thesis.