I find that the for the most part, the information I receive in my ‘news feed’ is either something I can learn about another way or it’s just not important to me. A quick look at my news feed today has confirmed that this is my typical experience.
1. Travel Update
2. Movie Trailer
3. Travel Selfie
4. Weather Update
5. Positive Quote/Picture
6. Travel Advice
7. Funny Picture
8. Life Rant
8. Life Rant
9. Game Suggestion
10. Advertisement
The majority of my friends appear to write without an audience in mind. It is more about sharing. This sharing comes in the form of helpful advice, informative messaging and interesting videos, however, it does not appear that the majority of my friends use their Facebook space to create a narrative.
In the minority, are a couple of friends who employ their Facebook space to build engagement related to their personal business. I have a fitness coach friend who uses this medium to motivate others, share fitness tips and also ask for advice. I don’t really see any negative affects from the character restraints. Rather, her posts usually generate a fair amount of activity as they resonate with the audience she is targeting.
I know someone else who uses his space to post a motivational quote or narrative on a daily basis. With the regularity in the schedule and the consistency in the type of message, I would suggest there is a level of narrative at work within the continuity flowing from consistent messaging rather than a story line or plot. Again, I do not think the character restraint affects the messaging as it is generally well within the quota and these efforts are mostly met with many ‘likes’ and a few comments.
With the ability to share messages with multiple media at the same time I feel like many people are limited to the lowest common denominator and if twitter is in your mix, you are limited by the 140 character count.
With all of this in mind, and the general lack of interest I have for most things Facebook, I still have not committed to actually deleting my page. Like any form of social media I think I feel I certain sense of connection to my 'network' even if the connection is not as meaningful as many other forms of interaction that occur throughout my day. And deleting my account, almost feels like too much of an end to the brief interaction I have enjoyed over the past 7 years, Strange how quickly a form of new media can become a part of your daily activity.
Interesting post, Jaylene. Your thoughts challenge me to reflect whether sharing on social media does not mean addressing your message to a specific and targeted audience. To me, sharing on Facebook is somehow similar to broadcasting your “informative messaging and interesting videos” to one audience (your friends, your friends’ friends, etc.) that you are more or less aware of. So, if your message is made public, you can assume that you have an audience.
ReplyDeleteI guess that Facebook, and social media in general, change a bit the traditional meaning of the term audience as the line between performers and spectators gets a bit fuzzy. They perform both roles simultaneously. The same way Inanimate Alice challenges the audience to take part in her story, the act of sharing on Facebook implies inviting the audience to actively participate in distributing, commenting, adding etc. to the message.