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DanielButrymowicz-SecondPaper 2 - 06 Apr 2008 - Main.DanielButrymowicz
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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted. | |
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< | My Consumption is More Conspicuous Than Yours! (Sculpting Identity Through Facebook) | >
> | My Leisure is More Conspicuous Than Yours! (Sculpting Identity Through Facebook) | | |
-- DanielButrymowicz - 04 Apr 2008 | |
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> | Outline: | | | | |
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< | Comments are welcome. | >
> | Thesis: The massive popularity of the social networking site Facebook is at least partially due to its utility as a means of publicly displaying one's leisure activities.
I. Conspicuous Leisure and Consumption
Veblen argues that, in order to showcase power or importance, one needs to engage in a conspicuous display of pecuniary power. Initially, he claims, this consisted of "conspicuous leisure," in which one would absent himself from menial or vulgar labor. Subsequently, the focus of pecuniary emulation was shifted to conspicuous consumption. Consumption was a more highly visible means of conveying one's power. Among college students and recent graduates, Facebook has reopened the possibility of highly conspicuous leisure. This is especially useful for college students, the majority of who are not in a position to engage in significant pecuniary consumption.
II. Facebook as Conspicuous Leisure
Facebook facilitates conspicuous leisure on two levels. The first is direct: Facebook itself is an unproductive use of time. In order to begin using the website, people must create a profile that reflects their interests and personality. Users carefully sculpt these profiles and many update them frequently. Simply having a Facebook profile reflects a certain amount of leisure time invested in making it and maintaining it. | | | | |
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< | Preliminary thoughts: | >
> | Additionally, Facebook has added "applications" over time that. These include games that can be played against other Facebook users, such as chess or Scrabble, as well as activities like making "stickers" to post on other profiles or even raising digital pets. Importantly, these activities are all publicly recorded on the user's profile. Anyone viewing can see your win/loss record in Scrabble, for example. | | | | |
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< | This paper will discuss how online networking sites (specifically facebook) allow people to consciously sculpt their identity and present a vision of who they are to the world. (This is a form of identity management, Goffman). Facebook allows people to create an identity primarily through making their consumption more conspicuous. | >
> | Finally, the hallmark feature of Facebook is that it tells any viewer exactly how many friends you have and who they are. Social time is obviously leisure time, and racking up a huge number of friends takes significant non-productive effort. In this same vein, members can create and join groups, all of which are listed in the user profile. | | | | |
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< | This occurs on two levels. | >
> | III. Marking Other Leisure | | | | |
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< | First, using facebook is direct conspicuous consumption because it is a waste of time. Facebook further facilitates the unproductive use of time through "applications" that allow you to do everything from hatch and raise a baby dinosaur to play scrabble against your friends. (Facebook tracks and displays the health of your Triceratops and your win/loss record in scrabble). In sum, Facebook both allows you to waste time and shows all of your friends exactly how much time you've wasted. | >
> | The beauty of Facebook is that in addition to being a direct waste of time, it also publicly displays the other ways in which you have wasted time. Users list their favorite books, movies, and music. This provides the opportunity for invidious comparison between users based on taste. Have they read the right books? Do they like cool music? | | | | |
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< | Second, facebook allows you to publicly show how you have wasted the time you did not waste directly on facebook. Participants list books they've read, movies they've seen, and the activities they are involved with. They can post photo albums of trips they've taken or events they've gone to. And, of course, the hallmark of the site is that it keeps a direct numerical tally of how many friends you have made (evidence of time spent in social settings). Further, the most public information on facebook is what schools you are affiliated with. Since, Veblen argues, education is a huge outlet for conspicuous leisure, the basic premise of facebook is one of making your leisure more conspicuous. | >
> | Facebook also allows users to post photo albums. These can provide direct visual evidence of time spent in leisure. Other users can "tag" you in photographs, and Facebook keeps a numerical tally of the number of photographs in which you appear. | | | | |
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< | The key feature of facebook is that it is highly public. As Veblen describes, conspicuous leisure gave way to conspicuous consumption at least partially because consumption is a more visible sign of pecuniary strength. Facebook makes conspicuous leisure more practical because it provides a venue for publicly advertising your leisure activities in addition to being itself a mechanism for the conspicuous waste of time. | >
> | Veblen describes how education itself is a fundamental form of conspicuous leisure. Facebook was created for college students, and the first information that people see about users is the schools they've attended. | | | | |
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> | IV. Conclusion
Facebook provides college students a means for direct and public invidious comparison with their peers. Since the fanbase of Facebook is skewed toward those who are not doing physical labor to begin with, the emphasis moves to pecuniary emulation and taste, with users attempting to present an image of themselves that comports with the proper standards of taste for their peer group.
Comments are welcome. | | | Section I |
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DanielButrymowicz-SecondPaper 1 - 04 Apr 2008 - Main.DanielButrymowicz
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| META TOPICPARENT | name="DanielButrymowiczIntro" |
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It is strongly recommended that you include your outline in the body of your essay by using the outline as section titles. The headings below are there to remind you how section and subsection titles are formatted.
My Consumption is More Conspicuous Than Yours! (Sculpting Identity Through Facebook)
-- DanielButrymowicz - 04 Apr 2008
Comments are welcome.
Preliminary thoughts:
This paper will discuss how online networking sites (specifically facebook) allow people to consciously sculpt their identity and present a vision of who they are to the world. (This is a form of identity management, Goffman). Facebook allows people to create an identity primarily through making their consumption more conspicuous.
This occurs on two levels.
First, using facebook is direct conspicuous consumption because it is a waste of time. Facebook further facilitates the unproductive use of time through "applications" that allow you to do everything from hatch and raise a baby dinosaur to play scrabble against your friends. (Facebook tracks and displays the health of your Triceratops and your win/loss record in scrabble). In sum, Facebook both allows you to waste time and shows all of your friends exactly how much time you've wasted.
Second, facebook allows you to publicly show how you have wasted the time you did not waste directly on facebook. Participants list books they've read, movies they've seen, and the activities they are involved with. They can post photo albums of trips they've taken or events they've gone to. And, of course, the hallmark of the site is that it keeps a direct numerical tally of how many friends you have made (evidence of time spent in social settings). Further, the most public information on facebook is what schools you are affiliated with. Since, Veblen argues, education is a huge outlet for conspicuous leisure, the basic premise of facebook is one of making your leisure more conspicuous.
The key feature of facebook is that it is highly public. As Veblen describes, conspicuous leisure gave way to conspicuous consumption at least partially because consumption is a more visible sign of pecuniary strength. Facebook makes conspicuous leisure more practical because it provides a venue for publicly advertising your leisure activities in addition to being itself a mechanism for the conspicuous waste of time.
Section I
Subsection A
Subsub 1
Subsection B
Subsub 1
Subsub 2
Section II
Subsection A
Subsection B
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