Chapter one of The
Breakup 2.0 discusses media ideologies and idioms of practice to further
analyze how people use different mediums to breakup. The author, Ilana Gershon, goes into many different case
studies to show people’s beliefs, or media ideologies, on breakups through text
messaging, Facebook, and e-mail.
The article from Gawker, “Breaking Up on Facebook: A User’s Guide to the
Most Efficient Way to Break a Heart”, correlates well with what Gershon is
saying in her book. The article
talks about how the social media world allows breaking up to be done by simply
clicking a button. The article
graphs the kindness of a break-up vs. the effort put into a break up through using
different mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, Productive conversation, and
Sprawling conversation. This graph
correlates with Gershon using personal accounts to identify beliefs on what
medium, if any, should be used during a break up. The article also indirectly goes into informality and
formality of mediums by giving the step-by-step rules to a Facebook break up,
which again is based on media ideologies.
I chose this article because I think it represents the idea
of media ideologies we have been discussing throughout the semester and that
Gershon further explains. The
author of this article is representing her media ideology that Facebook is the
easiest and most efficient way to break up with someone. Though the author of the Gawker article
believes this, it does not necessarily mean everyone does. As Gershon stated in chapter one, people
create their own media ideologies and with some newer medias such as Facebook
there is not one consensus about how it should be used yet.
Article:
When I was searching youtube for videos on breaking up
through different mediums or how Facebook plays into a relationship I came
across a video where Facebook is used during a wedding ceremony. During the video the groom updates his
Facebook relationship status from “Engaged” to “Married”. The man officiating the wedding then
says “If it’s official on Facebook it’s official in my book”. Though this is opposite from breaking
up I still chose to share it because I think it represents an idea Gershon has
about Facebook. When Gershon is
talking about people breaking up through Facebook she talks about “Facebook
official” and how some people don’t believe a relationship has ended until it
is “Facebook official”. This video
again shows different media ideologies.
Though the couple most likely did this out of humor, they are still
changing their Facebook status at their wedding ceremony, which is probably
uncommon to most, but it was their belief of how it should be done. In summary, I chose this video to touch
on Gershon’s “Facebook official” point as well as to show another different
media ideology.
Video:
If we told the teenagers in the 50s that one day there would be a way to end a relationship with someone with out face to face contact or voice to voice contact; I wonder how they would respond. I find it unbelievable that we live in an era where our lives revolve around technology. Not only can we break up with someone through the computer, but also one is able to find a spouse or date someone with a computer on the Internet. The Gawker article that was chosen, just restates how technologically-based our lives are now. The fact that there are guides to show the most efficient way of breaking up on Facebook just proves how this new form of communication has truly evolved.
ReplyDeleteAdding on to the previous comment, I believe that our society is becoming less and less direct and confrontational because of technology. You can get out of having a conversation face to face by just saying what you need to say in an email or text. Technology has become the easy way out for our generation. It is strange to me that people need to have it "Facebook official" to seem real.
ReplyDelete