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AJ JarrardDecember, 16, 2010
Dr. R. WimberleyAn Analysis of Community Evolution and the use of Facebook
A sociological battle over the definition of what community is has been occurring
throughout the literature for more than a century. The concept of evolutionary community
is to be considered in the following analysis of Facebook and its direct correlation to
community development. Community however can never be concretely defined, it is a
fluid evolutionary concept that is relative to the population, organization, environment,
and technology (!"T#. $n an attempt to e%plain the evolutionary process of community
$ will define a plethora of definitions, from traditional to contemporary ideas. $n the study
of communities it is important to have a realization of the basic fundamental elements
needed by a community in order to e%ist as part of the !"T& one being the physical
realm and the other being social interactions.As it stands there is no holistic term for community, for it is an evolutionary idea
that finds itself in continuous flu%. !. 'uncans model of !"T) (opulation,
!rganization, "nvironment, and Technology# describes these evolutionary ideas with a
more subtle approach, which $ recommend sourcing for further detail, for $ am only
covering briefly on the sub*ect. As we go further into my analysis we will discuss the two
basic principles of community (places and transactions# as well as e%plain three macro
concepts of evolutionary community (localization, glocalization, and networked
individualism#. $ will correlate Facebook directly to community development by
e%plaining how it changes patterns of behavior in particular areas like social ties, and
human capital and logic. This is a critical transformation of community relations and
boundaries.
$t is argued by some sociologists that community is declining and the social fabric
of our society is fraying. +ome argue that the physical realm is critical& this is the
traditional sense from our relative degree. Another group believes community to be
evolutionary and predictable under the eyes of a% -eber and "mile 'urkheim. This
third conceptualization along with arry -ellmans e%planations of locales, glocales,
and eventually indivualalities, compliment one another in such a way as to be easily
1Duncan, O., 1959. Cultural, Behai!ral, and "c!l!#ical $er%&ectie% inthe 'tudy !( '!cial Or#ani)ati!n. The American Journal of Sociology.65*2+. $.12-15.
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Dr. R. Wimberleyunderstood. A further look up the roots of this tree lead us to an understanding of how
comple% feedback mechanisms, like our use of technology, ad*ust the way in which
community is performed. As we will discover, social networking sites like Facebook,
affect the community in a certain ways, both facilitating and shaping its boundaries.The term /social capital is used to describe this particular process of facilitating
and shaping boundaries. The use of Facebook changes how we develop and maintain
social ties with others& it affects our language and interactional ways.
As we maintain increasing ties amongst others in a flu% of physical0non1physical
manners we increasingly become more specific with whom our friends are. This leads to
peculiar rational choices that continue the treadmill of specialization, heterogeneity, and
egoism.
Technology acts as a medium of transaction increasingly in todays society
amongst individuals, locales, regions, nations, and globally. As technology creeps further
into our everyday lives we become intertwined and we find ourselves using tools like
Facebook to enhance and facilitate our social capital, the ties and bonds of society.
$ will attempt to e%plain the current evolutionary trends occurring to the concept
of community by describing how it has shifted from little1bo%es (purely physically
constrained#, to a contemporary state of 2glocalization3 (both local and global#, and then
to a future of total networked individualism (pure personal community, not constrained
by space#. There are arguments saying community is breaking down and arguments
saying it never has and is only changing shape. $ will show how technology is shifting
our way in which we conceptualize community and provide a specific e%ample,
describing the social networking site of Facebook and its particular relation to
community.
The Basics of Community
ost people are 2in basic agreement that the community consists of person in a
social interaction within a geographic area and having one or more additional common
ties.34 The traditional view of this perspective believes community to be rooted in
neighborhoods that are spatially bounded and the local population knows one another and
2e!r#e A. /illerym Jr., Deniti!n% !( C!mmunity Area% !(A#reement, Rural Sociology, 20 *1955+ &.111.
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Dr. R. Wimberleymay walk door1to1door (Chua, ade, and -ellman 4556#. +ome consensus say
community has three basic elements. 2!ne, community is a social unit of which space is
an integral part& community is a place.3 (7aufman#. Two, community indicates an
organizational way of life. And the third element is collective action, which is to interacttogether for a common life concern (7aufman#.
-hile others, like -ilkenson, believes community to be 2natural interactions.3
+chwalenbach says it is 2people naturally connected.3 Tonneeis and ead call it 2an
aggregate of people who share common interest in a particular locality.3 (-ilkenson#
Although $ argue that the term 2locality3 may never be fully developed.
Amos 8awleys perspective from a 8uman "cological perspective, along with
8illers and arsons, classified community as 2a structure of relations through which a
localized population provides its daily needs.3 (-ilkenson#
The 8uman "cological perspective re9uires that a physical realm is needed. $
have trouble believing this to be the absolute definition of community and therefore
criti9ue its breadth. This particular perspective, ibid, has flaws in the focusing of solely
defining community through the use of direct concepts of 2locality3 and 2daily needs.3
This is too narrow a perspective, although it carries validity in a more specialized lens of
the community. $n a physical perspective it is precisely true that we need a geographic
setting in which a particular social organization provides our needs for survival:
resources, and services.
The human ecological model is too specific in its definition of a holistic
community. -hat it is failing to consider within its lens is the other root of community,
which is *ust pure social interactional, crossing all boundaries of relative defined locales.
any sociologists using the traditional sense of community are debating the breakdown
of community, especially under the lens of a more localized concept of boundaries and
traditional aspects. 8ow one considers the definition of community effects how one may
or may not believe the argument that community is declining. The traditional community
argument especially blames generational change and its use of technology for a
degradation of community.
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Dr. R. Wimberley
Decline of Community?
;obert utnam, a scholar and writer, argues that community is breaking down andcivic participation is on a steady decline (utnam, 4555#. utnam says that the loss of
what he defines 2civic particpation3 is the main element dissolving the foundations of
community. 8e argues that the number of 2strong ties3 or 2bonded capital3 one has is
dwindling as well.ie, 8illygus, ? "rbring, 4554&
-ellman, 455
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Dr. R. Wimberleyempathy for one another, trust, and identity. -e reach a point, utnam states, where we
do not even know our neighbors, are isolated, and loose the aspiration to 2pay it forward3
when in public surrounded by strangers (utnam, 4555#.
utnam continues to hold strong to his arguments, saying he has validity in hisvariables of measurements, numbers, and calculations through tools like regression
analysts. $f people are tucked away in their homes instead of being out in public maybe
they are chatting online: one1to1one, schmoozing, ranting, and participating in blogs
(discussion groups# (7raut, undmark, et al., )66B& +mith, 'rucker, -ellman, ? 7raut,
)666#. 2-hat if utnam is only measuring the old forms of community and participation
while new forms of communication and organization underneath his radar are connecting
people (-ellman, 455)# -hat he fails to conceptualize in his data is the fact that, yes
formal organizations are on a decline, but those formalities are being replaced with
informalities. This means that community is not falling apart, but is *ust shifting in the
way it organizes itself as conse9uence of the adaptation and use of technology. utnam
did not foresee the 2cultural lag3D that occurs with the power of technology, the
innovation that follows, and the adaptation to technology, to better suit our needs as
humans. +ocial networking sites, like Facebook, enhance community ties through the
medium of technology, thus reshaping how community is performed and defined.
Transition of Community
The evolutionary aspect of community can be understood and e%plained through
the discussion of arry -ellmans macro perspective. The Community Euestion is to
ponder how increased information, computer use, bureaucracy, industry, and urbanization
alters society (-ellman, )66#. The history of community formation, according to
-ellman, can be seen as a series of three ideal types, which reflect changes in technology
and mobility (4556#. -ellman describes community as a shifting adaptive concept that
found its roots in strictly place1based, face1to1face interaction. This -ellman refers to as
/little bo%es, where interaction involved traveling by foot, door1to1door. 8e advances the
idea that community shifts from this 2original3 state to a 2glocalized3 community, of both
place1based and global systematic interactions between individuals. Glocalization
5William O#burn% de(eniti!n !( cultural la# i% the delayed ada&tati!nand reacti!n !( the &!&ulati!n% u%e !( techn!l!#y relatie t! it%inenti!n.
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Dr. R. Wimberleyoccurred with the invention of things like, the telephone, car and plane, this created the
ability for individuals to be based in place1to1place interactions, where you call +allys
house from your house. "ventually community reaches a state of total 2networked
individualism,3 interactions absent of place and locality.Traditional little bo%es can be stereotyped as having high social control and
limited resources of what is available within the group (-ellman, Gloc#. The little bo%
community is socially and cognitively bounded by homogenous, broadly1embracing
groups (-ellman, Gloc#. The individuals in this community deal with only a few formal
organizations in which they belong and identify with. "ach situation occurs in a place,
one group at a time. This kind of organization builds strong solidarity, trust, and empathy
for one another within the community. The people live in densely knit, hierarchically
arranged bounded groups, where they e%perience work, community, and domesticity
together (-ellman, Gloc#.
Community is evolutionary and is shifting from spatially1defined communities to
relationally1defined communities (Chua, ade, and -ellman, 4556& 7ayhara, 455=#. -e
are moving from densely and tightly1knit groups to sparsely1knit and loosely1bounded
networks (-ellman, 455o longer are communities locally constrained, but instead people
have a multitude of glocalized ties. This change to a networked society allows for
boundaries to be permeable, interactions to become diverse, ties and associations can
switch easily between multiple networks, and the hierarchies become flatter, but more
comple% (-ellman, Gloc#. "ach person highly develops his or her own personal
community. The technological development of computer networks and social networks
give rise to increased individualism and heterogeneity. This gives rise to demand for
collaborative communication and information sharing, which nourishes societal
transitions from group1based societies to network1based societies (Castells, )66=, 4555&
-ellman, 4554, 455
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Dr. R. WimberleyThe rise of the networked individual from a glocalized system has been
developing for decades. "%amples affecting this transition include: social changes, like
birth control and dual1career families which facilitate in a transition from place1to1place
to a person1to1person mode of domestic and community life& separation of land areas, likecommercial industrial zones and residential& and technological changes, like car
ownership, highways, and affordable air transportation (-ellman, 455
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Dr. R. WimberleyFacebook can support the creation of new social ties as well as maintain old ones,
thus allowing for people to remain connected with one another no matter geographical
distances. any times these on1line connections through Facebook bring about face1to1
face interactions, which according to utnam, is highly needed within the decliningcommunity he observes. Facebook allows for individuals to further increase the density
and velocity of interactions with those from our physical environment.
Facebook"
Facebook was created in 455@, by 'ecember of the first year had ) million users
("llison, 455& 7risanic, 455B# and within three years had more than 4) million members
and created ).= billion page views a day ("llision& 7risanic, 455B#. Facebook works in
two ways& by consuming e%isting content (reading others profiles#, or by contributing
new content, publishing. Contributing to Facebook, which involves impression
management (later discussed#, includes posting comments, sending messages, tagging
pictures, uploading contents, posting website links, and filling out profiles. A typical user
of Facebook may check their page two or three times a day for updates and news of what
others have done. This enhances our relations by keeping people in touch with one
another.
Facebook also provides complete transparency and allows for users to know what
is going on within their community of friends& like where the ne%t party or get together is,
or what last weeks party was like. The site allows for research and learning,
entertainment, communication and social interaction, something to do when bored, access
to material otherwise unavailable, and games. The site allows for users to write down
their thoughts and share aspects of their selves with others, aspects that may be hard to
share in face1to1face interactions.
All of this brings into 9uestion whether individuals are becoming too concerned
with the 2e3 and the self1gratification of the en*oyment received from superficial
actions of others $t also leads me pondering, if and how, Facebook changes the way
individuals choose to portray themselves physically and virtually And how the power of
personalized choice of friendships, interactions, and entertainment may cause a shift in
reality.
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Dr. R. Wimberley+ocial networking sites, like Facebook, allows for further advancement of
personalized, specifically tailored, friendships, interactions, and information. Facebook
has the power to provide you with your own 2personalized3 daily newspaper tailored
specifically for you& it is called the 2>ews Feed,3 which acts as your own personal newseditor. >ews Feed brings about more online satisfaction because it feeds you information
that Facebook has calculated as important to you. This may be one reason why Facebook
can become so addicting and is checked often by its members.
The personalized news feed of Facebook can ad*ust information it calculates as
important to you. Facebook has this capability because of all the variables programmed to
monitor your actions while on Facebook. These news filters include: friend filter, putting
only the people who are your friends on your news feed& brand filter, which only shows
particular products you have indicated you are interested in& content rank, this filter
measures the popularity of an event amongst your common friends, the relevance of the
event, and the importance& friend rank is a variable that measures the interactivity of you
with a particular friend& how much you visited their profile, chatted with them, or sent
invites to one another& application rank, which looks at what applications, like games,
you use and how often& and trained behavior, which is an overall assumption of what you
do on Facebook.
All of this comes together to form your customized Facebook news feed, created
*ust for your interest and probably the reason why so many people check it fre9uently.
The satisfaction of increased social interaction is addicting. A human species is naturally
communal, thus a medium like Facebook, which can bring more social interactions, feeds
that drive of social satisfaction through interaction.
Social Ca#ital"
$ncreased interaction on Facebook leads to increased social capital, the resources
accumulated through the relationships among people (Coleman, )6BB#. ourdieu and
-ac9uant define social capital as 2the sum of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue
to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less
institutionalized relationships or mutual ac9uaintance and recognition3 ()664, p.)@#.
$ncreased social capital is linked to many positive outcomes, such as better public health,
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Dr. R. Wimberleylower crime rates, improved community and better financial markets (Adler ? 7won,
4554#.
For individuals, social capital allows for the accumulation of resources from other
members of the same network, including useful information, personal relationships, andthe capacity to organize groups (a%ton, )666#. Granovetter believes this gives
individuals access to people outside oneJs close circle of friends which provides new
ideas and also may bring about employment opportunities ()6
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Dr. R. Wimberleymore groups or cli9ues of friends, thus influencing a larger group of people. These weak
ties link members of different smaller groups together (Granovetter, )6
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Dr. R. WimberleyA move towards networked society places an increased importance on ones ability
to use network capital to retrieve 2desirable resources, along with financial capital,
human capital, organizational capital, and cultural capital3 (-ellman, Gloc#. >etwork
capital may provide resources like 2information, knowledge, material aid, financial aid,alliances, emotional support, and a sense of being connected3 (-ellman, Gloc#.
any Facebook ties are both physical and virtual. Facebook *ust fills in the gaps
between times of physical interaction. The stronger the tie, the more Facebook is used.
The time spent online is not reducing the time in face1to1face contact but rather taking the
time of other less social activities such as eating, television watching, and sleeping
(oase, 8orrigan, -ellman and ;ainie, 455=& ;ainie and -ellman, 45)5#. $t
supplements, arranges, and amplifies communications with others, rather than replacing
them (-ellman, Gloc#. The $nternet is fully integrated into our personal communities
and is rarely a separate second life in itself (Keenhof, -ellman, Euell, and 8ogan, 455B&
Euan18aase and -ellman, 4554#. !ne study of Americans show that the mean number
of friends in weekly in1person contact has increased by 45 percent between 4554 and
455: from 6.@ to )).< (-ang and -ellman, 4556#.
Facebook is *ust another means of communication, like the telephone, it
facilitates e%isting social relations and follows patterns of civic engagement and
socialization (-ellman ? Gulia, )666#. Facebook is a personal community, which
provides the essentials of community separately to each individual: support, sociability,
information, social identities, and a sense of belonging (-ellman, 455
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Dr. R. Wimberleyeople now have larger social networks of more people, more communication,
and at a faster pace. -ireless portability allows for the potential of 9uick dispersion of
knowledge and ideas amongst an associated community. $ts creates the everywhere1
nowhere phenomenon: 2Communication will be everywhere, but because it isindependent of place, it will be situated nowhere3 (;andall, 455), p.D#. -e are becoming
more specialized and more mobilized as our social capital does too. This increase in the
amount of communication mi%ed with the specialization of each partial association gives
one the ability to have specialized support for particular social needs (-ellman and
-ortley, )665#. eople will reciprocate with the same kind of help that their specialized
tie has given to them (lickert, Cote and -ellman, 455#.
$t is not clear whether the high use of social networking sites, like Facebook, will
foster densely1knit communities, good for conserving resources, or a more sparsely1knit
community, good for obtaining new information and resources. $t is a fact that as social
networks become larger it is going to be harder to maintain density. 2As the size of the
network increases arithmetically, the number of ties must increase geometrically to
maintain the same level of density3 (-ellman, 455
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Dr. R. Wimberleyspecialized associations, which rarely grab the full attention or passion of an individual
(-ellman, 455
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Dr. R. Wimberleycommunity because of the high amount of partial commitment. 'urkheims theory of
specialization occurs to a point of e%treme egoism and loss of identity through the
multitude of anomic partial associations. A networked individual will suffer from e%treme
compartmentalization, which will lead to anomie and lack of a sense of direction orpurpose. As this occurs one will also find a sense of desynthesization because of a lack of
a knowing what the whole self is. !ver stimulation of constant entertainment and
distractions also creates a sense of desynthesization, like the over use of a drug will do to
you. Lou become addicted to the e%cess stimulation, which overtime becomes the norm,
thus you reach a point of only feeling very little. This is referred to by a% -eber as
disenchantment , which occurs once an individual becomes locked in an iron cage of
rational choice, which is e%actly what occurs as friendship choices become partial,
superficial, and in constant flu%.
Summary"
Facebook may be seen to have both positive and negative effects on the individual
and society as the concept of community evolves. +ocial networking is a revolution in the
way people interact& one that is not fully understood or developed yet. !ur society is
transiting into a 2real time3 culture of networked individualism& the wanting to know
what to your specific taste is going on now, not last week or even two hours ago.
Changing from place1based community to person1based community involves -ellmans
concepts of community transformation: localization, glocalization, and networked
individualism. !ur personal relationships are becoming bounded and intertwined by the
virtual world. $ believe that Facebook can bring about positive change by the way it
allows us to maintain past friends, share pictures of real life interactions, talk about those
events, and share ideas. Facebook is supplementing community and transforming and
supplementing a glocalized community, both local and global. This can be seen by the
invites that are created for events, which are then sent to more people much more
conveniently, thus putting more ease in organizing and participating in particular physical
actions.
Facebook allows for groups of people to create a community of common interests,
which allows for others to connect and perpetuate their knowledge and beliefs about
particular interests without the impediment of geography. The creation of many weak ties
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Dr. R. Wimberleyoffers more available resources to a Facebook member, like *ob employment. These weak
ties also have the potential to eventually become strong ties, depending on how a
particular individuals situation changes, like if you move or become interested in
something that a common ac9uaintance is proficient in. The best part of Facebook is thepictures. This is like a reality1tv show of yourself and your friends. eople love to look at
each others lives and as the saying goes, 2a picture is worth a thousand words.3 ictures
allow for an individual to remember past events very easily, since our memories are
easily triggered visually. ictures of my life are simply shared and discussed with others&
normally conversations about the pictures are with the other people that are in them. This
creates even stronger bonds with the people in the pictures because of the continual
discussion of the particular face1to1face interaction captured.
Facebook does bring full transparency of society to the table. -e constantly have
to monitor our performance and image on Facebook because all is publicly available to
be scrutinized by others, thus changing our behavior through impression management,
possibly for the better. Transparency encourages us, thorough fear of being ostracized, to
think about our words, actions, and conse9uences more deeply. This brings about self1
regulation within the Facebook community and thus solidarity. >o one wants their
identity ruined by negative images or words. The problem is that this increased amount of
comparisons and *udgments of others with ourselves begins to drive a wedge between
individual interest and collective interests.
Facebook breeds a symbolic self, an Avatar, caught within a fantasy world, where
actions contain superficial meanings. -e become so hooked to our virtual selves and
friends that we develop 2check1in3 behavior, or a yearning to know what is happening on
our custom tailored news feed in virtual land. This addiction is easy to get hooked on
considering we are by nature social beings, curious if others like us and eager to compare
and *udge ourselves and others. From the creation of civil society humans have always
been interested in gossip (knowledge# of others& technology has allowed for this
particular knowledge to increasingly get larger. ut is this increase a bad thing, are our
virtual selves our real selves, and is the knowledge we are obtaining relevant to our
physical lives in the /real world
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Dr. R. WimberleyConstantly worrying about what others think about you, Cooleys looking glass
self, creates an%iety and low self1esteem. This may become problematic as we
increasingly watch and compare what others are doing with our own lives. "ven if we are
more heterogeneous, we still fit into social norms of acceptance. As we develop thesecomparisons of eads generalized others, we continually feel a lack of fulfilling our
roles within society. $ndividuals who are consumed with Goffmans front stage
performance, and the impression management involved for this performance, causes
individuals to lose grasp of who they truly are or what they should be doing.
>arcissism begins to plague our society, as media constantly tells us we are not
good enough if we do not consume or look a particular way& now Facebook friends show
and tell us as well. Facebook acts as a tool of conformity within society& people follow
and do what they assume others are doing and thinking. Friends become more superficial,
as weak ties increase, and lack the feelings and emotions that close bonded capital ties
provide. Although, we can maintain capital with past or distant bonded ties, we lose face1
to1face contact.
The losses of face1to1face interpersonal connections hinder an inherent ability of
humans. -e increasingly are losing the ability to show emotions and connect with one
another in person& the ability to connect with people in a deeper and more traditional way.
>ow our social comfort and interaction comes from online worlds. As "berhardt points
out, 2rather than investing in relationships with new peers who are physically around
them, some students rely on virtual networks and other technological means of
connecting with friends elsewhere to fill their need for social comfort and interaction.3
(455#. -e are moving away from relationships in which we spend actual time with
people physically around us, to ones in this virtual world, as we sit alone at our computer.
>ow we can see a Facebook friends profile and read particular items such as
relationship status, political views, personal interests, hobbies, favorite books and
movies, educational backgrounds, their particular friends, academic coursework, and
much more, the commoditization and concrete partial associations we make with others.
Although this gives a good insight into /who these people are, it does not provide you
with their back stage personality, the true selves, what you know is essentially a persons
living obituary. "berhardt says, 2These students do not form important bonds with friends
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Dr. R. Wimberleyin their current social conte%t by e%periencing early emotional highs or sharing low
points together, and they are likely to soon find themselves isolated outsidersM3 (455#.
-e are impairing our development of interpersonal skills as we become hooked to a
virtual self and way of socializing& we lose this ability to physically connect. +o not onlyare we losing the ability to look each other in the eyes or shake hands when we meet, we
are also taking away the e%periences that helps us learn basic elements of human
interaction.
utnam is still proven to be correct in his analysis that strong ties and community
are still declining. -e live in a Gilded age where the social interactions taking place on
Facebook appear to enhance community, but as we can see it only leads to continual
isolation through individualistic tendencies of the abundance of choice. Church groups,
sports teams, social clubs, neighborhood associations, etc. are all currently suffering from
the lowest participation rates ever. "ven conversations with family and spouses are
declining. This is important to recognize because as utnam suggest, close connections
provide physical and mental health as well as community health (4555#. -e have
different types of conversations with different kinds of relations, like with kids, co1
workers, parents, neighbors, etc., but as cpherson et al. proves, important conversations
are sharply going down (455B#.
;eal or important conversations include topics that are relevant to your particular
beliefs, ideologies, religion, and feelings. eople with @ or more /discussion friends have
dropped from one1third of the population to one1fifth in the period from )6BD to 455@
(cpherson et al. 455B#. The social world thus becomes more limited even though you
have more weak ties and access to certain things. This is because of the select few people
you have /real conversations with. $ndividuals speak with fewer outside members of
their family on important life issues, which then socially trap them in the same mode of
thought within the same social1class, religion, and race. Family conversations have
dropped in the past twenty years from D6N to @
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Dr. R. Wimberleyone to communicate face1to1face feelings and beliefs with are on the rise, these particular
individuals are socially isolate. They may feel a sense of happiness and connectivity by
the use of Facebook, but in a case of an emergency will be left stranded. cpherson et al.
says, 2-e may be missing the chance to understand and interact with whole segments ofour social world. -e may cease to care about them because we have no strong bonds that
span the social divides that separate us, because the social fabric that underlies our civil
society continues to fray.3 (455B#.
Technology creates possibilities, opportunities, challenges, and constraints. $t
shapes and constructs how we perform community, from localized areas of high
solidarity and homogeneity to loosely1knit heterogeneity. $t neither makes nor breaks a
community, but *ust brings about a change in the way people do things. Facebook is an
enabler in the evolution of community and how we conceptualize it. Technology in the
past has brought about huge changes, like the invention of the telephone, automobiles, or
the plane. Facebook is *ust another advancement in technology that changes the way
people do things. -hich if used in moderation, like everything in life, then glocalization
will remain for sometime. This will only help in our ability to interact with one another
because we have the best of both worlds, local and global. Facebook complements face1
to1face interaction, *ust as the telephone did, by increasing the volume of contact and
repertoire with others. As technology has brought about this ease of connectivity, we have
moved from a place1based community to a person1based community, which means we
can now personalize our own communities because we are not restricted by geography.
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