Participatory Culture

Social networking websites became extremely popular in our generation. The first encounter I had with this form of participatory culture was MySpace in grade nine. High school is all about fitting in when you first leave the safety of elementary school, which caused me to evaluate what things other kids were doing and try and fit in. MySpace was the perfect forum for this and I soon created my own account. From that point on I have been constantly connected to some form of social networking, whether it be Hi5 or Facebook.

Today these sites are marketing themselves to every possible age and group. MySpace is for young high school kids and for bands to display their music and promote their image. For older people Facebook is a way to reconnect with old friends from years back. My mother recently created an account and has reconnected with people she knew when she was in high school in Trinidad and Tobago. For university and college users it is just another way to stay on top of new plans and relationships.

The problem with younger users is that they are not aware of the implications some of their actions on these social networking sites can cause. “And indeed, words and pictures have great powers to tell stories when creators fully exploit them both”(1). Scott McCloud explains in his book Understanding Comics, that when words and pictures are placed together they can imply meaning. When younger girls have racy display pictures or pictures in their bathing suites they don’t understand that they are advertising their bodies and making themselves an object.

When using these sites we need to understand that words and pictures can be distorted and changed for the creator’s purpose. If your privacy settings are not strict and fully limited on you’re profile, most of the things you say, and pictures you are tagged in can be viewed by other users. When I use Facebook I make sure that only my friends can view my profile and pictures and I keep in mind whenever I take pictures with my friends that Facebook will be their final destination. I am constantly on Facebook, even while I write this the Facebook window is minimized. It takes up a lot of my time and one of my friends even deleted her account because she realized that instead of “lurking” other people’s profiles and adding pictures, she can make more of her time by doing homework or completing other tasks. Although it is not fully deleted, this still takes a great deal of strength to do. Cutting yourself off from a major form of communication that your peer’s use is hard but it can have substantial rewards.

Work Cited

1. McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. New York: Harper Paperbacks, 1994. Print.