Ahh, social networking.

 
This week we learned about three different theories, Conflict, Structural functionalism and Symbolic Interactionism theory and their effect on social networking in our lives.It's interesting to think about who really has power in the world of social networking. The people or the people who create the sites? If we look at conflict theory, we ask who has the power? and when you have the power, what can you do with it? People often want to have their voices heard, and when this does happen, great change or a big ripple can occur. Take the riots in Egypt not so long ago, that all started on social networking sites. Not only was the message heard by a large volume of people, eventually, words became actions and the people of Egypt overthrew their long time president causing great social change.
   With structural functionalism, we have the ability to connect with others almost effortlessly. You can post a question and have an answer in the matter of minuets. But this also causes excess posting, and you can then find people posting about every detail that happens in their lives.
    Lastly we have Symbolic interactionism. What makes a post different than a message? What does it mean if you spell love instead of luv. Really, the symbols are like saying, hey, your worth having a private conversation with and for once in my life, I will actually spell out words.
   The way I relate myself to the ideas above is that yes, I am very apart of Facebook, but I don't have to post my every move there. If I find something funny, and I think it's worth sharing, I'll post it. If I feel that a conversation is becoming too deep while posting, I'll switch over to a private message or actually call that person on the phone. Some may argue what I'm doing now relates to Structural functionalism, that I'm posting too much, but in a sense, I'm ok with that because in order to explain an idea you have to go into the details of the idea in the hopes of other people understanding.