Cracking Facebook YOUTH, MEDIA AND CULTURE SERIES Volume 5 Series Editors Shirley R. Steinberg, University of Calgary, Canada Awad Ibrahim, University of Ottawa, Canada Editorial Board Annette Coburn, The University of the West of Scotland Giuliana Cucinelli, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada Rhonda Hammer, UCLA, USA Mark Helmsing, Michigan State University, USA Brian Johnson, Bloomburg University, PA, USA Scope Taking the notion of critical youth studies, this series features top scholars in critical­ media and youth studies. Coupling edgy topics with a critical theoretical lens, ­volumes explore the impact of media and culture on youth … and the impact of youth on media and culture. Cracking Facebook The Importance of Understanding Technology-Based Communication Maria Leena Korpijaakko McGill University, Canada This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. Further information and the complete license text can be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/4.0/ The terms of the CC license apply only to the original material. The use of material from other sources (indicated by a reference) such as diagrams, illustrations, photos and text samples may require further permission from the respective copyright holder. An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched. More information about the initiative can be found at www .knowledgeunlatched.org. A C.I.P. record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: 978-94-6300-209-7 (paperback) ISBN: 978-94-6300-210-3 (hardback) ISBN: 978-94-6300-211-0 (e-book) Published by: Sense Publishers, P.O. Box 21858, 3001 AW Rotterdam, The Netherlands https://www.sensepublishers.com/ All chapters in this book have undergone peer review. Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved © 2015 The Author No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. <UN> TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables vii List of Figure ix Chapter 1: Introduction: Why Technology Matters 1 Relationships with Technology 2 Living in Hyperreal Connections 5 Who Are We Anyway? 6 What Is Agency in Identity Performance? 9 Research Aims 10 My Facebook Study 11 Method and Theory 12 Research Implications 13 Book Overview 14 Chapter 2: Why People Use Facebook: The Pros and Cons Associated with Its Use 15 Online Identity: Teens 16 Online Identity on Facebook: Young Adults 19 Teens and Young Adults: Similarities and Socio-cultural­ Implications 22 Literature on SNS/Facebook Use for All Ages 23 Reasons for Negative Consequences of SNS/Facebook Use 29 Conclusion 31 Chapter 3: Linking Identity Theory, Avatar Attachment Theory, and Hyperreal Considerations to Overconsumption and Self-Fetishization on Facebook 33 Identity Theory 33 Age Category Conceptualizations: Links to Socio-Economic Conditions 34 Age Categories, Market Exploitation, and Consumer Discourse 36 Celebrity Culture and Gendered Beauty Discourse 39 Cyber Identity Performance 41 Hyperreality, Overconsumption, and Self-Fetishization 44 Debates on Personal Agency 48 Agency in Cyber Identity Performance 51 Ensuring Agency 52 Chapter Summary 53 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 4: Facebook Study 55 Study Rationale 55 Design 56 Data Collection 59 Data Analysis 64 Johnson’s Four-Point Model for Inquiry of a Media Site 65 Applying Johnson’s Four-Point Model to My Study Results 68 Chapter Summary 71 Chapter 5: Facebook Study Results 73 Facebook Profile Analysis (FPA) and Survey Results 74 Facebook Study Findings: FPA and Survey 75 E-mail Responses to Likes 97 Eight Day Screen Shot Analysis of Home Page Advertising (Appendix C) 98 Chapter Summary 104 Chapter 6: A Critical Analysis of Facebook Study Findings 105 Production: Reflections of Consumer and Identity Discourse 106 Text: Structural Impacts on Production and Readings 110 Readings: How Does the Medium Affect the Reading? 115 A Critical Perspective on Agency in Facebook Use 119 Chapter 7: Conclusion 123 Future Research Directions 125 Theoretical Implications 126 Educational Implications 126 Limitations Incurred in This Study 128 Appendix A: Survey 131 Appendix B: Sample Facebook Profile 133 Appendix C: Home Page Advertising Screen Shots for 8 Days 135 Bibliography 139 Index 147 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1. FPA results 61 Table 2. Facebook survey: General impressions and “friends” 77 Table 3. Facebook survey: Profile and usage 80 Table 4. Facebook survey: Other comments 83 Table 5. E-mail responses on likes 98 Table 6. Home page advertising for 8 days 99 vii LIST OF FIGURE Figure 1. Tetrad of Facebook effects 117 ix CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Why Technology Matters Power’s construction of subjectivity and validation of particular forms of data takes advantage of the comfort of the everyday. (Kincheloe, 2004a, p. 7) The social network site (SNS) Facebook is a relatively new space of technology use that is explicitly connected to identity performance. It was first established in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and his college friends at Harvard University, and was initially open only to those attending Harvard University but slowly expanded to other ivy league schools, then to other universities, then to high schools in 2005, then finally to anyone over 13 years of age in 2006. Thirteen is still the current minimum age for registration but millions are said to violate this regulation. Because it was developed for the university student, social networking and identity performance were at the heart of its design. Its basic format compels users to express personal information about themselves while registering, and then encourages further identity performance through the posting of photos, media and corporate likes, interests, hobbies, and personal thoughts through status updates (Facebook, 2013). However, Facebook is not only a space of individual identity performance, it is also a business. The business of Facebook involves the selling of peoples’ personal information back to them, and ultimately to corporations (Grosser, 2011; van Dijck, 2013). This is achieved by having people accept Facebook’s data use policy which stipulates that Facebook can share your information with service providers and use your information to “measure or understand the effectiveness of ads you and others see, including to deliver relevant ads to you” (Data Use Policy, 2014, para. 35). The socio-cultural implications of this have intensified because in 2007 Microsoft sold 1.6% of Facebook’s shares for $240 million giving it an estimated value of $15 billion dollars. Traffic on Facebook has been steadily increasing since. In June, 2011 statistics released by DoubleClick showed that there had been one trillion page views. According to Facebook’s Newsroom (2013), there are more than one billion active users with 82% of them located outside of Canada and the U.S. Daily active users total 618 million and this number increases to 680 million with mobile products. Facebook is often in the news these days and its use is frequently linked to negative behavior and consequences. A Google web search of ‘Facebook and School’ generates a multitude of articles with headings such as “Facebook bullying 1 © Maria Leena Korpijaakko, 2015 | doi 10.1163/9789463002110_002 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license. Chapter 1 case disturbs school officials” (Hunsinger Benbow, 2014), “School district Pays $70K to Settle Lawsuit Over Girl’s Facebook Posts” (Benitz, 2014), and “School Children Should Not Have Access to Facebook” (Yaftali, 2011). A Google news search of ‘Facebook and School’ generates more about how Facebook is used for cyber bullying or as a forum for those about to go on a killing spree to post hateful comments (Montague, 2014; Simon, 2014). It is also being linked to increased levels of depression, anxiety, and poorer school performance (Rochman, 2011). What is actually going on? Does Facebook use lead to negative consequences and behaviour? What are the socio-cultural implications of cyber identity performance on Facebook? In this book, I explore why and how people are performing their identities on Facebook, how this might be impacting our society and culture, and how this information can be used for educational purposes to inform pedagogy, curriculum formation, and scholarly discussions in various fields of study concerned with identity and agency such as cultural studies. RELATIONSHIPS WITH TECHNOLOGY I was born in 1974 and I am considered to be a member of Generation X, whose members were born between 1966 and 1976 (Schroer, n.d.). I was also born right on the cusp of Prensky’s (2001) “digital divide” and am referred to by him as a “digital immigrant”, with “digital natives” being born after 1980. However, Zur and Zur (2011) refer to Generation X and younger as “digital natives” or those “having been born with “digital DNA” (para. 1), making technology use a natural extension of their being. Even though members of my generation are considered to be digital natives by Zur and Zur, I contend that it is not in the same way as Generation Z. Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2012) (Schroer, n.d.) is the first generation to grow up completely surrounded by advanced technology, including the internet, and members typically do not know a life before media technology. The internet became popularized in the 1990s (Internet, 2014) and the earliest SNS, classmates. com, was launched in 1995, coinciding with the start of Generation Z.