Andrew Tracy (FGCU) - Online Networking and Culture

Within the past few years MySpace and Facebook have become the social axis of high school and college students everywhere. With the introduction of these massive networking sites we are experiencing a transmission of culture in a fashion different than any we’ve known.

Normally the way which culture is transmitted is generally through the media or through person to person interaction. These sites allow our generation to be friends with anyone in the world and share nearly everything about us.  This has greatly shortened the gaps between subcultures spanning the globe. If a band out of England were to become popular before the existence of MySpace it would completely rely on the media and word of mouth to spread to the masses. However, with MySpace people are able to upload their favorite music to their pages share it with their friends who have similar music tastes. This allows subcultures to spread and evolve at a faster rate than before as well on a much larger scale. In other words, when the Goth subculture in Europe is beginning to change, that transformation is also felt expressed elsewhere in the world just as fast as people can post bulletins and update their page. With the growing popularity of these sites the changes occurring are happening faster and faster. The faster the changes happen the greater the pressure is to become more immersed in their respective subcultures.

Not only does MySpace and face book allow a greater evolution of culture it also aids in the blending of cultures. Subcultures in our society are usually very exclusive, excluding members which who are not inclusive in their respective subculture. With the introductions of social networking sites you can browse through whoever has a public viewable profile, thus removing the exclusiveness of subcultures. People of other subcultures can view and incorporate various aspects into their own. This can be seen with the immersion of metal ideals such as piercings and music into prep culture. This can be plainly seen by walking into any local Hollister. If you look at the media sold in the store it is reminiscent of mainstream indie and metal bands a few years back. Even in mainstream Rap culture the immersion of rock can be seen in the fashion of artists such as Rick Ross and Little Wayne.

Lip piercings, skinny jeans, pumas along with many other aspects of metal culture have been incorporated and been made acceptable by mainstream society. The reasoning I believe behind this is that the metal culture is heavily based upon MySpace. Having a lot of friends isn’t seen as being popular it’s seen as nearly a requirement. The phrase “MySpace famous” is more than just that it is an achievement sought after for a sense of social achievement. The relationship one has with their “friends” isn’t as personable as it used to be. It is seen more as a score and the one with the highest number is seen as higher up in the rock social network. This pressure pushes the culture to spread faster blending cultures and bringing our world closer together.

This entry was posted on 27. April 2009 at 22:49 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.