"Are You 'Friends' With Jonathan?" - Media Mediation #7

Below is a screen shot of my limited friends list, a list of my friends that I have set limits on as to what they can see on my Facebook. The list was too long to get to fit on the entire screen, but all but 1 person on that list are family members.




The day my mom got a Facebook was the same day Facebook officially became uncool for me. I love my mom to death and she is my best friend, but trying to explain how Facebook works to someone who has never used it before is very frustrating. She would (and still does) constantly ask me questions like "What is tagging?", "What is a wall?", "Have you ever used this chat thing before?" and other questions that to Facebook users would ignite a "Duh" or I-can't-believe-you-don't-know response. She tells me every time she has a new "friend" or if she chats with her sister (my aunt). She'll word it as, "I chatted with Aunt Mary this morning!" So? I understand it is exciting for her learning this new technology, but boy does it bring the cool factor way down. It's like a 21-year-old rocking out to their favorite new song and then seeing a 12-year-old girl doing the same thing while wearing a Hannah Montana shirt. My favorite mom-moment was when I was sitting next to her while she was on her computer and she was talking about all her "friends" on Facebook and very excitedly asked, "Are you "friends" with Jonathan??" (Jonathan is my cousin). I responded, "Yes, in fact, I have been friends with Jonathan long before Facebook was even invented!"

What is a "friend" anyway? Were we not friends with these people before Facebook? Actually, most of them probably not. The majority of my Facebook "friends" I wouldn't call friends in real-life at all, just acquaintances.

Therefore, this post will be dedicated to pointing out some of Facebook's persuasion techniques:

Beginning with, big lie! Sure you have 1,000-something Facebook "friends" but those people aren't your friends. How many of them would come running if you were stuck in a jam. How many of them would help you move? That's the real test of a friend!

Next, symbols, Facebook allows the user to have a little tagline or phrase underneath their default photo on their page. Many people use this to say a quick bit about themselves usually through a famous quote or song lyric which is supposed to symbolize who they are as a person.

Flattery is absolutely a factor due to the default photo option. You know every person picks the most attractive or flattering version of themselves to be the default photo. It's the first photo you see when you go to your page, you want it to make a good impression.

Then we go on to hyperbole, since Facebook began as a college social networking site, many of the status updates, wall posts, and photos upload are those promoting a "cool" lifestyle. Photos of themselves out drinking and partying with friends. They put the "coolest" version of themselves up for their peers to see. This is clearly a hyperbole of their life, exaggerating their social lifes making it seem like that's all there is. They may have posted, "Out with the girls tonight!" when in reality they are at home studying for a test the next day.

Do I even really need to explain bandwagon? Come on, everyone's doing it.

Again (sorry for the repetition -- get it? get it? Persuasion techniques, ha!) we see the best version of the person with beautiful people. Although they may not be beautiful (who am I to judge? Social construction of reality, people!) they can certainly look that way by being the gatekeeper of their photos.

Group dynamics comes in to play with the networking aspect. Through groups, and other ways, people can feel like they are part of something.