Facebook is using you

If you have a Facebook account, you should read this.

The Many Sides To Facebook

Back in 2004, a Harvard University student had an idea that would revolutionize the world in less than a decade and introduced the global population to another form of socialization. Facebook was originated with the intention of connecting college kids online so that they are in constant contact with one another. But what was meant to be a small website turned into an online phenomenon that helped kick start the social media frenzy we live in today.

Facebook still serves its initial purpose of connecting people online whether they’re right around the corner or halfway across the world. Sharing photos, videos, articles, statuses and so much more. Soon enough people of all ages created accounts and joined the hype as society projects the idea of Facebook as one of the “must-haves” in life.

Facebook does all sorts of good. From reconnecting family members and friends to being a great engine for social and political change in the Middle East by initializing the Arab revolutions. It’s accessible to anyone at any time with no restrictions and that type of freedom appeals to the public, but unfortunately that freedom could come with serious consequences. These include concerns such as cyber bullying, online predators, lack of face-to-face interaction and the fact that Facebook can be extremely distracting.

Cyber bullying is one of the very serious issues that is regularly overlooked by society, the fact that it happens online makes it seem less serious than real life bullying. Mainly affecting teenagers, Facebook has been known to cause drama among peers and make it very easy for someone to be targeted. This can be extremely emotionally traumatizing for anyone who experiences cyber bullying, as they feel trapped since all of it is happening right under the noses of the public.

Lack of face-to-face interaction has also become a habit among the younger generation today. Basically thinking ‘why leave my house to see my friends when I can talk to them from the comfort of my own home?’ In turn, people stay indoors the majority of the time, which could also lead to improper use of that time. For students in particular, myself included, Facebook is a major tool for procrastination that can distract you from doing homework, running errands, etc...

I would be the first to admit that social networking changed the way people perceive life as a whole, the world is becoming smaller day by day thanks to the technology available but all its advantages tend to overshadow its disadvantages which should be reflected seriously by everyone before giving into peer pressure and immediately creating an account just because everybody else has one.

The Twitter Sensation

Twitter is what some may call a global media phenomenon. It is in fact a global sensation, that started out not too long ago. But how come millions of people know about it? How did the website spread globally?

It spread through word of mouth communication. People who have accounts, or who heard about the website, told their friends about it and their friends told their friends. The cycle continues. Word of mouth communication is only made stronger by another global sensation - the Internet. Through the Internet and social networking websites such as myspace, facebook and now twitter there is instant communication between people who might not be in the same room, country or even continent. All one has to do is write on their friends’ “walls” and if those friends are at that very moment on the Internet, they will get the message. Also, Instant Messaging is very popular and it increases word of mouth communication exponentially. So ideas spread much faster now then they ever used to in the past.

People were talking about the new social networking website (Twitter) for a long duration of time and with great intensity and enthusiasm. Due to the global recognition of this website, there is now a collective consumption of this kind of popular culture. Virtual local scenes are emerging on Twitter through Twitter’s use of hash-tags and lists that people are allowed to make. People of the same subculture who do not live in the same place are constantly, in a way, in the same place because of Twitter. There are many downloadable applications that allow Twitter to be on one’s mobile phone, iPad or laptop. So people are constantly communicating with one another.

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As seen, Twitter can be studied sociologically. The concept of Twitter fits in perfectly with the interaction approach of popular culture. This approach focuses on the smaller and informal processes of communication such as word of mouth. This approach depends on interactions between small groups of people and the influences they have through those small actions and does not depend on big-budget marketing. This is exactly what Twitter does. One way it does this is by the trending topics one sees on the side bar. A concept or idea that started out between a couple of people somehow spreads around a region or the world and gains global recognition.

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The Internet Revolution!

“The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow” (Gates, 2003). Since the birth of the Internet in 1969 until now, it has been known as the staircase not only for communication, but also for information, entertainment, and education.

In sociology, many sociologists talk about the social impact the Internet has on people and how it plays important roles in creating social interaction and interpersonal communication. For example, famous social networks like Facebook and Skype have changed the way friends connect and interact with each other.



With the aid of Internet, communication becomes easier and much quicker than other traditional mediums. Internet has changed the way we communicate and entertain; we can upload, download, and share games, music, pictures, and videos with our friends who live across far away continents. In addition, you can gain access to chat programs that can be uploaded from the Internet directly to your computer or even to your cell phone, for you to make relationships, contact friends and relatives, share ideas, gain social skills, and identify new cultures and nationalities.



Internet has also changed the way we obtain education and has offered academic facilities. For example, students can attend online classes, join courses and sessions, listen to lectures by experts and professors via YouTube, and send their assignments through Blackboard so that professors don’t have to second-guess any handwriting. Moreover, through Internet, students are able to check the availability of books, articles, journals, DVDs, and other sources instead of visiting libraries and consuming time searching. Northwestern University library for example, uses this technique by supplying the NUcat website, which has really taught me a new searching procedure and saved my valuable time with only a few clicks of my mouse.





Internet has certainly a profound impact on us that is far beyond what we would have expected; it has changed us by bringing conveniences and improving our thinking. That’s exactly what the communication theorist Marshall McLuhan (1967) has talked about. In other words, according to him, Internet is not only a two-way communication medium, by which users exchange messages and information, but also it affects the way users perceive and process that type of knowledge.




For me, it’s true that Internet steals my body most of the time, but it gives me a more motivated and enhanced mind instead. In fact, Internet provides me with both absolute communication and isolation, but its constructive side outweighs the unconstructive one.

Online social networks

The most popular online social network website

The first website that comes to everyones mind when they first hear online social networks is Facebook. Everyone in the world spends infinite amount of time on the internet, and the worst source of procrastination is Facebook. They spends hours on the website without even realizing the time whooshing by when they should be working on other more important things, such as writing blog posts on Qatar Culture Club! One way of explaining the phenomenon of Facebook is through the interaction theory as there are different groups of individuals coming together, sharing their experiences and culture with the friends added to their profile. Facebook is not the first website that began to fulfill this purpose, there are other online social networks that were online before Facebook even started. Who could forget Myspace, people still use it( just not as much as before), or Hi5 or Bebo, there were many different website that used to bring people together but Facebook is probably the most successful one at doing so.

I always thought the site One of the first social

was called HiS when i was younger network sites I joined

The new design of what was formerly Myspace is now My____. Perhaps it was altered to attract more people to join and stay on their website.

People are attracted to online forms of socializing because they all belong to their own social networks and it is easiest to keep themselves updated by using the internet. Lets go back to Facebook, where you can create different lists where you divide people on your friends list to the different social networks you belong to, such as having different options for family than those compared to high school friends or new acquaintances.

Online social networks are not merely used for entertainment, they can also be used for infotainment (meaning information and entertainment, as i learnt in a recent class). Through new or old acquaintances there could be useful connectors who would be useful for future reference. Theres always that one person on our list who seems to have an opinion on everything and ,as annoying as that might be sometimes, it is useful to have opinion leaders in your circle or friends so that you could have them share their expertise of knowledge about cultural products.

On being a You-Tuber!



When the internet began invading our world, we started gaining and doing things differently. There is no doubt that the internet has shaped and changed our lives. So, instead of saying, "Look it up" We now say, "Google it" And  instead of saying watch it  we say, "You-Tube it!”

We think of you-tube as the ultimate multimedia website. The place where videos of everything exist, from education to meditation and entertainment. Many people now depend on You-Tube as their morning coffee! If you looked deeper into the meaning that You-Tube have, you would find many more other definitions than a multimedia web site. Simply, You-Tube is not a video site. You-Tube is the largest cultural community in the world wide web.

Some might say that You-Tube has the same effect of Facebook and Twitter on people, but there is nothing that influences people more than visual scenes and You-Tube provides it. This major web site allowed people to access many different cultures, through songs, movie trailers, vlogs, "How to" videos and sometimes even tutors that help you get your homework done.

You-Tube could be defined with the three definitions that Garzian used for popular culture. The reason is that, without a doubt, You-Tube is liked and successful and that successes is demonstrated by the amount of subscribers in the site. The second reason is that You-Tube has many popular, famous figures such as Dan Brown, Shane Dawson, Mitchell Davis and many others. Also, You-Tube is generated for the lowest common denominator which explains the verity of you-tubers.

The topics we search for in You-Tube, mostly don't exist in our country or society or otherwise we wouldn't have been searching for it. If you tried counting how many times you've searched for something in You-Tube that exists within your native country or society, you would definitely use your fingers to count them! Maybe that is the concept of You-Tube; to provide a dinner that through it we could get a taste of other cultures without the need to leave our rooms. 

You-Tube is a major community for cultural exchange known as "Cultural Diffusion." This great web site doesn't only hold millions of videos, it holds millions of subcultures. Personaly, I think that you-tube is more than a video site, to me, its a new world I enter just by clicking "Subscribe."