Computer Science 408 - Navitas, Living in a Networked World

                                                   Final Project

              Computer Science 408- Navitas, Living in a Networked World

                                            November 12, 2014

I read a book named “Tales from Facebook”. The reason I chose this book was I wanted to know about the secret which always makes me hooked on the Facebook. In fact, I am always on the Facebook. As soon as I wake up in the morning, I turn my phone on, and try to look new posts on the Facebook. When I first saw the name of this book, I could not help but choose to read this book because I thought the “Tales” could be similar stories that I’ve usually had in my life. Also, before reading this book, I did some research on the author of this book. His name is Daniel Miller and he is an anthropologist. Now, I’m going to talk about this book. Then, you might understand why the anthropologist had much interest in the small island called Trinidad, and Facebook.

        This book has 12 different stories about Facebook, happening on the certain island called Trinidad. It is located off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. It is quite a small island, but lots of people are living in Trinidad. The author of this book is an anthropologist, so his job is study how human beings have lived, organized community, and communicated with their neighbors. Because of his job, he knows that there has been always the Cultural diversity in the world, and the fact that even though we are living in the era of globalization, all different cultures have different ways to accept same thing, even if it is Facebook. These reasons explain why he chose Trinidad for his research. Trinidad is one of the culturally rich countries which have so much distinct cultures that the author of this book had to observe the life-style of Trinidadian, and to research about how Trinidadian use Facebook. Even though there were 12 stories, I am going to introduce 4 stories- Marriage Dun Mash up, The book of Truth, Time suck, and The History of woman- of Trinidadian which got me excited related to the usage of Facebook.

        First story is about how Facebook broke up one man’s marriage. There was a man called Marvin. He worked in the marketing department of the cocoa estate. In order to promote new products to customers, he decided to use Facebook. Using Facebook, he could set up the Facebook group site for this project. His plan was to chat with customers and to save customers’ name when someone did ‘friend’ Facebook Group Site. Because of his department he was working in, he always had to be present on the internet. That he was working in marketing department meant he had no choice but to make lots of Facebook friends as possible as he could. However, the problem was he had lots of Facebook “women” friends who would be in contact with him on the grounds of him promoting chocolate, and introducing the travel of Trinidad and accommodation. His wife all knew that he was making lots of “women” friends by logging on his Facebook account. To his mind, Marvin started to feel that her action was no less than stalking because only by one click she could check all his friends out.  There were several reasons she monitored what he did, the principal reason was the word “friending”. For example, Daniel miller (2011), author of this book, says “In Trinidadian dialect, to friend means to have sex with someone, and most of all it meant that one was in a relationship other than marriage (p10)”. For his wife’s perspective, it was not strange things to monitor his Facebook account because making a friend through the Facebook could be enough to be seen as the act of adultery and grounds for divorce. Marvin blamed everything happened for Facebook. Actually, being suspicious and jealous of partners has been a part of Trinidad’s cultures before Facebook got into Trinidad. According to this book (Daniel Miller, 2011), “Fears and anxieties about what Trinis call horning are part and parcel of relationships in Trinidad. But that’s the point: they always have been; there is nothing new in that at all. (p 8)”

        Next story I want to introduce is about revealing “Truth” through Facebook. In this story, there is a woman whose name is Vishala. Vishala believed that through posting photos on Facebook she can reveal her genuine self. There were several reasons for this. First reason was she could open her heart to her friends when she was using IM (instant Message) on Facebook. Trinidadians really like having a party, so having a party is kind of like one of their cultures. However, Vishala felt that talking to fifteen people together at a party was uncomfortable enough to reveal her worries and troubles. Sometimes, she were even afraid to communicate with so many people. Unlike the visual party, with IM on the Facebook, she could talked whatever she wanted to say because it was not an open discussion but a one-to-one discussion, thereby making her possible to say more seriously. The second reason was she could cultivate herself to be attractive to other people by decorating her profiles. In fact, Trinidadians believe that the truth of a person consists in the shapes they manage to formulate themselves. For example, Daniel Miller (2011) explains that “This careful self-construction is much closer to the truth of a person than what they happen to possess naturally through birth. The natural physical self, whether her legs are long or her eyes are dark, is a false guide to a person, because they didn’t choose to be like that (p 50)”. As Trinidadian, she also thought that she could make herself look attractive regardless of her education level, property, and job. She believed that cultivated self was true self because that reflected what she always wanted to be, so that she can be more confident in doing everything, associating, socializing with other people on the Facebook. Another reason was that on Facebook she could reveal unintended self through her pictures being posted by other people. As I already mentioned, party is one of the popular things in Trinidad, and Trinidadian usually enjoy wearing normal clothes at the fete, trying to look plain, which shows their real appearance. About this point Vishala said that “Facebook is about people knowing the real you. Even if you didn’t want them to know you was in a fete, then why go out to a fete? That means you trying to be something you are not (p 49). ” By going out to a fete, Trinidadian tends to have desire to be posted on the Facebook, and to reveal their true self. Last reason was by doing Facebook she could break down misunderstandings and prejudice against her. One day, she had a chance to meet her ex-boyfriend’s wife, and she felt his wife didn’t want to hang out with her, and didn’t want his husband to get along with Vishala. On the other hand, Vishala tried her best to keep in touch with her to resolve prejudices against her, so that she decided to add his wife as a Facebook friend. After adding his wife as her Facebook Friend, Vishal had an opportunity to talk to her, thereby showing her real images resolving prejudices against her.