Online communication would not be so popular or effective if it weren’t for conformity. Everyday, people from all over the world check their Facebook wall and edit their profile. It has become the norm to have a certain Facebook profile. For example, most Facebook users do have a profile picture of some sort. Why do most people even have Facebook pictures? And why not put inappropriate pictures as your display? Facebook would not run as smoothly if complaints were constantly being sent in to Facebook about inappropriate images. It is the norm to put a picture of yourself, of you among friends, or of a something that reflects you in some way. Furthermore, most of us conform to other aspects of our Facebook profile. It is the norm to put your first and last name on your profile. Why don’t people put nicknames? Or lie about who they are? Facebook would not function properly if people kept changing their names or lying about who they were. How could you know who posted on your wall? Or tagged you in 8 pictures from last weekend? Why do people join networks? Without conformity, Facebook simply wouldn’t be Facebook.
The Leviathan originated from Thomas Hobbes and is a figure of authority in which we give up our rights in return for a fair and safe world. “Richard C. MacKinnon insightfully argued that there is indeed a Leviathan on the Internet, one to which most people willingly give up freedoms in order to preserve the value and energy of the medium itself” (MacKinnon). In other words, we all conform to various aspects of the Internet for the benefit of our society. By putting up appropriate profile pictures, identifying yourself correctly, and joining specific networks, we are preserving Facebook and the site itself. If the Leviathan did not exist online, the Internet would not be what it is today. Facebook is but a small example of how conforming online allows the Internet to be such a success today.
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Conformity may itself me a Levianthan, like you subtly monitoring in your questioning as to why people post what they do on facebook. I really like your point about Facebook preserving itself by the way we conform to the standards or norms in participating. We all do conform by giving up some good for the benefit of the whole and facebook is a great example of that, because by not putting up inappropriate things we preserve its existence. You say though that people don’t lie on facebook, but in actuality I think they do, or at least fib a little
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