Hello my fellow bloggers. My name is Lina and I’m currently a senior in ILR majoring in…ILR. I was born and raised in
I actually spent this past summer here at Cornell taking classes and studying for LSATs. Besides cramming for prelims, I also found out some interesting facts about myself. For example, I found out that I am allergic to mice’s pee. I followed a friend to lab and was playing with some mice when one of them peed on my arm. I know it’s a bit hard to believe but I started getting all these bumps that went away a few days later. It was a bit embarrassing explaining this to my professor who excused me for missing class. I don’t think he believed me but he gave me credit for my creativity.
When I wasn’t getting an allergic reaction I spent my time on Facebook. One interesting internet-related phenomenon I noticed was the expansion of politics into the Facebook realm. I was randomly searching through names and happened to type in some candidate’s name and surprisingly she had a Facebook profile with hundreds of friends. Of course I had to add her as a friend and I ended up spending the whole day wondering what I should write on her wall, just in case she gets bored one day and decides to read it.
This recent phenomenon seems to allow candidates to personally reach out and appear relatable to college students who would spend a day checking their friends’ relationship statuses rather than finding out who might be the next president (I’m still not sure which is more important). I don’t know about other people but for me just being able to be friends on Facebook with such people made me more interested in elections and politics as a whole. Will Facebook be able to finally break the wall of detachment and formality that has separated college students from politicians like it has for me?
According to the terms that Wallace uses, Facebook would fall into the “asynchronous discussion forum,” in which people can post on each other’s walls at any time of day or night. College students with similar interests, regardless of location, are able to reply on these walls where discussions can go on for days or even weeks depending on the topic. Therefore, for those out there who fear that Facebook is a waste of time, take comfort in knowing that the future president may be home procrastinating on Facebook as well.
3 comments:
So I believe you are completely correct in that the purpose of the politician's facebook profile is to make themselves appear more personable to college kids. However, I can not help but think that that is all it is. Another campaigning ploy to get more votes. You said yourself that they have hundreds of friends. I believe the chance that the politician themselves will actually read everything that everybody posted is very slim. They may even just have some hired help to manage their account. Regardless though, it does serve as a way for college kids across the states to discuss issues and excite each other, whether or not the candidate is listening.
An interesting idea would be to analyze the anonymity of the environment you are discussing. Will the afore-mentioned politician really reveal him/herself through his/her profile? Or will it be, as Yim Lin states, another campaigning ploy? On the reverse of this idea, will the politician be able to get more information about you? How will this affect your own anonymity, privacy, or profile expression?
I think it is interesting how Facebook is able to connect social arenas and groups that would otherwise be distinct. We can in some way reach out to our government officials and have closer insight into who exactly (or inexactly) we're putting in office.
This reminds me of the recent YouTube debates, though much less interactive than Facebook and in a slightly different environment.
Post a Comment