Could
Facebook be the new public journal? Facebook keeps your selected group of
friends up to date with everything happening in your life. From being too tired
and suffering from Mondayitis too linking a comedy video to your wall. Facebook
has gradually been increasing the function you can use while posting online.
Tagging
individuals involved and publishing your location of your post has become
common practice on Facebook. Recently Facebook has added emoticons to post,
which has another layer to your post. These post,
pictures and more are than organised by date on your wall. This allows anyone
you gave permission, to scroll through your personal thoughts and links.
Your friend
list is your audience, in which you control (Van Luyn, 2013). It can be a small
and private, or a very public audience. You have total authority over, audience
and context. To some extent the Facebook website has control structure of each
post, but allows personalisation.
A diary or
journal by definition is a daily
record of news and events of a personal nature (Dictionary.com,
2013) .
Which is Facebook primary use. Facebook may fall under the genre of a diary,
however a personal experience shapes the genre of each individual’s wall.
To increase authenticity
an individual can upload media or refer to another website. This allows an individual
to draw attention to their post and by default themselves. A diary has
historically been a public journal used to inform the general public or been
private for the individual and close family. (McNeill, 2011) When the diary moved
online, it become a mix of the two. Facebook post have an assumed understanding
and history between the author and reader. However, not all the readers may
have this understanding, which demonstrates that a Facebook may have the genre
of a diary, but is not in the traditional sense.
What is your
Facebook diary like?
References
Dictionary.com.
(2013). journal. Retrieved from Dictionary.com:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/journal
FB Cover Street.
(2013). FB Cover Street. Retrieved from Diary Covers:
http://fbcoverstreet.com/facebook-covers/Diary
McNeill, L.
(2011). Dairy 2.0? (C. Rowe, & E. L. Wyss, Eds.) Language and New
Media, 313-325.
Van
Luyn, A. (2013). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the Making of Place,
Week 6 notes. [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from: http://www.learnjcu.jcu.edu.au
Hi Tiana,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog this week and agree that Facebook is used by many as a type of online diary, focusing on the “quotidian and the personal” (McNeil, 2011, p. 319). While many users employ stylistic elements of a dairy in their posts, the point of difference is that Facebook is not used exclusively or universally as a diary. Facebook is used in different ways and meets many needs. Maybe this is evolution of the genre in progress?
As Laurie Mc Neill (2011) argues, it is changing social and cultural values of society and the needs of the diarist themselves that influence genre rather than a deviation from the genre itself (p. 316). With this cultural change and new technology comes a shift in power from the historical ‘gatekeepers’ of the narrative – the publishing agents – to us, the ordinary people (‘Facebookers’). We write from our perspective, capturing our story and in doing so, we too can “become part of history” (McNeill, 2011, p. 317).
Tammy :)
Reference
McNeill, L. (2011). ‘Diary 2.0? A genre moves from page to screen.’ C. Rowe & E. Wyss (Eds.). Language and new media. (pp.313 – 325). Cresskill: Hampton Press Inc.