Facebook as a Genre

• Facebook can be seen as a well-received addition to the increasingly digital, “real-time” culture in which we live
• As many Facebook users live in large cities where life seems to unfold at an accelerated pace, Facebook has emerged as an effective tool for maintaining social ties, keeping family and friends updated on the happenings in one’s life, and for creating new affiliations. The following features are criteria which can be used to describe Facebook as a genre.

Form

• Image and text-based (users post pictures and leave messages on other users’
• profiles and group sites)
• Incorporates other mediums like television, video, and music players
• A modern-day mode of life-writing
• Resembles a diary, except pictures and other applications replace written text
• Flexible structure, user can customize his settings and profile
• Features constant updates (a 24-hour platform)
• Group pages emerge as public forums
• Has a language of its own (e.g. “poking”)

Style

• Informal writing style
• Shorthand is used, and messages often appear as though they were text messages
• Colloquial language frequently used and proper grammar/syntax rules are not necessarily followed
• Features brief, sporadic conversations between users

Themes

• Human affiliation
• Maintaining and creating friendships and other social ties
• Uniting for a cause (as seen on some group pages)
• Social networking

Content matter

• Immensely personal
• Personal/Seemingly private details of a person’s life can be viewed
• Besides group pages, this platform is rarely used for discussing serious issues (users mainly engage in brief, light conversation which can be viewed by other users not involved in the conversation)
• Pictures posted on the user’s profile reveal the users’ interests and recent activities
• Constant posting of pictures in combination with other postings on a user’s profile reveal a life-story that is constantly unfolding