Friday, May 4, 2007

FACES OF FACEBOOK







As a social medium, the Internet presents new opportunities and new issues into the social realm that are unique to its set up as a virtual and quasi-anonymous venue. The creation of identity plays a large role in how we interact with others through the Internet and how others perceive us. Websites of social networking such as myspace.com and facebook.com, just to name a few, have capitalized on our ability to construct our own identities on the Internet and then network with others through the virtual web. Does the Internet provide a way for us to hide behind false identities, or does it allow us to safely show who we truly are in a way that is perhaps more difficult in face to face social interaction?

"FACES OF FACEBOOK" is a project that seeks to explore social interaction and the perception of identity through the medium of the Internet, and specifically the social networking website of facebook. Facebook was chosen over other similar networking websites because of the more standardized format of its profile, group, and event profiles. The result of this standardization makes it more difficult for users to truly express who they feel themselves to be, or conversely to create an identity that is outside of the model of the facebook profile. This presented even more of a reason that we would want to create a group that would allow people to begin to comment on their real and represented identities.

The "FACES OF FACEBOOK" group asked invited members to post one image that they felt truly represented their identity or some aspect of their personality, and then to invite their friends to join, post, and comment on the images. The network was not restricted, so that anyone who wished could join the group and therefore expand the social network being impacted. Through posting and commenting on images of their friends, acquaintances, and even strangers, members of "FACES OF FACEBOOK" could begin to understand how they see themselves, how others see them, and how those identities related through the making of profiles on facebook.

The results of the postings thus far have, for the most part, remained between friends, and often relate to the circumstances of the posted images, but even those comments can begin to reveal something about how we interact through the Internet. A few comments have begun to go a little more into how people perceive themselves and how they are perceived by others, and those images that are somewhat more artistic or abstract have evoked more interesting comments. As this is an ongoing group, if you are a member of facebook, you are invited to join and comment!