Invasion of public space?

This week’s readings focused on Friendster, Facebook, and Myspace. “Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace” describes reasons why young teenagers are attracted to Facebook, Friendster, Myspace, etc. One reason which I can relate to is because people who do not have cars or the ability to meet up with each other can hang out through the use of these programs. In addition, many teenagers lack uncontrolled space. This is because society today is much worse and it is unsafe to hang out in the woods or at certain locations without adult supervision. Thus, teenagers are expected by their parents to go home after school or to hang out at friend’s houses. In addition, teenagers who are involved in out of school activities, are still in controlled spaces in those activities because adults supervise and run these activities. So teenagers are in controlled, supervised settings all day in school, after school at their structured activities, and when they get home. Due to the majority of their time being spent in controlled settings, they don’t have time to just hang out with friends in unstructured, settings and places. This is why they use virtual, digital technologies to “hang out” in a setting similar to an unstructured private or public place, when they are in their controlled space at home. Teenagers use instant messaging to “hang out with friends” through a form of a private space, and Myspace and Facebook to “hang out with friends” through a form of a public space.

I used to use instant messaging a lot in middle school and in high school. I used to go to school from 8:15 until 2:55, and then would have either tennis, basketball, or softball practice (depending on the season) from 3:15-5:30. After these sport activities, I would go home, and then go back to school many times at night for different club meetings. Whether I was in school, under teacher’s control, at my sport practices, under my coach’s control, at home, under my parents control, or at club meeting, under teacher’s control, I didn’t have the ability to hang out with friends under uncontrolled settings during the weekdays. This is why at night, I would be able to talk to friends through instant message. We were able to talk about absolutely anything under our own privacy. It was as if we were hanging out. In high school I created MySpace and used this as a way to interact with my friends through a public place, posting pictures, comments, bulletins, etc. Later on, I stopped using my MySpace and created a Facebook, which I used for the same purpose.

My Uncle from California told me how he just reconnected with a distant cousin recently and went out for dinner with him in New York. I had never met his cousin before. However, two weeks ago I got a friend request from this cousin. I wasn’t sure if I should accept or deny the request. I didn’t want to be rude by denying it, or for him to think that I was trying to hide bad things on my Facebook by not accepting his friend request. I felt like my privacy would be invaded if I were to accept him as my friend. I have pictures of myself partying with friends and drinking. My parents know I drink. However, I don’t know this distant cousin and am not comfortable with him seeing pictures of me and my friends partying, seeing my wall posts, my information, or anything about my social life.

Facebook is my own public space for me and my friends to interact. It is not a space to interact with adults. I am in controlled settings in classes and when I am home. I use Facebook to interact freely with my friends, without having to worry about doing something that adults would not approve of. If that were the case, my Facbeook profile would be different. It wouldn’t be a true depiction of my identity or personality. It would be molded to be accepted by my family members, or authority.An article I found on The Boston Globe, describes how now employees, parents, and teachers are creating Facbeook accounts. When students get friend requests from their teachers or parents, or people get friend requests from their employers, they run into uncertainty as to whether they should accept or deny the friend request. Some feel like they have to accept it so they don’t create an awkwardness between the person pending the friend request. This is the same situation I was faced in when my distant cousin requested me as a friend on Facebook. However, I ultimately decided to deny the friend request. I may feel uneasy if I meet this cousin because I am not sure how he reacted to me denying his friend request. Sue Murphy, a manger in a National Human Resource Association trade group has a solution to avoid this problem and uncertainty that people encounter when faced with this situation. This problem is to create two Facebook accounts, one for socializing purposes and one for professional purposes. This is a good idea and is a win-win situation. Through one Facebook account, people can connect and interact with their friends freely, and through the other, they can connect with employers, employees, teachers, authority, etc.