When
thinking back on all of the theories of popular culture and how they relate to
Facebook, I decided that Rituals and Stereotypes probably play the biggest part
in how Facebook is used. This has been
the week of the Chic-Fil-A controversy.
Unfortunately, I have discovered via Facebook, just how biased and
closed minded that many of my friends are.
There has been a lot of name calling, criticizing, arguing, and plain
rudeness all over Facebook this week.
In my
original paper on Rituals and Stereotypes, I defined a stereotype as the act of
“to believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic
are the same” (Stereotype, n.d.) . It is very sad to me that people can’t see
each other as equal, that religion or sexual orientation truly do not make a
difference, and should not make a difference in how someone is treated. I keep hearing that this is a “Freedom of
Speech” issue. I keep hearing that it is
a “gay rights” issue. What I have learned
about stereotypes after this class is that people seem to think that there is no
middle ground.
The thing that
I found most interesting was that I was able to apply all of the topics to Facebook.
I had only ever thought about Facebook a
place to go and unwind by playing a game or two, or catching up with an old friend,
or spying on my kids. I never realized how
much popular culture had to do with Facebook.
I am not sure
that I will change my views of Facebook after taking the class. I might be a little more cognitive about the themes
or topics when something gets posted on my wall, but I will continue to use Facebook
as a place to unwind, catch up, and spy.
References
Stereotype.
(n.d.). Retrieved August 2, 2012, from Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype
