an anthropologic view on Facebook?

Was talking about Facebook with YiChun and the role it plays in her life. We both agreed that she didn’t even facebook two years ago. Now she is on it every day. Why? I wanted to understand.

Her family facebooks. So? They call, you talk. But much more than that, you have a conversation over the phone just a few times a week, at most. But Facebook offers you the kind of everyday details that is not otherwise possible over the phone. One, we just don’t remember all the funny or frustrating little details in life. Two, you just don’t always talk about these details all the time, as interesting as they may be. But with facebook, you get it from everyone you are connected to.

Not only is it family. The students she would have otherwise lost contact can now see what she is up to, every so often, ask for help, or just chime in.

I started to wonder if there is something about Facebook that is greater than what appears on the surface. Maybe it is addressing a need society has today, and if you push it to a greater extend (if you are a facebook fan) transforming society.

YiChun moved away from Taiwan to Switzerland. Time difference, distance all play a role. Where it used to be if you moved that far away, you lost some touch with family and friends. Yes, there were letters, phone calls, But even just twenty years ago when I first went to Switzerland, letters took a week to arrive not to mention it took forever to write and phone calls cost so much that I only talked to my parents for 15 minutes twice a month. If nothing else, you lose those colorful details of life and definitely the outer fringes of your social circle. I can’t imagine what it would be like to move from Vienna to Paris 100 years go.

Maybe a hundred or fifty years ago, when we move away from our families and friends, we build relationships with our neighbors as the first little step in a new environment. But we certainly don’t do this any more. YiChun’s French teach was surprised that she talks to her neighbor. Over the last forty or fifty years, the population in the industrialized world and developing nations probably moved more than ever before. Regardless of the fact that the movement of people increased and we have become more individualistic, we are still social beings that need human interaction. After you move, you can’t quickly build relationships with people around you such as your neighbors, so you look for ways to maintain your existing relationships. In come Facebook (and the Internet) to help facilitate even relationships just across town.

So, it Facebook transforming society? I am not sure. But it’s doing something to the lives of those who Facebook that wasn’t possible before.