Facebook--A "Realistic" Social Networking Site -Joe

As the founder of Facebook once expressed, Facebook allows people to portray themselves in various ways. They can express their feelings by posting their "status" or "mood," and they are also able to share their feelings in a community "notebook," a blog of sorts. Facebook is based on the ideologies of realism in that it provides: a channel for individuals to express their feelings, expression of ideas without institutional censorship, and the ability to better understand individuals.

In Facebook, you reveal to the world who you are, what you're feeling at any moment (literally at any moment), and express you're individualistic style through displaying icons that help represent you. Individualism is best served here, as it is a very American trait. In terms of realism, it is what makes social networks a by-product of realist values. Allowing individuals to be who they are, and for the world to absorb it.

People often chronicle events in their life like a trip to some far-off place, or the birthing process up to the time of birth, or embarrassing pictures of an unforgettable evening. Facebook allows people to connect and share things about each other that would otherwise take years, even a lifetime to understand about another person. An example is learning about someone's fear of flying, and how they coupe with it. Most important, is that it is an uninhibited area where individuals can express themselves without the judgement of institutions. While there are things that may be considered revealing, and may eventually reach the head of one's department, it illustrates how uninhibited Facebook is.

What is contrived about Facebook with regards to realism, is the fact that people can choose how to present themselves to the world. Individuals thus frame the reality they present to the world. Anytime we frame reality, it is no longer reality because parts of it are only shown instead of the whole. Although this may seem metonymic, the use of metonymy by realist writers is in itself contradiction to reality (refer to realist stories like "Daisy Miller" or "Editha"). By only presenting part of the whole, we extract the reality into a brand of reality we wish to impart on others. As Whitman says about "perfume extracts in houses," we take the essence of what is real only to present it as a by-product of reality. In reality, the only way to experience realism, is to live in the here and now.