One major leviathan that is used by millions on Facebook is the photo application. It is a given that you will take pictures with your digital camera wherever you go and then soon after publish those pictures you have taken on Facebook, ensuring that you tag all those you know who were captured in the pictures. Don't let it happen that you go to a special event or an exotic vacation with your friends and not take the time out to post your pictures because everyone connected to you in your virtual realm of your Facebook profile will hate you. It has become not only the societal norm that Richard MacKinnon describes it as in which it is 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" but it is a necessity in developing your profile. Adding photos of you friends and loved one in good times of your life enhances your profile, giving people a chance to learn more about you and understand you from a visual perspective. Furthermore, it is a tool used to keep contact with those who are physically away from you so that they can keep track of what you are doing, where you have been, and how you have changed. Millions of pictures are uploaded daily displaying everything from a picture timeline of study abroad adventures to new family additions.
The Facebook photo application has also become the most common way to share pictures between a group of friends. I, myself, was left in the predicament of experiencing the "eye brow raising" that Wallace states will occur if the norms of the Leviathan s not followed through with. He explains how this concept of punishment for breaking social standards is based on fundamentally the principals of conformity. Since I decided I did not have the time to conform to the Facebook craze of posting my pictures, many of my peers complained and were upset at me. It was not my purpose to intentionally defer for the norms, but I really never seemed to have the time. Despite my legitimate reason of having focus on school work over Facebook updating, the Leviathan effect was bestowed on me in large doses.
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2 comments:
Susannine,
Interesting post. I liked the way you brought the idea of posting pictures in albums as a potential leviathan. People definitely do react in a certain way when you don't have pictures up, as if you don't have a real life if that life isn't shown in pictures. I think you could even go so far as to say that people feel wronged when your pictures (or lack thereof) don't accurately display you and your lifestyle. I'm interested though, in your case was the reproach successful? I mean, it is a pretty serious crime to not put any pictures up at all (joking).
Hey, great post! I think you make a really good point in the sometimes unforeseen Leviathan, our friends on facebook. It is commonly accepted that when you are out doing something and take a lot of pictures with a group of friends that with the following week you will post the pictures and minimally tag each friends once so they get the notice that you have posted the new album and each on their own can then tag the rest. This is different because it is not a mediator or someone who overlooks the medium to moderate any profanity but your peers that demand a certain code of conduct be followed. Additionally, the raised eyebrow is not a visible sign of punishment but yet a pressure that ones friends will apply if due time passes. This was a great example because it is not something that is out in the open. A new user on facebook would not immediately see these social norms of the media and would in time have to learn through social cues such as the raised eye brow by peers as to the norms of posting, tagging ect.
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