I read a book named “Tales from Facebook”. The reason I chose this book was I wanted to know about the secret which always makes me hooked on the Facebook. In fact, I am always on the Facebook.
As soon as I wake up in the morning, I turn my phone on, and try to look new posts on the Facebook. When I first saw the name of this book, I could not help but choose to read this book because I thought the “Tales” could be similar stories that I’ve usually had in my life. Also, before reading this book, I did some research on the author of this book.His name is Daniel Miller and he is an anthropologist. Now, I’m going to talk about this book.
Then, you might understand why the anthropologist had much interest in the small island called Trinidad, and Facebook. This book has 12 different stories about Facebook, happening on the certain island called Trinidad. It is located off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. It is quite a small island, but lots of people are living in Trinidad.
The author of this book is an anthropologist, so his job is study how human beings have lived, organized community, and communicated with their neighbors.Because of his job, he knows that there has been always the Cultural diversity in the world, and the fact that even though we are living in the era of globalization, all different cultures have different ways to accept same thing, even if it is Facebook. These reasons explain why he chose Trinidad for his research. Trinidad is one of the culturally rich countries which have so much distinct cultures that the author of this book had to observe the life-style of Trinidadian, and to research about how Trinidadian use Facebook.
Even though there were 12 stories, I am going to introduce 4 stories- Marriage Dun Mash up, The book of Truth, Time suck, and The History of woman- of Trinidadian which got me excited related to the usage of Facebook. First story is about how Facebook broke up one man’s marriage. There was a man called Marvin. He worked in the marketing department of the cocoa estate. In order to promote new products to customers, he decided to use Facebook. Using Facebook, he could set up the Facebook group site for this project.
His plan was to chat with customers and to save customers’ name when someone did ‘friend’ Facebook Group Site. Because of his department he was working in, he always had to be present on the internet. That he was working in marketing department meant he had no choice but to make lots of Facebook friends as possible as he could. However, the problem was he had lots of Facebook “women” friends who would be in contact with him on the grounds of him promoting chocolate, and introducing the travel of Trinidad and accommodation.His wife all knew that he was making lots of “women” friends by logging on his Facebook account.
To his mind, Marvin started to feel that her action was no less than stalking because only by one click she could check all his friends out. There were several reasons she monitored what he did, the principal reason was the word “friending”. For example, Daniel miller (2011), author of this book, says “In Trinidadian dialect, to friend means to have sex with someone, and most of all it meant that one was in a relationship other than marriage (p10)”.For his wife’s perspective, it was not strange things to monitor his Facebook account because making a friend through the Facebook could be enough to be seen as the act of adultery and grounds for divorce.
Marvin blamed everything happened for Facebook. Actually, being suspicious and jealous of partners has been a part of Trinidad’s cultures before Facebook got into Trinidad. According to this book (Daniel Miller, 2011), “Fears and anxieties about what Trinis call horning are part and parcel of relationships in Trinidad.But that’s the point: they always have been; there is nothing new in that at all.
(p 8)” Next story I want to introduce is about revealing “Truth” through Facebook. In this story, there is a woman whose name is Vishala. Vishala believed that through posting photos on Facebook she can reveal her genuine self. There were several reasons for this. First reason was she could open her heart to her friends when she was using IM (instant Message) on Facebook. Trinidadians really like having a party, so having a party is kind of like one of their cultures.
However, Vishala felt that talking to fifteen people together at a party was uncomfortable enough to reveal her worries and troubles. Sometimes, she were even afraid to communicate with so many people. Unlike the visual party, with IM on the Facebook, she could talked whatever she wanted to say because it was not an open discussion but a one-to-one discussion, thereby making her possible to say more seriously. The second reason was she could cultivate herself to be attractive to other people by decorating her profiles.In fact, Trinidadians believe that the truth of a person consists in the shapes they manage to formulate themselves.
For example, Daniel Miller (2011) explains that “This careful self-construction is much closer to the truth of a person than what they happen to possess naturally through birth. The natural physical self, whether her legs are long or her eyes are dark, is a false guide to a person, because they didn’t choose to be like that (p 50)”. As Trinidadian, she also thought that she could make herself look attractive regardless of her education level, property, and job.She believed that cultivated self was true self because that reflected what she always wanted to be, so that she can be more confident in doing everything, associating, socializing with other people on the Facebook.
Another reason was that on Facebook she could reveal unintended self through her pictures being posted by other people. As I already mentioned, party is one of the popular things in Trinidad, and Trinidadian usually enjoy wearing normal clothes at the fete, trying to look plain, which shows their real appearance. About this point Vishala said that “Facebook is about people knowing the real you.Even if you didn’t want them to know you was in a fete, then why go out to a fete? That means you trying to be something you are not (p 49).
” By going out to a fete, Trinidadian tends to have desire to be posted on the Facebook, and to reveal their true self. Last reason was by doing Facebook she could break down misunderstandings and prejudice against her. One day, she had a chance to meet her ex-boyfriend’s wife, and she felt his wife didn’t want to hang out with her, and didn’t want his husband to get along with Vishala.On the other hand, Vishala tried her best to keep in touch with her to resolve prejudices against her, so that she decided to add his wife as a Facebook friend. After adding his wife as her Facebook Friend, Vishal had an opportunity to talk to her, thereby showing her real images resolving prejudices against her.
On top of that, here is another story, and the title is “Time Suck”. There is a man whose name is Aaron. He usually spent 12 hours a week doing Facebook.What’s more surprising was when the author studied the relationships between Facebook and Trinidadian, it was hard to have computers, which could connect to access of the internet. Realistically speaking, as someone with no internet connection, it was impossible to log on the Facebook, and spend 12 hours a week doing Facebook.
The secret he could have access to the internet, and log on the Facebook was the cultures of Trinidadian. He could use the internet access in the upmarket homes which had more than 6 computers unless he used the computer quiet and unobtrusive.The author, Daniel Miller, said the attitude was perfect for his research because all Trinidadian didn’t care much about him observing their lives. Even when he observed Aaron’s lifestyle for a few days, Aaron also didn’t care about being observed and the presence of Daniel. It was more like he appeared oblivious to his presence.
Of course, he could use computers in the library waiting his turn. When he studied the internet access in Trinidad, Trinidadian felt they were connected with the neighborhood, if one person had the internet.At this point, we can’t hardly wonder how Aaron spent 12 hours a week only by doing Facebook. Actually, there are lots of “time suck” things to do with Facebook. By and large, people spend their time doing online gaming, communicating, and cultivating their profile. In the same way, Aaron spent 12 hours a week doing online gaming, communicating with his friends, and cultivating his profile.
However, the more he got used to using Facebook, the more he lost his time to do his homework. At the end of the semester, he came to know that his grades were getting worse and worse.As a result, his averages grade became lower than C, so that he had to decide to retake all three courses he had taken before. Last story is about woman, Nicole, who thinks that Facebook is a kind of documentary which shows her chronicle of life. She was students of Harvard University, so she had a chance to use the initial version of Facebook. At that time, the Facebook was only used for the students, helping student to organize parties, to share university news, and to offer academic information because the function was usually focused on communication system.
When she used Facebook, no one was likely to cultivate their profiles. She didn’t post exaggerated photos, or fake profiles. However, after Mark Zuckerberg released Facebook, and started to change the original format, lots of people began to use it differently from what it had been used to. Her friends posted photos which made her look attractive and powerful. In other words, with Facebook, people could make pretentious self. In this period, she could also try to make herself look attractive to her boyfriend.
She liked to post everything such as her feelings, and photos related to her couples. However, when she got married, and gave birth to her baby, she didn’t have much time to do Facebook. In this period, she felt so lonely that her posts on Facebook were all about her feelings after giving birth, and marriage. It didn’t mean that she hated raising her baby up, but mean that she wanted to take some time for her, not for her baby. One day, she happened to see her profiles and think about her life.
She realized that as her circumstances changed, frequency in use of Facebook also changed.She also realized Facebook has been no less than her photo album that shows her life. By seeing her profile, she could keep thinking back to her past, and expect her future. These for stories show how human beings are adapting to new technology to communicate with other people, form social relationships or communities, and Trinidadian used Facebook in their own way. It seems like social networking or community are declining because people are getting used to nuclear family phenomenon, and the indifference of the neighborhood.
However, this book shows that by the virtue of the development of social network site such as Facebook people are getting closer each other, and express their feelings more freely. For me, this book gave me new perspective to see the world, especially as to how Trinidadian use Facebook. I realize there are some similarities and differences about using Facebook, even though Facebook is always same. It occurred to me that the differences of using Facebook from countries to countries let us know how cultures merge. Also, I think it was a great chance for me to know the nature of human beings and Facebook.
