1. BACHELOR'S THESIS – DURHAM UNIVERSITY
Dissertation in Anthropology 2011/2012 for the Department of Anthropology.
In completion of a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Sociology – ll36.
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Supervised by Dr Tomas Yarrow
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Youths on Facebook: An analytical investigation of mediated actions
and public discourses
Abstract: The present dissertation investigates and analyses young people's (age 18-24) use of the egocentric social networking
site Facebook. The aim is gaining a more nuanced and empirically grounded understanding of this relatively new social
phenomenon, its meaning, and what role it plays in the every-day social as well as individual lives of its users. Throughout I argue
that, as a result of the way Facebook and SNSs are used among youths, there is an emerging need to fundamentally reconsider the
meaning of central social institutions and concepts such as 'friendship', 'social presence', 'privacy', 'identity' and 'authenticity' in
every-day life. This is achieved, methodologically, through a nexus-analysis of young people's mediated actions and public
discourses. In this way the youths’ own spoken words are placed at the centre of the investigation and are analysed and contrasted
with the relevant social scientific theories. The term “nexus of practice“ refers to the social field where humans, discourses and
cultural artefacts intersect and result in social action. The study also sheds light on the problematic notion of electronic privacy on
Facebook and will raise and discuss important questions about where and how we draw the boundaries of electronic privacy in the
age of Facebook and online social media. The findings have conclusively suggested that there is an emerging contradictory gap
between the youths’ own local experiences with Facebook regarding risk and the over-sensationalised media-representations.
Keywords: social networking, youth, Facebook, identity, authenticity, social presence, moral panics, friendship ties,
transformation/continuity, experience, Information Age, enabling technologies, electronic privacy and risk.
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2. 1. Introduction
The present study investigates young people's use of one of the biggest social phenomena of our
time, Facebook, an egocentric online social networking site (SNS). With the emergence of these new
forms of websites it became possible, to an extent never experienced before, to communicate and
socialise with others across the previous limitations in time and space. The aim of this
dissertation is to gain a nuanced understanding of this relatively new social phenomenon, to
discover its meaning for its users, and to explore what role it plays in the individual everyday
social as well as individual lives of its users. The main source of primary data for this study was
collected over a 4 month period at various locations in Denmark, Luxembourg and England where
I currently both live and study. Additional data have been collected via the social network
Facebook, through informal online conversations as well as first-hand observations made on the
social network. The study aims to merge two essential levels of analysis: the individual micro-
perspectives of the social actors (current users of Facebook), as well as at the macro-level of
discourse. It then seeks to illuminate, analyse and understand the most central aspects and
implications of 'living life on the screen' as a youth in contemporary Western society (Turkle
2006).
The primary theoretical and methodological approach to this study is modelled after Scollon and
Scollons' nexus-analysis (Scollon & Scollon 2004). The term “nexus of practice“ 'refers to the social
field where humans, discourses and cultural artefacts intersect and result in social action' (Larsen
2010:iii). This type of approach is carried out through three distinct phases: the engaging,
navigation and changing phase. Rather than focusing solely on the macro-level of discourse when it
comes to social practice, a nexus-analysis firstly consists of ethnographic engagement within a
target area of research in order to encompass the micro-level perspectives of the social actors
(ibid.: 2010). The purpose of the navigation phase is to systematically organise, categorize and
analyse the collected ethnographic data material. Finally, the changing phase reflects upon the
presented categories of data and aims to establish a link to the existing social scientific discourses
to determine if the results could contribute to changes within (or influence) the overall nexus of
practice (ibid.: 2010).
As a result of the ethnographic data collected in the engagement phase, the most relevant aspects
and topics surrounding contemporary youth's use of Facebook and other SNSs were found to be:
„Social Presence and the maintenance of friendship ties“, „Changes in the meanings of 'friendship',
'identity' and 'authenticity'“, „the obliteration of the online/offline-dichotomy“, and „Risk: Contradictions
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3. between public discourses and local experiences“. In addition to the above stated main topics of
interest that emerged from the ethnographic engagement phase, the study will also briefly shed
light on the problematic notion of electronic privacy on Facebook, and the final chapter will raise
and discuss important questions about where and how we draw the boundaries of electronic
privacy in the age of Facebook and online social media. It is also discussed why - in the “Age of
Experts” - it is particularly important having scientific studies that are grounded in empirical
research in order to contribute to a more accurate and nuanced understanding of today's youths
and their use of Facebook.
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4. INDEX:
Chapter I: Introduction: Youths and their use of Facebook and SNSs
1. What is Facebook and how does it work?
2. Perspectives on Youth and Early Adulthood
3. Youth, Style, and the Construction of Identity
4. The [online] Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Chapter II: Framework and Methodology of the Study
5. The Obliteration of the Online/Offline Dichotomy
6. The Insider-problematic
Chapter III: The Analysis
7. In their own words: Why youths are on Facebook
8. THEME I: Social Presence and the Maintenance of Friendship Ties
9. THEME II: Changes in the Meaning of 'Friendship' and 'Authenticity'
10. THEME III: Risk on Facebook: Contradictions between Public Discourses and Local
Experiences
Chapter VI: Reflection and Discussion
11. Conclusion
12. Bibliography
Chapter I: Introduction: Youths and their use of Facebook and SNSs
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5. 1. What is Facebook and how does it work?
The social network Facebook was created in February 2004 in a small Harvard University
dormitory by then student Mark Zuckerberg (McCracken 2011). The initial use of Facebook took
place only within the United States and initially it was only open to Zuckerberg's classmates.
Shortly after, however, the social network opened up to other Ivy League students across the US,
and eventually Facebook opened its doors to the world. Today, Facebook has more than 800
million active users worldwide, which currently makes it the world's largest social network (ibid.:
2011).
With the introduction of websites such as Facebook and MySpace an entirely new media-genre
had been born (Larsen 2010:8). SNSs were fundamentally different from all other known media
forms and furthermore did not seem to fit under the „virtual community“-discourse (Rheingold
1993), because these newly emerged sites seemed not just to be mainly about uploading and
sharing information or content but rather the main purpose seemed to be: to communicate and
socialise with others. Critics of the notion „virtual community“ as a description of Facebook, such as
Baym, also added that the notion „virtual“ was both too abstract and inappropriate as a
description of Facebook because of the meaning of „virtual“ as referring to something „unreal“ or
„unauthentic“ (Baym 1998/2000).
Facebook was something fundamentally different from just a „virtual community“ and Boyd and
Ellison (2007) have suggested that this „difference“ lies in the fact that these online social
communities are 'egocentric', by having 'the individual at the centre of their own community'
(Boyd & Ellison 2007). Boyd and Ellison have more accurately defined SNSs as follows and thereby
created a critical distinction from „virtual communities“:
„We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or
semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a
connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system“.
(Boyd & Ellison 2007)
Facebook is, like other SNSs, fundamentally based upon the concept of a personalised user-profile
[as of April 2012 this became known as the Timeline] (Tufekci 2008:545-546). The user-profile is
the most central feature for each individual user, and multiple profiles can be linked together via
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6. a so-called “friend-request”. If two or more users are “friends”, they will be listed as such publicly
on each other‘s profiles, where they will now be able to fully access each other’s profiles and
interact socially on the network. A profile is thus not just a representation of a single individual,
but also of his or her entire social universe.
Upon having created a profile on Facebook, the user also has the option of browsing the network
for friends, colleagues or family-members and of sending them a friend-request. Befriended users
can post comments and share videos, pictures or various other kinds of material on each other‘s
profiles (Timelines).
Of great significance is the fact that the dominating social practises on the social network of
Facebook are public, and friendships are thus publicly articulated through the various kinds of
applications and services which Facebook or Facebook-related applications and services within
the Facebook “eco-system” have to offer (Boyd 2007:7).
2. Perspectives on Youths and early Adulthood
The target group under investigation in this study has been labelled as „youths“, and, within the
social sciences, it is a widely accepted theory that the term is not covering a stable age group of
individuals and that the term therefore cannot be properly understood without taking into
account the specific socio-historical circumstances (see Bennett; 2007; Simonsen 2003; Ziehe). It is
also regarded as a widely accepted idea that the notion of youth is a social and historical
construction dependent upon a particular socio-historical “audience” who are experiencing
particular social, historical and economic circumstances to construct its social existence (Piaget
2000). This study distinguishes itself from similar studies, as it does not involve the study of
„children“ who are aged 12-18, but specifically targets individuals aged 18-24. However,
according to German sociologist Tomas Ziehe the term „youth“ is not as clear cut and easy to
define as some would like it to be. According to him there is a fundamental disambiguity between
the conceptual understanding of 'youths' and 'actual youths' (Ziehe 1989:26 in Larsen 2012:16).
For Ziehe there are three kinds of 'youth-definitions': the physical, psychological and cultural youth.
As some, rightfully, have suggested (Larsen 2010; Ziehe 1989), in public debates about 'youths'
there is often a widespread misconception about 'youths' as one homogeneous group of
individuals.
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7. Due to the fact that this study is focusing on contemporary 'youths' it is important to specify that
no informant in this study was under the age of 18. However, as we have just established, the
period from age 18-24 (even up to age 27 for Ziehe) is defined as the 'cultural youth' and it
therefore legitimises my use of the term to describe the target group and thereby maintain an
important distinction to the period of childhood – a period which according to Ziehe ranges from
puberty to age 17. In this definition 'cultural youth' refers to all those who “act young” regardless
of their physical age. Additionally, Ziehe convincingly argues that the age of 18-22 can also be
understood as belonging to the group of 'psychological youth'.
3. Youth, Style, and the Construction of Identity
Despite the widespread conceptual confusion about the meaning of youth, it is a commonly
accepted theory that this period is especially concerned with the construction of identity
(Goffman 1959). Youth is widely regarded as a period where individuals experiment with different
so-called identity markers in the form of different styles regarding popular-culture, music taste,
looks or behaviour. Traditionally this process used to take place solely in an offline social
environment; however, with the introduction of the internet as well as SNSs, this process of
identity-formation is increasingly taking place in an online-environment. Instead of having to
signal these “identity-markers” via clothing or similar physical tools, this process is now
increasingly taking place in a non-physical environment and on SNSs such as Facebook. As a
result, youths have to use a whole set of different tools, in the form of texts, pictures, messages,
symbols, links, taggings or posts to, as Gefter calls it, 'write oneself into being' (Gefter 2006:1).
As Harris (1998) points out, peers and close friends play a particularly dominant as well as
important role in the social process of identity-formation amongst youths. According to Harris,
friends play an even far greater role than, for instance, the parents when it comes to forming an
identity (Harris 1998). This idea has become particularly visible on SNSs such as Facebook,
through observing the profiles and the general social practice between youths on Facebook.
"Friends" on Facebook provide our social networks with group structure, which further indicate
meaningful identity markers in our everyday lives (Boyd 2007:14). The enormous popularity of
Facebook and other SNSs among contemporary teenagers and youths therefore corresponds to
the idea that this social group is particularly occupied with identity-formation and experimentation
(Illeris et al, 2002 in Larsen 2010:42).
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8. What quickly springs to mind when observing Facebook-profiles, is that there, on the one hand,
are obvious social norms, guidelines and expectations regarding social behaviour, whilst on the
other hand it seems equally obvious how individual social actors try their best to stand out and
separate themselves from the masses, yet still within what is considered culturally and socially
acceptable (Simmel 1950; Larsen 2010:16-17).
When observing the profiles of youths on Facebook many profile pictures equally appear to
display a large amount of self-confidence. Many pose in confident positions, wearing the 'right'
clothing, the 'right' brands and also appear to have the 'right' friends who post comments on
their Timelines. As Dronter (1991), Beck (1997) and Ziehe (1989) have argued the period of youth
is also widely known to be concerned with psychological and emotional turbulence and it is often
accompanied by varying degrees of social insecurity.
British sociologist Anthony Giddens has argued that youth, in what historically is often referred
to as 'late-modernity', is characterised by the unprecedented plethora of choice. For Giddens the
key words to defining this turbulent phase consequently are reflexivity and self-reflexivity. He
captures this tension very well in the statement:
„What to do? How to act? Who to be? These are focal questions for everyone living in circumstances of late
modernity – and ones which, on some level or another, all of us answer, either discursively or through day-
to-day social behaviour.“ (Giddens 1996:88)
Networked individualism
Due to the fact that, increasingly, practising friendships (an important part of the process of
identity-formation) is taking place in an online-environment on SNSs such as Facebook, a whole
new form of egocentric social structure appears to have emerged as a result of communication
technology. In „The Network Society“, Manuel Castells describes how the structure of modern
society now has put the individual at its centre. Castells strongly emphasises that this is not to say
that individuals have become more socially isolated, but that, quite on the contrary, individuals
have become far more connected than ever before. However, it is a new form of sociability that is
fundamentally based upon individualism.
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9. „...the most important role of the Internet in structuring social relationships is its contribution to the new
pattern of sociability based on individualism […] Increasingly, people are organized not just in social
networks, but in supercommunicated social networks. So, it is not the Internet that creates a pattern of
networked individualism, but the development of the Internet provides an appropriate material support for
the diffusion of networked individualism as the dominant form of sociability.“ (Castells 2001:130-131)
As Larsen (2010:22) has indeed rightfully pointed out the significance of the notion of 'networked
individualism' is central in order to gain an understanding of youths and their use of new
communication media such as Facebook and other SNSs. However, the term is also overshadowed
by an inherent contradiction. On the one hand, contemporary youths appear to become more
individualised, yet on the other they are increasingly becoming more connected and dependent
on each other. The author goes on to convincingly argue that this is as a likely result of the
collapse of the time/space-dimension that is usually very clear cut in offline social environments.
Or as Barry Wellman famously has put it:
„We are now experiencing another transition, from place-to-place to person-to-person connectivity. Moving
around with a mobile phone, pager, or wireless Internet makes people less dependent on place. Because
connections are to people and not places, the technology affords shifting of work and community ties from
linking people-in places to linking people wherever they are. It is I-alone that is reachable wherever I am […]
People remain connected, but as individuals rather than being rooted in the home bases of work unit and
household. Individuals switch rapidly between their social networks. Each person separately operates his
networks to obtain information, collaboration, orders, support sociability, and a sense of belonging“.
(Wellman 2002:15-16)
4. The [online] Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
In „The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life“, celebrated sociologist and symbolic interactionlist
Erving Goffman (1959) pioneered in illuminating central aspects of identity formation and social
practices from the micro-level perspectives of individual social actors. Today, Goffman's
dramaturgical metaphor can be used to shed light on the functionality of SNSs like Facebook as well
as their revolutionary implications for the realm of social interaction and the formation of
identity among contemporary youths. This section will focus on how the presentation of self is
managed in an online environment, as opposed to in a traditional offline environment, and
explore the theoretical micro-level implications for individual social actors.
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10. According to Goffman, human life is like a theatre or a drama, and human beings are performing
social actors playing their roles to the best of their ability (Goffman 1959). Central for Goffman's
dramaturgy is the idea that we do not possess an innate nature or are born with a “core-self”, but
that we are indeed social constructs of the society, culture and the socio-historical cirumstances
that we happened to grow up in. It is throughout a turbulent life of social interaction
accompanied with constant reflexivity that we eventually develop an identity (Mead 2007). Our
sense of self, according to Mead, arises entirely out of our social environment, and a “self” is
therefore never a finished product—or stable entity—but rather a dynamic and continuous social
process. Our social behaviour, in this view, is dividable in two central categories according to
whether anybody is watching or not. If there are two - or more - people physically present, the
acting subject is conscious of the fact that he/she has to perform in front of an audience. If there is
no visible audience present, the actor can “drop the mask” and freely engage in so-called backstage
behaviour, without having to worry about the social implications of his or her actions.
It is on the front stage (in front of an audience) that the actor is forced to put on a show to
convince the audience of his/her competence as an actor playing his/her particular social role. In
doing so, the actor will employ all possible rhetorical means in order to live up to the social and
cultural expectations of the watching audience. The actor has to manage and manipulate his/her
performance and appearance to correspond to the ideal. Implicit in the logic of dramaturgy is the
notion that we are always at risk of the social consequences of delivering an unconvincing social
performance in the physical presence of others, and this tension inevitably leads to a subtle, yet
constant sense of social anxiety. The innate urge for social validation that is often observable
among contemporary youths on Facebook is thus a manifestation of their general desire for social
validation among their peers (Boyd 2007:13).
As pointed out in the previous chapter, social interaction online takes place in the comfort of
privacy (back-stage) and is therefore fundamentally different from traditional face-to-face
interaction, found on the traditional front-stage in Goffman's theatrical metaphor of human life
and society. Facebook can thus be argued to have managed to twist the unwritten rules of social
protocol and instead facilitate new ways of socialising without having to act under pressure and
constant social anxiety. Central to dramaturgy is the theoretical concept of an audience. The
audience is a metaphor for the social actor(s) that an individual has to perform in front of, and in
face-to-face interaction the audience is visible to the actor, and it is therefore possible to situate
oneself in the social situation and adjust one's performance accordingly (Boyd 2007:14). In virtual
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11. communities and on SNSs, the audience is invisible to the actor and he is therefore forced to
“guess” who could be watching in the audience.
On Facebook, one's identity is largely portrayed through the egocentric concept of a 'profile'
(Timeline). This means that the observable social practise on Facebook, such as carefully selecting
your profile picture, 'liking' your friends’ status update, uploading a particular song or image to
your own or others‘ profile or commenting on other people's posts and comments, are important
ways of forming an identity (Larsen 2010:16-17). Facebook offers an unprecedented plethora of
ways for people to express themselves and interact socially through symbolic interactionalism via a
'digital body' (Boyd 2007:13). It thus gives contemporary youths the ability to shape and
experiment with their identities by providing them with the tools to display their own edited
histories to the world. Following Goffman's theatrical metaphor, SNSs like Facebook provide
social actors with the power of the film-editor who can decide what to show—and what to leave
out from the performance. It thus has the potential to turn simple social actors into impressive
Hollywood-stars in the sense that youths on Facebook are now able to constantly deliver a
flawless social performance, regardless of time, place and audience.
Chapter II: Framework and Methodology of the Study
5. The Obliteration of the Online/Offline Dichotomy
As Wellman (2002:15-16) described earlier, we are increasingly moving from 'place-to-place' to
'person-to-person' connectivity, with the implication that the previously so clear cut dimensions of
the 'online' and 'offline' has melted together and become effectively both indistinguishable and
irrelevant in social interaction. As such, it would be erroneous to assume that the 'virtual' is
qualitatively different or perhaps, - less 'real' than the offline (Baym 1998/2000). I would argue,
along with Kendall (1999) and Jones (2004), that one simply cannot ignore what goes on in the
'offline' lives of the informants, nor would it be correct to limit the scope of the study to the
social interaction that takes place on Facebook or other online environments.
As Bakardjieva (2005), Livingstone (2008) and Silverstone (2006) have argued, Facebook is, as a
social networking technology, a revolutionary 'enabling' social technology (Silverstone 2005:20)
that has recently become society's 'digital nervous system' (Van Dijk 1999:2). The mass-
domestication of social networking has become an integral part of the daily lives of
contemporary youths so that the simplistic distinction between “online” and “offline” therefore
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12. simply is no longer applicable nor relevant (Gefter 2006). However, this raises important
questions about the methodology of internet based research because it suggests that a complete
picture cannot be obtained by limiting the study's scope to what happens 'on the screen' (Turkle
2006).
„Would offline data reveal something significant about the context being studied that could not be obtained
from online data? In what ways might the offline data enhance the interpretation of the online data? “
(Orgad 2009:51)
This could potentially create a “methodological conundrum” that would be difficult to overcome,
as experienced internet-researcher Larsen (2010) jokes, 'does that mean that we have to follow our
informants home to their rooms in order to capture the full image?' (ibid. 2010:32). However, as Orgad
points out, this conundrum is easily resolvable, methodologically, by regarding the distinction
between the online and the offline as both inherently dynamic and effectively indistinguishable
concerning the collection and coding of empirical data (Orgad 2009:51).
6. The Insider-problematic
The role and person of the researcher(s) is always of particular importance when conducting
qualitative research. It is critical to the research that the researcher is able to balance a
theoretical and social sensitivity and maintain an analytical distance whilst simultaneously
drawing upon past experience and theoretical knowledge (Strauss & Corbin 1990:18).
As a habitual user of Facebook and other SNS myself, my personal role as researcher can be
argued to be affected by a form of bias as a result of my own experiences and knowledge about
Facebook and SNSs. Yet, to the extent that bias can be seen as a major disadvantage in qualitative
research, it can also be regarded as an advantage, or as some would argue—a distinct necessity—
in order to be able to gain a complete understanding of the nature and functionality of the
phenomenon under investigation (Larsen 2007:41). In fact, this type of 'insider-perspective' could
easily be regarded as the optimal way of conducting this particular type of research (regarding
Facebook and SNSs) as it allows the researcher to relate to the accounts given by the informants
and thus facilitates a better understanding and easier “flow” of the qualitative interviews (Ibid.
2007:43). However, the key is to acknowledge that one's own personal use of social media merely
is a 'supplement to—but not part of the data collection' (Ibid. 2007:43).
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13. Chapter III: The Analysis
The primary source of data for this study comes from a series of 22 in-depth semi-structured
interviews of current users of Facebook, all aged 18 to 24 (each interview lasting anywhere from
40 minutes to 1 hour). The method of in-depth qualitative interviewing as the selected approach
to the collection of primary data in the engagement phase was chosen because of its natural
suitability for this type of research involving the nature of the experiences and perspectives of
individual social actors (Strauss & Corbin 1990).
It is important to note that the approach for this study was that of not beginning with a theory to
be proved or disproved, but rather to begin with an area of study and then let what is naturally
deemed relevant by the informants themselves on that area emerge (Marshall & Rossman 1995).
Just a few general topics were presented in the course of the interviews to help uncover the
participants' own perspectives and experiences regarding the role of Facebook and social
networking in their lives, and hence the structure of the interviews was aimed at letting the
informants speak as freely and openly as possible (Strauss & Corbin 1990). The “structure” of the
semi-structured interviews could therefore, more accurately, be described as 'a conversation with a
purpose' (Kahn & Cannell 1957 cited in Marshall & Rossman 1995:149).
Despite the fact that there was no strict formal structure governing the “flow” of the interviews, I
did start out by asking the informants when and why they decided to join Facebook, partly as a
relevant conversation starter, but also to 'break the ice' and direct the thoughts of my informants
away from the interview-situation to their own experiences with Facebook.
In the process of coding, in the study's navigation phase, I went through each interview and
systematically categorized the most common topics that were highlighted by the informants
themselves. A total of 5 overall themes were thereby discovered, each addressed with its own
separate section in this chapter. In cases where an informant gave two answers both have been
added into separate matching categories.
7. In Their Own Words: Why Youths are on Facebook
Regarding motives to join Facebook a total of 6 motive-categories were established based on the
answers by the informants, and in cases where an answer could potentially fit into more than one
category, the answer was added to the most relevant category.
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14. Scene-arguments:
Not surprisingly, the single most prominent reason for youths to join Facebook was to
communicate with friends and peers (19).
„Early 2007 as everyone else had it“ (21 year old male)
„I joined because I got invitations on my hotmail, it was in 2007“ (18 year old female)
„At the coercion of my then girlfriend, and it was 2007 I think“ (20 year old male)
„Facebook means a lot, because everyone uses it all the time so I'm forced to use it too be able to keep up.
Without Facebook I would feel like I am missing out on many events, news, gossips“ (18 year old female)
According to Scollon and Scollon, when an informant uses a reason that 'lies outside or prior to
his or her interests', this is seen as a scene-argument (Scollon & Scollon 2004:175). As stated
above, this was, by far, the most prominent category of answer to this question.
„In 2008, because lots of my friends had it and were telling me to join. New people I was meeting were asking
for my Facebook so they could add me“ (20 year old female)
„I can speak to my friends, make jokes and know when I'm supposed to meet them for a party, for dinner,
breakfast, lunch and basketball“ (22 year old male)
The findings therefore suggest that Facebook has become an important part for friends to plan
and organise their IRL (“In Real Life”) social activities. According to Lenhart and Madden (2007),
SNSs have increasingly assumed the same functional role as a mobile phone in as much as they let
the users plan and structure their offline social activities.
Boredom-arguments
A few informants also added boredom to one of the reasons why they decided to join Facebook.
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15. „I joined in 2007 during my junior year of high school. Originally as a solution to boredom in the office“ (24
year old male)
„2008 I think... Because I was bored after school and I used to play a lot of games on Facebook“ (21 year old
male)
Another prominent category that emerged—with a total of 10 answers—was boredom. According
to Livingstone and Boville (1999), boredom arises for young people in the absence of their friends.
They do stress, however, that youths do not seem to become 'addicted' to Facebook for this
reason, but the fact that they spend so much time on Facebook rather suggests that they are
'addicted' to their friends (Livingstone 2009; Boyd 2010). Holloway and Valentine (2003) similarly
point out that Facebook has become the best alternative to socialising with their friends in real life
and that they would not hesitate a moment to go out and socialise in real life if they had the
opportunity to do so.
User friendliness-arguments
Another less common category of answers was the convenience or technical functionality of
Facebook, as opposed to other, similar SNSs.
„2008 and to see what it was like and if it was better than Bebo and MSN“ (21 year old male)
„I joined in 2010 because I had heard it was a lot better than MSN“ (19 year old female)
Staying in touch-arguments
Another particularly prominent category of answers, with a total of 17 responses, turned out to
emerge within the “Staying in touch”-category.
„I joined, I think in 2007, and kept it as a means of communication with friends who were mostly abroad“ (23
year old male)
„It is a distraction but it also amuses me to see what my friends are up to and it's a way of staying in touch“
(20 year old Female)
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16. „Keeps me up to date with the lives of friends I don't see very often“ (21 year old male)
„I use it to contact family and friends that live far away“ (19 year old female)
„Facebook makes it much easier to keep in touch with people“ (18 year old female)
In accordance with my expectations, this category appeared to be very important for many of the
informants interviewed, particularly because of the age-group of the informants in this study
(between 18-24). This is often a time in the lives of youths where they move away from home to
begin studying or working elsewhere. A considerable portion of the contacts found on the
friends-lists of virtually all my informants were either school-contacts or people they knew from
their time at school, but who now lived geographically too far away to keep in touch with in
person.
The two remaining categories that emerged were noted to be particularly infrequent: „Meeting
new people-argument“ and „Love and Relationship-arguments“.
Meeting new people-argument
This section has overall yielded rather contradictive and inconclusive results. It seems that
different people have very different motivations when it comes to the idea of meeting new people
through Facebook. On the one hand, a few explained how they had found new friends via
Facebook and then subsequently met up with them IRL.
„Yes! I met many new friends through Facebook, and then afterwards [met up with them] in real life “ (18
year old female)
Others, on the other hand, did not actively pursue new friendships through Facebook and mainly
used the social network to communicate and socialise with already existing friends.
As one informant explained, „as a rule do not add people on Facebook if I don't know them beforehand“
(24 year old male)
Out of all 22 interviews only three individuals mentioned the idea of meeting new people on
Facebook as a reason for having joined the social network. According to Amanda Gefter, this can
16

17. be explained by the fact that youths generally use Facebook to communicate with already existing
social relations, rather than as a means to obtain new ones.
„Despite the media hype, young people on social networking sites are interacting for the most part not with
strangers, but with friends from their real life. Thus their online social life doesn't detract from their real
one, as the two are simply different manifestations of the same network of friends“. (Gefter 2006:46)
Love and Relationship-argument
Slightly surprising, however, was the almost complete absence of „Love and Relationship-
arguments“ from the existing data pool as to the reasons for having decided to join Facebook.
According to another study investigating 13-24 year old users of SNSs, similar research findings
had emerged (Klastrup & Stald 2009). This suggests that the motivation for finding a boyfriend or
girlfriend as well as using Facebook as a “date-finder tool” is secondary to the way youths use
Facebook to communicate with their already existing social circles. As Larsen points out,
although it is not the primary objective to look for potential partners on Facebook, this does not
mean that this does not happen, rather 'it is just regarded as a positive side bonus' (Larsen
2010:157). Out of the 22 interviews only one informant brought “love/relationships” up as an
argument for having decided to join Facebook.
8. THEME I: Social Presence and the Maintenance of Friendship Ties
After having asked my informants why and when they had decided to join Facebook as a
conversation starter, the conversations could take many directions. As previously stated, I did not
deliberately try to “force” an informant to talk about something that he or she did not bring up
on his or her own initiative. However, 3 overall categories of topics gradually emerged as a result
of the findings in the study's navigation phase. These are described as „Themes“ and are explored
and analysed below.
The idea that friends and the maintenance of friendship ties are amongst the most prominent
reasons why teenagers and contemporary youths in particular flock to SNSs like Facebook is not
new as several previous studies have shown (Gefter 2006; Boyd 2007/2008; Bakadjiva 2003; Tufekci
2008). The aim of this study is to move further beyond this idea and explore the role of Facebook
in the day-to-day practising and maintenance of friendship ties among contemporary youths.
17

18. On Facebook the main “mode of communication” is directly via the Timeline feature. Here, for
instance, texts, messages, links, applications or various kinds of photographic material (such as
pictures or video-clips) are posted and shared between befriended users on the network. Whilst
discussing how an informant prefers to communicate with her friends and why she did not use
the “send private message”-option to send and receive messages, she answered that this option
mostly was intended for invitations to events or things that were not intended to be publicly
viewable.
„I think the most normal way of communicating here is through posting messages on someone's wall“. (18
year old female)
According to my own observations, a lot of messages posted on people's Timelines were ultra-
short messages or texts such as:
„sup bro“ (22 year old male)
„yoyo what's up? “ (22 year old male)
„heya what u up 2, bored... xxx“ (20 year old female)
A typical way of communicating with “friends” on Facebook among youths is in the form of short
and seemingly rather mundane texts such as in the above examples, but there are other instances
of communication where no words at all are used, and instead a music-track, picture (often a so-
called 'meme' which has recently become very popular on Facebook) or short video clips are
posted instead.
18

19. 1.a
The above picture is taken directly from Facebook and it is a typical form of social practice
observable among youths on the social network. Often, one user posts such a picture on his/her
own Timeline or on someone else's Timeline and subsequently other users within their respective
networks are able to comment or “Like” the picture – which they often do. The above picture 1.a
was posted by a 22 year old female who added the comment „Bahahaaaaa!!! “ to the picture.
1.b
Picture 1.b was posted by another user and, unlike picture 1.a, this picture has a direct
connection with the offline everyday-life of the user. The user, a 21 year old female, added the
19

20. comment „YESSSSSS“ to the picture (presumably uploaded directly from her Iphone).
Subsequently, a number of people have “Liked” the picture, and a friend commented „Too bad you
have classes during the week days eh? “. Somewhat later the girl who posted the picture answered
„Hehehe I finished at 10 today!-D“.
Whether it is just a simple comment on a friend’s Timeline, such as in the examples above, or a
“meme”, such as the examples 1.a and 1.b, the communication often appears both simplistic and
superficial, even sometimes downright 'boring' as some have noted (Larsen 2005:400). So why has
the vast majority of social practices and communications on Facebook taken this form? According
to Boyd (2007/2008), the answer is to be found in the communication itself – rather than in the
content. Short, simplistic and seemingly superficial pictures, texts or messages, are simply a way
of showing interest in others or a way of staying in touch despite being separated physically or
geographically. Even the simple text „sup bro“ is a way of showing interest in another person and
can be an important way for youths on Facebook to stay in touch and maintain a 'strong tie' with
friends whom they do not see on a regular basis.
„...the topic is merely the indispensable medium through which the lively exchange of speech itself unfolds
its attractions. […] It thus is the fulfilment of a relation that wants to be nothing but relation – in which, that
is, what usually is the mere form of interactions becomes its self-sufficient content.“ (Simmel 1950:52-53)
The German sociologist and philosopher Georg Simmel describes social networking as a form of
'sociability' (Simmel & Hughes 1949). I would agree that Facebook, as a result of the kind of
predominant social practice that takes place on Facebook, can be described as a form of 'sociable
technology' (Hjarvard 2005).
A transformation of 'privacy' and of the meaning of 'being alone'
As explained above Facebook can be an important way for youths to „stay in touch“ and get a
sense of being social, even when there is no one physically around. In one instance, a 22 year old
male user initiated a conversation with another by posting the message „sup“ on a friend's wall.
About 15-20 minutes later, the friend responds „nm m8 u? “, after which the 22 year old answers
„been working on my GMAT today“ a while after. This asynchronous form of communication suggests
that the youths do not expect an immediate answer as when they are talking to someone on the
phone, for instance. It appears that this mode of communication is common and regarded as an
acceptable – even normal - way of communicating between youths on Facebook. As previously
20

21. have suggested, this simultaneously indicates the collapse of the time/space dimensions as an
important – perhaps even necessary – prequisite for communicating and socialising. As both
Larsen (2010) and Boyd (2008) have suggested, this further indicates that what the youths actually
pursue with this form of communication is the sense of 'constant contact', rather than the
content of the messages as such.
„It is […] very much like being physically around someone and picking up on his mood through the little
things he does – body language, sighs, stray comments – out of the corner of your eye. […] Each little update
– each little individual bit of social information – is significant on its own, even supremely mundane. But
taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your
friends’ and family members’ lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting.“
(Thompson 2008:1)
And indeed, according to my findings, youths genuinely appear to experience a sense of 'constant
contact' with each other, and as Townsend (2001) also rightfully notes, it is a much deeper sense
of connectedness than simply being available on your phone. As a consequence, I would argue
that there is an emerging need to reconsider the idea of 'being alone'. The new meaning of 'being
alone' arises out of the idea which Gefter (2006) and others have described as a constant 'social
presence' – even whilst being completely alone in a physical sense. It seems to me that one cannot
accurately be described as being completely 'alone'—in the traditional sense—when one has
constant and immediate access to one's entire meta-network of friends and family everywhere
we go (or stay). I would argue that what Gefter already saw coming in 2006, is now already reality:
„We will carry this meta-network with us in small wireless devices so that our virtual identities become
seamlessly integrated with the real world. We will become more autonomous and mobile than ever, and at
the same time discover an unprecedented form of collectivism“ (Gefter 2006:46(3)
In this study, 17 out of the 22 informants I interviewed had Facebook installed as an application
on their mobile phones (or other mobile gadgets). One informant especially illustrates very well
exactly how integrated into the every-day life of today's youths Facebook has become. During my
interview with Haylee (pseudonym) she told me that on a „normal day“ she would usually spend
around „3 hours“ in front of Facebook actively browsing the network. However, later she revealed
that she also had Facebook installed on her Blackberry phone and that it would alert her any time
someone posted a comment on her wall, “Liked” one of her posts, or “tagged” her in a photo-
album. She said that she carries her phone with her all the time, everywhere, „even in the
21

22. shower“. Although this could well have been intended as a joke it was perhaps a declaration that
her phone is simply always within reach. These findings correspond to earlier findings of studies
such as that of Gefter (2006) and suggest that the notion of “ambient awareness” is particularly
prevalent among youths on Facebook. This notion has been severely criticized by some experts as
I shall explain in the discussion section.
9. THEME II: Changes in the Meanings of 'Friendship' and 'Authenticity'
As THEME I revealed, the widespread domestication of Facebook among today's youths has
brought about a series of fundamental institutional and conceptual social transformations. Not only
have we been forced to rethink traditional notions of privacy, but as this chapter will investigate, we
might also have to reconsider the notion of what it means to be “friends”. In other words, is the
notion of “friendship” as a socio-cultural institution undergoing a transformation as a result of the
way in which youths (and other social groups) use Facebook and similar SNSs? As Pahl (2000)
reminds us, it is a commonly accepted theory among social scientists that no social institutions can
be regarded as 'stable' units and that they evolve as a product of their socio-historical circumstances.
The idea that the notion of friendship is currently undergoing a negative transformation as a result
of the new communication technology generation that Facebook is part of is argued vociferously by
people such as Kraut and Lundmark et al. (1998), Anderson (2001) and Granovetter (1973). As
Anderson articulates it:
„...the friendships of today are simply thinner than before and increasingly restricted. By 'thin' I
mean there is less to them. By 'restricted' I mean that friendships have been pushed out of the key
social institutions such as business and are increasingly seen as belonging to recreation. “
(Anderson 2001:30)
Anderson's argument is in accordance with Granovetter's (1973) idea of 'thick' and 'thin' friendships.
The idea, according to this line of thinking, is that, as a result of they way in which friendship is
'played out' (Beer 2008) on SNSs such as Facebook, we are increasingly producing more 'thin'
relationships at the expense of 'thick' relationships. As Beer (2008) also notes, the fact that SNSs
have now become mainstream suggests that what we are seeing cannot just be regarded as a passing
'trend'.
I would, however, challenge the notion that friendships are undergoing a negative transformation as
a result of Facebook and the way friendships 'play out' on Facebook. As several of my own
22

23. informants have suggested, it is in fact possible to both create and maintain more than just “weak
ties” through Facebook.
„Yes! I met many new friends through Facebook, and then afterwards [met them] in real life.“ (18
year old female)
As this individual illustrates, she used Facebook as a “portal” to meet new friends whom she could
then subsequently meet up with IRL (usually friends of friends). Another informant actually found
her best friend on a SNS called MSN Messenger, and they are still friends today – over 6 years
later:
„Not over Facebook – over MSN when I was 13; made friends with a girl who is one of my best
friends almost 6 years later“ (19 year old female)
„I met people on Facebook before I went to uni so that I already knew a lot of people when I started
in September, so that was really good“ (18 year old female)
In the light of these findings, it seems unreasonable to me to label the transformation of the meaning
of friendship as negative. On the contrary, I would argue that friendships through Facebook can
occasionally have the potential of being stronger and more intimate than “IRL friendships”, because
the nature of socialising on Facebook appears to have certain distinct advantages over IRL
socialising. As a comprehensive study by Wesch (2008) revealed, asynchronous communication has
made it easier and more comfortable for certain individuals to communicate without being nervous
and anxious about the flow of the conversation. These findings correspond to Goffman's theory that
people act (or behave) differently according to who is physically present and what kind of social
relationship exists between them (Goffman 1959). Goffman described this 'social field' as the
'interaction order' and this idea corresponds to the findings by Wesch. Wesch pointed out that
people generally seek as much connection with other people as possible, but that our socialising
ability is naturally limited by the constant 'pressure of spontaneity' and 'social anxiety' of the
consequences of delivering a bad or unconvincing social performance in the physical presence of
others. The mode of communication on Facebook and SNSs, I would argue, has reduced the
'pressure of spontaneity' found in physical communication. A similar study by Blumer (in
Silverstone 2005:113) was also able to present similar findings. According to Blumer, two of her
respondents had begun communicating in the form of email (another form of asynchronous
communication) which also made it “easier” and more “comfortable” to communicate, without
23

24. being nervous and anxious about the flow of the conversation (e.g. such as being on the phone with
someone or face-to-face). As others (Boyd 2008; Larsen 2010 and Wesch 2008) additionally have
pointed out, this mode of communication also has made it „acceptable“ to write certain things that
you would not say IRL such as „I love you“, „<3“, „Miss uuu!!!<'3“and „you mean a lot to me“.
Comparable to Miller and Slater's findings from their study of kinship-ties and technology on
Jamaica, a parallel was found between their discovered notion of 'elective affinity' and the idea of
'elective friendships' (Miller and Slater 2000:83). Facebook, I would argue, has set a milestone for
communication and socialising by having effectively marked the end of fatalistic relationships.
With Facebook you do not have to limit your search for friends to those in your physical proximity,
but you are now more free than ever to select friends based on other attributes or characteristics
such as common interests or personalities.
As one informant experienced: „I met a guy from America; he even wrote me a song and I do see
him as a friend since we try to meet up at some point.“ (22 year old female)
Facebook as 'another dimension'
As discussed so far in THEME II, I argued that we are forced to reconsider the traditional notion of
'friendship' as a result of the way in which friendships are 'played out' on mainstream SNSs such as
Facebook. My own research findings have suggested that it would be unreasonable to regard the
new emerging meaning of friendship as negative or as weaker than our traditional understanding of
friendship. On the contrary, I was able to explore how new forms of friendships 'played out' on
Facebook, and as a consequence I have argued that there seems to be a reasonable ground to suggest
that online friendships have the potential to overcome some of the previously existing limitations to
socialising and, most importantly: I discovered how Facebook often facilitates socialising despite
the fact that many of my informants were often geographically—or physically—separated from
many of their closest IRL friends.
Instead of viewing Facebook as a way of systematically producing 'weak' ties at the expense of
'strong' ties or as a negative techno-social transformation of socialising, I argue that we can simply
regard Facebook and SNSs as an added dimension to the already existing social life of an
individual, a 'very special social place' (Larsen 2010; Blumer in Silverstone:113), that, as
demonstrated, has enabled its users to bend the rules of traditional face-to-face social practice.
24

25. Authenticity
As the THEMES I and II have revealed, Facebook and the way Facebook is used among youths have
forced us to reconsider certain social institutions and categories, such as the traditional notions
of friendship, social presence and privacy. In the following section I move on to exploring
another central aspect of a traditional everyday category that we might have to rethink in the
light of the widespread mass domestication of Facebook and the way it has come to be used in
everyday life: the idea of authenticity.
As with most adults in general, some social scientists regard Facebook and mediated social practice
as less 'real' or less 'authentic' than offline in the 'real world' (Calhoun 1991 cited in C.Y. Kou et al.
2002:12). This section aims to challenge this notion and as my research findings have suggested,
one cannot just simply make such a distinction without taking into account how integrated
Facebook has become into the lives of contemporary youths.
Throughout the interviews, I noticed that many of my informants kept referring to Facebook as
„in there“ suggesting that they did not regard Facebook any differently than for instance another
room, building or another physical space.
„What we talk about in there is often just what happened on that day or if we’re going to do something this
weekend or, you know, things like that“ (21 year old female)
For the same reason social scientists investigating mediated human behaviour on the internet
increasingly have stopped using the world 'virtual' to describe Facebook or the social practice
that takes place on Facebook. Because by labelling something as 'virtual' one is essentially
suggesting that there is a qualitative difference between what happens on Facebook as opposed
to IRL. It is due to the extreme level of offline integration, that we have established that one
cannot simply make such a distinction, and as I saw myself, many youths often do not
differentiate at all between online and offline socialising.
In one instance, social practice even proved to be 'more valuable' or 'authentic' if it had
happened online because then it could be documented and shared with others: As an informant
bluntly puts it when talking about sharing stories or gossip (or banter) with his friends:
"Screenshot, or it didn't happen! “ (22 year old male)
25

26. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, one informant even stated that she had met one of her best friends
through the social network and instant messaging service MSN Messenger.
This further strengthens my point that reality and virtuality have blurred so strongly that many
youths do not actively distinguish between them in their every-day life. It therefore does not
seem to make sense to consider what happens 'on the screen' as 'less authentic' than what
happens 'off the screen'. Finally, Chaykos' (2002) point, that strong social bonds can still exist and
thrive without being based on face-to-face interaction, is proven by this 18 year old female who
has managed to find one of her „best IRL friends“ on a social networking site.
10. THEME III: Risk on Facebook: Contradictions between Public Discourses and
Local Experiences
Despite their enormous popularity, Facebook and other SNSs have since the dawn of their
existence been surrounded by an over-sensationalised media hype which has blurred our sense of
reality around them. This happens when exaggerated and often dystopic media representations
increasingly „lose contact“ with the reality that is experienced by the users of SNSs (Wall 2011;
Vuorela 2009; Turkle 2006; Plambech 2011; Collins 2008; CBS News 2009; Landau 2012 and
McCracken 2011). As a simple search on Google with the keywords „Facebook“ and „Risk“ will
reveal, there is a widespread public understanding of Facebook as being potentially intrusive,
dystopic and threatening to our electronic privacy as well as our personal safety.
Some of the most visible news stories of 2011 in the media focused on how users of social
networks such as Facebook increasingly face potentially harmful threats surrounding areas such
as privacy, online safety and identity protection, areas, which are arguably being systematically
neglected and compromised on social networks (Ejsing & Allingstrup 2011). Due to extensive, and
often very accurate, self-disclosure on these sites our private data supposedly carry the risk of
being abused or sold without permission by the SNSs themselves (or third party programmes
within their respective “eco-system”) to various corporations and businesses in order to facilitate
targeted advertising (Tufekci 2008). Similarly, exaggerated headline stories where users
(particularly teenagers) fall victims to sexual predators overemphasize the prevalence of or single
out particularly hideous examples of sexual harassment (CBS News 2009). However, as Boyd
convincingly argued, because 'virtually no users respond to sexual solicitations from strangers'
26

27. (Boyd 2008), the presented reality of the media, by no means correspond to the reality
experienced by the majority of the users of Facebook.
„It is not to say that incidents of sexual harassment on SNSs (or due to information acquired on SNSs) do not
exist or are not problematic; they are. It is just that the way the mass media is increasingly representing
social networking and privacy is overdramatized and inaccurate.“ (Boyd 2008:267)
As Cohen (2002), Furedi (1997) and Wall (2011) have convincingly explained, the result is a form of
moral panic that further problematizes accurate risk assessment and further contributes to distort
the public's sense of reality around social networking.
According to the ethnographic data that I had gathered it seemed as if the picture painted by the
media process often seemed exaggerated and over-sensationalised, and it seemed as if there was a
major contradiction between the way in which the media represented risks on Facebook and the
way in which the users themselves experienced them.
In the present study, only three informants told me about any unpleasant experiences they have
had on Facebook or about any immediate concerns they had with the networks' privacy policy. As
one female informant who has experienced being 'stalked' on Facebook had to say:
„Generally, I feel average safe, I know I had a guy who stalked me and collected lots of information from me,
that didn't feel good but luckily I could block him so that he can't even find me on Facebook anymore.“ (18
year old female)
In this case my informant had managed to completely escape the unpleasant and threatening
situation by simply 'blocking' the account of the stalker via the controls in the privacy settings on
Facebook. In most cases users seemed to have worked out a “strategy” on how to manage risk and
pro-actively prevent any unpleasant experiences on Facebook:
„There's nothing on there that I really feel I have to hide. I don't accept friend requests from people I don't
know and I don't mind the people I do know seeing photos of me going out.“ (18 year old female)
„I feel safe on Facebook because I have not got any personal information on there and I don't mind if
everyone can see because if I didn't want them to see I wouldn't be friends with them anyway!“ (18 year old
female)
27

28. „I always question the security settings on Facebook. It's not something I trust but I'm also not paranoid
about it. I try to limit anything posted by me or about me to keep a certain standard. Again, I am quite
selective of my friends so it doesn't bother me that much. Also I take the time to restrict friends from seeing
the entirety of my profile where necessary.“ (24 year old male)
„Yes [I do feel safe], as you can choose who you talk to and what information you give out. “ (21 year old
male)
„I feel safe for all aspects of Facebook that I am in control of […] I try my best not to put things up on
Facebook I do not want other people to see. “ (20 year old male)
„I'm satisfied. I'm not intimately familiar with them – I have just set my profile to 'private' and everything
else to 'friends only' – simple. “ (18 year old female)
ME (Interviewer): „How do you like the idea that all your “friends” can see everything that you're doing
on Facebook?”
„I'm completely fine with that. If I wasn't happy about it, I'd remove them as a friend! “ (22 year old male)
It became apparent that most users I spoke to had already thought about risk-management.
According to them the risk of being victimised is „virtually reduced to zero“ by having the policy
only to have people on Facebook that you already know IRL and, as one respondent put it: „not to
accept friend requests from strangers“. Others effectively reduced the risk of their personal data
being harvested by third-party programmes by simply not disclosing any sensitive personal
information. In the light of these findings it became clear that one can easily and seemingly
effectively manage and even pre-emptively avoid risk on Facebook.
The problem occurs when the production of knowledge around privacy and social networking is
influenced by several clashing realities (Wall 2011, Baudrillard 1991). As demonstrated by
Baudrillard's concept of the 'vertigo of reality', the notion of "objective reality" is both completely
meaningless and irrelevant in a world where powerful social voices in society and the media
vociferously compete to construct our sense of reality (Baudrillard 1991).
28

29. According to one such 'Internet Predator'-report from 2009, that since sparked a widespread
culture of fear as well as a moral panic among teenagers (Furedi 2007), youths and concerned
parents, a Wisconsin teenager was accused of „an elaborate sex-scam“ involving Facebook.
According to the state attorney, 18 year old Anthony Stanchel is facing up to 300 years behind
bars, after he allegedly hunted his fellow class mates like pray using Facebook where he set up 3
fake Facebook accounts to impersonate 3 girls from his senior high-school in order to send and
receive explicit emails and nude photographs of himself and numerous fellow male class-mates.
According to the media, Stanchel subsequently used this material to blackmail his victims into
having sex with him – often on school property. According to CBS News (2009), Stanchel has been
charged with 12 felonies including sexual assault and possession of child-pornography. Facebook-
officials who commented on the case stated that so-called „impersonation schemes“ only concern
roughly 1% of its [then] 150 million users worldwide. However, this message did not seem to get
across very well, unlike one that the CBS news-reporter gave, suggesting that 80% of teenagers
and youths on Facebook use the network to send and receive naked pictures of themselves (CBS
News 2009).
Over-sensationalised 'signal events' like these, leaves the reader with the impression that this
type of cybercrime, regarding personal data, is far more prevalent, intrusive and dystopic than it
really is (Wall 2008/11). At least according to the reality of the vast majority of the more than 800
million Facebook users who have not experienced any forms of personal victimisation. As Wall
(2011) argues, exaggerated news stories, like the above example, make use of rare and
particularly dramatic so-called "signal events", in a rhetorical effort to make the reader believe
privacy intrusion to be an existing norm in social networking.
Actual experiences of Risk on Facebook
Another reason why it is important to have an empirically grounded public understanding of what
Facebook is, how it works and of the risk-factors that are involved in using it, is that the actual
issues and risks that contemporary youths are actually experiencing on Facebook can be addressed
and receive more attention. Problems, that some of my informants were keen to highlight to me:
„The idea that everything posted is stored by admins is quite worrying. It forces me to limit
everything posted by me and about me. “ (24 year old male)
29

30. „I don't like that you can only re-block someone after 48 hours and I have also considered getting
rid of Facebook because of the new Timeline.“ (18 year old female)
„Changing them [the privacy settings] repeatedly isn't that great, but we do have to submit to this kind
of activity as we accept the terms and conditions of Facebook by using it. “ (22 year old male)
„I think they [the privacy settings] used to be great and by 'perfecting' them it's just become shit and
public. “ (20 year old female)
As we can see, the problems that my informants actually experience differ drastically from the
problems commonly presented by the media process. However, some of these actual problems and
concerns, mostly involving the new Timeline-feature and the privacy settings, have been found to
be so problematic that some of my informants even considered leaving the social network. The
Timeline is a new feature that, according to Facebook, is supposed to „tell your life story with a
new kind of profile“ (Facebook, see 'Introducing Timeline'). Following this purpose these new kinds
of profiles, the so-called Timelines, controversially store all your texts, messages and all other posts
that you have ever made, indefinitely. As a consequence, other users have the option to see what
you were up to on, for instance, the 14 of March 2008 or perhaps on Christmas Eve last year.
According to many of my informants, this feature was considered „too much“ or „too intrusive“
because, „although you may personally know all the people on your friends list, you might not want
them all to know exactly what you are doing 24/7“, or in other words, some of my informants
expressed concerns about the idea that everyone is effectively presented with their entire life story,
and there is nothing – or little – that they can do to prevent or limit that.
Chapter VI: Reflection and Discussion
In this chapter I wish to return to (and bring together) a few of the main points of THEMES I, II
and III and start a discussion that I already touched upon in the preceding sections, viz. the
occurring transformation of the meaning of central social concepts of everyday-life, such as
privacy, relationships, social presence and divorce.
According to McCracken (2011), Ratty (2012) and others (see Holson 2010; Turkle 2006; Collins
2008 and Ejsing & Allingstrup 2011), Facebook has recently crossed a line and made itself far too
intrusive into people’s everyday-lives. This raises important questions about where and how we
draw the boundaries of electronic privacy in the age of Facebook and online social media.
30

31. In the recent article „Facebook status update: I'm Pregnant“, Jess Ratty discusses the need for cyber-
privacy during her pregnancy and the surprisingly strong reactions from her friends when they
discovered that she had been pregnant for a while without announcing it on Facebook. As Ratty
correctly explains, „it is an issue that would not have arisen a few years ago“. However, with Facebook
now being such an integral part of her personal as well as social life, the boundaries between the
public and the private – between the online and the offline – had now been blurred to an extent
where some of her friends considered her behaviour as „downright rude“, „online etiquette gone
wrong“ or as her „not acknowledging the existence of her child“ (Ratty 2012). For Ratty major personal
life-events like being pregnant require a certain degree of privacy and non-mediated human
emotions:
„sharing this personal miracle is something to be done in person with the tangible responses included – a
hug, a touch – not a poke on Facebook or an abbreviated exclamation on Twitter“ (ibid.: 2012).
This story reveals a form of resistance against the emerging level of intrusiveness of Facebook into
an individual’s personal and private life as a result of the way in which the social network has
come to be used and domesticated as an integral part of the social existence. As a consequence, I
would argue, it is not just a question about where and how we draw the boundaries of electronic
privacy, but it is also important that people 'figure out the new rules of digital etiquette' when
forming and ending a relationship (Holson 2010). As a family-lawyer, Randall Kessler often
grapples with the complexities of online entanglements in real-world divorces, and he explains
how breaking up could be managed on Facebook: „it is best for our clients to change their passwords,
stop posting on social networking sites, acquire a new e-mail address and secure or make copies of whatever
is posted of them online“ (ibid.: 2010).
A personal experience: Ending a relationship - on Facebook </3
In my own research, this topic proved to be the most sensitive one to talk about and many of the
informants could themselves reveal stories about „unpleasant“ and very public break-ups that had
various unfavourable consequences reaching far beyond their 'offline' worlds. Here is what one
young female had to say after her relatively recent break-up with her boyfriend on Facebook:
„It was really messy; we used to share a lot of stuff: bank accounts, passwords, emails... And a lot of his
friends were mine on Facebook and a lot of my friends were his, so it kind of felt like we had not really broken
31

32. up even though we had. “[ME: (Interviewer): „Have you deleted him on Facebook? “] „I did yeah and
[I have] blocked him, but in theory one of his friends could just be telling him everything that I'm doing and
that's not a nice feeling at all.“ (19 year old female)
My interview with Natascha (pseudonym) was an insight into a wholly new problematic side of
Facebook which I had never encountered before. It revealed the experience of a girl who had just
broken up with her boyfriend and who had also experienced a negative aspect of the “digital
entanglement” of social media into her personal and private life first-hand. These findings
correspond to a report by Holson (2010) and suggest that, as a result of the way in which social
media and Facebook have become integrated into the everyday-lives of today's youths, the
traditional notion of what it means to end a relationship or break up also needs to be reconsidered
in the light of this new digital dimension of social life (Holson 2010). As Holson describes:
„Where once a spurned lover could use scissors (literally) to cut an ex out of the picture, digital images of the
smiling couple in happier days abound on the Web and are difficult to delete. Status updates and tweets
have a way of wending their way back to scorned exes, thanks to the interconnectedness of social media.“
(Holson 2010)
11. Conclusion
As outlined in Chapter I the primary objective of this dissertation has been to illuminate,
investigate and try to understand today's young people's use of one of the biggest social
phenomena of our time, Facebook, an egocentric online social networking site (SNS). With its
empirical point of departure in a series of 22 qualitative interviews of youths aged 18 to 24, the
study aimed at merging two essential levels of analysis: the individual micro-perspectives of the
social actors and at the macro-level of discourse.
After having reached the end of the nexus-analysis, it is now time to conclude the study. I begin by
summarizing the most significant analytical findings, points and results that emerged from the
study's navigation phase. Subsequently, I create a distanced perspective, taking all the phases and
the study as a whole into account. Finally, I will take a look at the potential for new promising
areas of research involving Facebook, contemporary youths and mediated actions on social
networking sites.
In Their Own Words: Why Youths are on Facebook
32

33. The first empirical question that was addressed by this study was the issue of which motive(s)
contemporary youths have for joining Facebook. The results of the study's navigation phase
could reveal 6 overall motive-categories. The most prevalent reasons youths had for joining the
social network were, not surprisingly, to communicate and socialize with friends (scene
argument). With 17 responses, the second most common reason to join Facebook was proven to
be the “Staying in touch”-category. This category appeared to be very important for many of the
informants interviewed, because it was established that many youths often used Facebook as an
important tool to stay in touch with old friends from their childhood – friends that often lived too
far away to keep in touch with otherwise. In accordance with the theories of Boyd (2007), Gefter
(2006) and Larsen (2010), I was able to note how hardly any youths use Facebook to meet new
friends or as a 'tool' to find love. This suggests that Facebook predominately is regarded among
youths as an alternate way of socializing and organizing the offline lives of already existing friends.
Social Presence and the Maintenance of Friendship Ties
In Theme II of the analysis, I attempted to shed light on typical mediated social practice on
Facebook, and I quickly discovered that the mainstream “mode of communication” on Facebook
was directly via the so-called Timeline (formerly known as a person’s 'profile' or 'wall'). With the
help from Boyd (2007a/2007b) and Simmel (1950), I then attempted to de-code why the
predominant social practice observable on Facebook was in the form of short and seemingly very
mundane messages such as “sup bro” or alike. As Boyd accurately suggested, this is due to the fact
that the importance lies within the communication itself. It is regarded as an acceptable way of
communicating between friends because it is commonly thought of as a way of showing interest
in another person. As such, this kind of mediated social practice can be seen as an important way
of being sociable with your network of friends – even though this is not in a physical sense. As
Simmel rightfully suggests, this form of mediated social practice on Facebook can therefore be
described as a form of 'sociability'.
Changes in the meaning of 'Friendship' and 'Authenticity'
In the following, Theme I continued to dig deeper into the world of mediated social practice
between youths on Facebook, and I began to discover how, as a consequence of the way in which
the technology is used and of the role and meaning it is given in their personal and social lives,
we might have to fundamentally reconsider a series of concepts and social institutions, starting
33

34. with the notion of 'friendship', which according to authors such as Granovetter (1973) is
currently undergoing a negative transformation and becoming much 'weaker' than in the
traditional sense. He and others argue that even though someone might have 400 friends on
Facebook, that by far does not mean that this person also has 400 friends IRL. As a result of the
semi-structured interviews in this study I quickly found enough empirical grounds to challenge
this notion, because several of my informants could share personal experiences with me that
have suggested otherwise. And as I have mentioned earlier, one informant even reported having
actually met her best IRL-friend on the network. This led me to question the idea that
'friendships' could be just “pseudo-friendships” on Facebook, and, using the theories of Wesch
(2008) and (Goffman 1959), I argued that mediated socializing actually, on the contrary, has
distinct advantages over IRL socializing, because it can facilitate “deeper” and “more “intimate”
communication, communication that would otherwise not have been socially acceptable, had it
not been on Facebook, such as: “luv u :))!!!”. I concluded that socializing on Facebook is a
revolutionary way of socializing because it allows youths to connect with as many people as
possible, at the smallest risk of rejection. Similarly, the data I had collected also suggested that
the notion of 'authenticity' is currently undergoing a transformation as a result of Facebook and
the form social practice has taken on the network. For older generations and authors such as
Calhoun (1991), online socializing is always a 'lesser' alternative to IRL socializing. However,
because many of my informants did not actually seem to distinguish between online and offline
social interaction and even referred to Facebook to me as in 'there', I argued that this suggests
that authenticity is taking on a new meaning, because the online and the offline dichotomy have
become redundant and frankly irrelevant to the youths themselves. What happens on Facebook,
it turned out, occasionally was even more 'valuable' than something that happened IRL and could
not be shared or documented.
Risk on Facebook: Contradictions between Public Discourses and Local Experiences
The final Theme then revealed a contradiction between how risk is perceived by youths on
Facebook and how it is commonly presented in the media and, accordingly, how it is often
perceived on a discourse level. Using the theories of Wall (2010/2011) and Furedi (1997), I
discovered that there is an emerging need for empirically grounded studies of youths, Facebook
and the notion of risk. Especially within the areas of electronic privacy, online safety and identity
protection the media representations were often particularly over-sensationalized as a result of
the culture of fear that emerged concerning pedophiles, stalkers and other forms of online
perpetrators. Yet, the youths themselves, perfectly aware of the unrepresentative discourses,
34

35. almost always asserted that risk was effectively avoidable with the right privacy settings in place
and a healthy 'rule of thumb' not to invite anyone they did not know IRL.
The final Theme illustrated the emerging need for an empirically grounded assessment of youths
and their experiences with Facebook. This is particularly important in today's “age of experts”, as
authors including Larsen (2010) and Wall (2010) have both pointed out. Not only will this put an
end to the media-generated culture of fear surrounding social networking but also direct the
publics attention to the problems and risks that the users actually report experiencing.
This indeed is what I would suggest as a promising new field of research. As I have shown with
this study, many users have expressed serious concerns about the level of intrusiveness of
Facebook into their everyday private lives and one of my informants even considered leaving the
network for this reason.
If Facebook cannot balance their ambition to enable sharing (partly to facilitate targeted
advertisement and thus grow as a business) with the innate need for user privacy and identity
protection, then Klastrup's (2010:1) critical question might become more relevant than ever: 'how
long will the success continue?' With new powerful competitors emerging on the market for
social networking such as Google+, Facebook’s ability to maintain its trust with its users will, I
argue, be put to a major challenge in the future. However, for as long as the users share
Zuckerberg's ambition, Facebook will continue to play a key role in the everyday social lives of
many contemporary Western youths.
35

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