Eric Detweiler
4 December 2008
Even though some students don’t have a Facebook or a MySpace page, I’ve found that most have some familiarity with and an ability to analyze the cultural forms to a certain degree. They could make generalizations about the sites (Facebook is for college students, MySpace is for high schoolers) and engage in critique. At the same time, some of their generalizations seemed to be based more on stereotypes than concrete observation (having a MySpace account was often viewed as asking for trouble, at least for young females—being stalked, propositioned, or baited by an online predator was presented as inevitable; Facebook, on the other hand, was depicted as an entirely safe community). In order to get my students to particularize and give evidence for their assumptions, I had them compare and contrast a number of profiles on the two sites. Some potential examples:
§ John McCain vs. Barack Obama
§ Kings of Leon (an “adult alternative” rock group consisting of three brothers and a cousin) vs. the Jonas Brothers (“teeny-bopper” rock group consisting of three brothers)
§ The Roots vs. Akon (two hip-hop acts with very different personae)
§ Britney Spears vs. Mandy Moore (two pop stars—generated by the late-nineties blonde-teen-idol craze—whose careers have taken different directions)
§ The students’ own profiles. There were a number of volunteers in my class before I even asked.
I also considered comparing movie websites/trailers. Burn After Reading vs. Nick and Nora’s Ultimate Playlist (films in different genres, but released roughly concurrently), or perhaps Burn After Reading vs. another noir film with a different perspective—The Dark Knight’s superhero noir, Chinatown’s seventies noir, etc.
Some features of the profiles we focused on: color, music, images (size/prevalence), wall posts (who’s on it and what are the saying?), friend list (who’s on it?), relative simplicity/complexity, fonts.