Participatory Culture

During Neil Postman's keynote address given at the Inaugural Media Ecology Association Convention, Postman references Stephen Vincent Benét’s poem, John Brown’s Body. Postman quotes the last lines of the poem, "Say neither, it is blessed nor cursed.
Say only “It is here.” Benét’s poem was published in 1928 and was speaking of the Industrial Revolution, but more than 80 years later the words continue to ring true when we speak of new media particularly the participatory culture that is social networking.

A social network is an online community of people. Social networks provide users with the opportunity to interact with users with similar likes and interests in various ways.
I spend quite a lot of time on social networks for recreation. It was not until this year that I began to participate in one regarding academics (our class wiki: ways of seeing YAY!)

I began using Msn messenger when I was in grade 5 when I saw my older brother who was in grade 7 using it. At first I probably had 6 friends using msn messenger at the time (if I was THAT lucky) but by the time I had entered grade 7, my brother and I began fighting over computer time. I had the majority of my friends from school as well as my cousins from the US and Caribbean as contacts.

I first joined Facebook in December of 2006 after receiving invitations from several friends. Facebook is on the surface is simply a social networking website that allows its members to interact with family and friends but the online community helps to provide me with perhaps the most fundamental human need, the sense of belonging.
As I even write these blog entries I find myself distracted by my msn messenger ( my contacts continue to message me although I’ve set my status to busy and changed my msn name to working on mass communication blog entries!). I also have several tabs open on my web browser perhaps most notably Facebook. I have to remind myself to remain focused on the task at hand and not get distracted by the constantly updated live news feed.

The Phenomenon of social networking’s popularity has led to researchers studying the impact social networking has on its users lives. Studies have found that there are differences in the way people of different genders, races and ages use social networking websites. A particular study stood out to me. Researchers at Ohio Dominican University claim that college students who use the social networking site Facebook have significantly lower grade point averages in comparison to their peers who do not have Facebook accounts. Researchers studied 219 undergraduate and graduate students and found that Facebook users grade’s are typically a grade lower (3.0- 3.5 GPA) than non- Facebook users (3.5- 4.0 GPA)

The findings of the study are ironic, even Facebook founder Mark Zuckerbeg dropped out of Harvard in 2004!

So does this mean I can blame Facebook for getting a bad mark on an assignment I left to the very last minute?

The answer is no.

The results of the study indicate that Facebook has replaced many of the “tools” college students have used for years to procrastinate such as hanging out at a friend’s house. Facebook has allowed us to enter our “friend’s homes” from the comfort of our own homes.
It is not only students who use Facebook that get lower grades it is all students who waste their time have lower grades. That is only logical.

Social networking is addictive and distracting, just like every newly introduced medium. I’m sure my mother experienced similar problems with television while attending Humber College in the late 80’s early 90’s. Engaging in participatory culture requires responsibility. We must always remember that when we are overwhelmed by the benefits and distractions of these mediums we can simply log off!

Works Cited

"Facebook users get low GPA in college | CJReport." Citizen Journalism Report - News Stories. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. .

"The Humanism of Media Ecology :: MEA Proceedings." The Media Ecology Association. Web. 23 Nov. 2009. .