Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The invention of the social network was originally to bring people closer to each other. However, one of the biggest networking platforms, Facebook, with its design and layout has actually blurred the exquisite line of different types of relationships that give us different comfortable space to be in by generalizing all the relationships into one, friendship. The generalization means that one will show everything equally to everyone that s/he affirmed to be “friends,” whether the other person is his/her professor, colleague, gossiping neighbors, or students. By participating in the system, with only “yes, she is my friend” or “no, she is not” setup and the pressure that the person sending the request is waiting on the other side of the screen and ready to view how closely you feel about them in real life, the users of Facebook give up their privacy and let others observe, investigate, and judge them in the name of friendship. This paper will first discuss how Facebook operates with the concept of friendship to build up the system and eventually modify the meaning of it. Then it will discuss how people behave accordingly in daily lives with their friends with this technology that was supposed to bring everyone closer and tighter.