It is evident when examining my personal Facebook feed
that there is a preponderance of entertainment based reporting and promotion on
Facebook as opposed to political updates or news or world events. An
individual’s Facebook page content is directed by his or her circle of
"friends", so by definition their friends opinions and
"likes" become relevant, creating the user’s "newsworthy
world". As a basis of comparison, in analyzing a Facebook page of someone
in the 45-65 age demographic, the postings are focused much more on opinions
regarding recent world news events, including political positions both liberal
and conservative. Examples of these topics are the recent speech by the Prime Minister
of Israel visiting the U.S. Congress, Hillary Clinton’s email mishap, and the
fiftieth anniversary of Selma. The Facebook "world" of a college age
user highlights topics determined to be relevant to this age category by the
posts they make, for example sorority fundraisers, recent college acceptances
and birthdays and even Jimmy Fallon videos. Facebook has the ability to create
a "world" relevant the specific topics of interest of each individual
user, which then become the focal points of its embedded advertising. The
platform of Facebook also allows those with more liberal views to speak freely
in this open format. These views can be political and often critical in nature. Perhaps the public forum of Facebook allows
more liberal comments to be made freely, especially if the person posting his
or her views feels they are “among friends” and therefore more comfortable
expressing themselves.
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| Teenagers are often influenced by the material their friends "share" on Facebook |
The Facebook newsfeed of a college student is focused
more on feedback and opinions concerning entertainment and pop culture more so than a vehicle for conservative or liberal views
on politics. Facebook is subtly one of the largest advertising networks in the
world. Facebook’s newsfeed produces stories that not only your friends post,
but what they think you might be interested based on your past searches. For
example, if you recently searched on Google “Kim Kardasian’s new blonde hair
style”, Facebook produces stories on your newsfeed, separate from your friends,
on Kim’s new look. Thus, Facebook creates a world solely based on your
interests and your age demographic. Because of this, one can be easily be
influenced by the stories that appear on their newsfeed. As a college students,
the most recent pop-culture and entertainment stories that appeared on my
newsfeed included “John Mayer Opens Up About His Reputation: 'I'm a Recovered
Ego Addict”, a video of with the headline “Naturally 7’s new album Hidden In
Plain Sight featuring their version of Coldplay’s hit "Fix You" is available
on iTunes today!” and to “like” Kim Kardashian’s fan page to support her new
blonde look. All of this pop-culture may seem irrelevant, but when it appears
on my Facebook newsfeed, it suddenly becomes intriguing and interesting. The newsfeed somehow gives these posts
credibility, whether accurate or not. This
illustrates how one’s views are easily influenced and manipulated by Facebook.
The content that appears on the Facebook newsfeed instantly is viewed as
significant. Even if one does not initially agree with the article, the more likes
and positive comments one see it received by their friends, the more convincing the
article becomes. There is an intangible
sense of validation that receiving a significant number of likes brings to the
user who is posting the status.
Aaron
Smith, an expertise in Internet and technology and mobile technology, stated in
his article “"6 New Facts About Facebook"”, “Facebook turns 10 tomorrow and
reaches that milestone as the dominant social networking platform, used by 57%
of all American adults and 73% of all those ages 12-17.” Smith illustrates how
almost a quarter of teenagers use Facebook as their main form of social
networking.
Facebook is utilized as the predominant source of social information,
and users are clearly influenced by what appears on their newsfeed and what
their friends opinions are about the most recent news in pop-culture and the
entertainment world, as well as within their own social circles. Teenagers and
college students are not the only age demographic who is easily influenced by
Facebook. Although this age demographic focuses more on pop-culture and
entertainment as opposed to politics, adults who use Facebook are exposed to a
different perspective.
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| The teenage demographic is more focused on pop-culture and media as opposed to politics |
The Facebook newsfeed of an adult differs
significantly from one of a teenager. The newsfeed an adult would be exposed to
focuses more on political views as well as social issues in the world. Since an
adult is more likely to be friends with more people their age, their Facebook
newsfeed consists of somewhat more “mature” topics and controversies. For
example, the newsfeed of a 40 year-old father may include stories entitled “Obama in Selma: The March is Not Over ” and " A year later, the search continues for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370". With multiple friends “sharing” the same articles
expressing their political views, it may influence the Facebook user of that
adult demographic to believe and support their views as well. Facebook’s unique
world of having the ability to “like”, “share” and “comment” on posts creates a
huge, opinionated wide spread network.
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| Adult Facebook users are exposed to a more "mature" newsfeed related to social issues and political views |
Facebook is an extremely powerful, influential social
networking website which profoundly impacts the cultural landscape today. This network of “newsworthy” posts allows
you understand your friends interests which is what makes the stories that
appear on one’s newsfeed seem so significant and convincing. Each age
demographic is exposed to different news based on what their friends share as
well as their own personal interest. Although college students are most focused
on pop-culture and entertainment while adults are more focused on politics,
both age demographics illustrate how influential stories on Facebook truly are.
This post is well structured, but the content itself is lacking. The author begins with an explanatory headline, that, although confusingly worded, effectively conveys its message. The author then opens with an excellent and explanatory introductory paragraph that lays the groundwork for the article's main point. If I were to stop after the introductory paragraph, I would still have learned quite a bit about Facebook's news feed. Unfortunately, the author does not bring up the main point of the piece in that paragraph, explaining how Facebook might cause people to express opinions more freely, but not how Facebook itself influences people's opinions. The author follows with a relevant picture, which would certainly serve well to keep the reader's interest. The author then goes on to provide numerous examples of the differing stories that different demographics see while browsing Facebook, but does not ever really explain how that is linked to influencing user's opinions. Photos and links are used well, but mostly to provide context, rather than as evidence for the author's point, and as such, the author's point is never fully made.
ReplyDeleteAs for the content itself, the author begins well, emphasizing Facebook's ability to customize the news that users receive through its news feed, but then spends the remainder of the post discussing how Facebook customizes news for its users and the various demographics that Facebook serves, and never fully connects the lines from there to arguing that this customization leads to influenced opinions.
I would have added in points from the book about the concept of media fragmentation, whereby audiences exposed to only media designed for them only grow more firmly convinced of their own opinions and less open to other people's beliefs. This would effectively finish the author's original point, explaining how those customized news stories lead to an "extreme grows more extreme" effect, and demonstrating that Facebook's news feeds do in fact influence people's opinions. This point would need to be added in early, either in the first paragraph or in an additional paragraph before the first image, so that even those who do not read beneath the fold will receive that information, and then developed later on, so that the conclusion (Facebook influences opinions) is demonstrated in the essay, rather than simply being mentioned repeatedly without supporting evidence.