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John Ford
Prof Thesis
Why do People use Facebook?
Facebook is a very popular social network that almost everyone is using in a way to
communicate. People may create a personal profile, add friends, and exchange messages to
interact with others. Facebook also includes an automatic notifications feature that keeps you up
to date with all your friends’ updates when they update their profile. Furthermore, Facebook is a
way to network for business reasons or to promote any type of event. For some, Facebook is a
way to reconnect with classmates or old friends. For many others it is a way to stay interact and
stay connected with your family and friends. Communication is an important process in the
usage of Facebook. In order to build a successful Facebook network, people should have a
common understanding of what others choose to incorporate into their profile to display to
everyone in their network. Communication through Facebook can develop a shared meaning
between you and your friends. That Shared meaning can be established through the use of
language and symbols that are displayed through conversation or viewed through pictures.
Facebook allows people to connect and interact with each other. I chose the Social Penetration
Theory, Symbolic Interaction Theory, and Coordinated Management of Meaning Theory to
exercise my claim. The Symbolic Interaction Theory determines the communication between
you and friends that bring you all together and develop a symbolic meaning. Coordinated
Management of Meaning explains how people have limitations to how and what may be
discussed on their wall or messages done through Facebook. Lastly, the Social Penetration
Theory allows people to get a grasp of who the person is before even communicating with that
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person. Then as the bonding increases the relationship moves from superficial to more intimate.
Facebook is a social community of its own.
The Social Penetration Theory is the increase in bonding that moves a relationship or
friendship from being superficial to an intimate level. Self-disclosure is the most important factor
to moving this bond from superficial to more intimate. Social Penetration Theory has four
assumptions, which are that relationship move from being non- intimate to intimate, relational
development is predictable and systematic, relational development can include dissolution and
depenetration (deterioration of a once close relationship), Self-disclosure is essential to relational
development. The purpose of the social penetration is to go deeper and reveal information about
one’s self. Stages of social Penetration include orientation, exploratory affective exchange,
affective exchange, and stable exchange. The orientation is when one reveals little bits of oneself
that reveal superficial aspects. The exploratory affective exchange is when ones personality starts
to emerge. The affective exchange is when conversation becomes more casual or more honest.
The last stage is the stable exchange stage when one displays raw honestly and intimacy. When
getting to know someone more intimately we usually use the Onion Model or when we try 2
reveal various aspects about one’s personality. The Onion Model includes the public image, the
private self, breadth, and depth. The outer layers of a person that are visible to everyone to see
are the public image. The private self is the innermost layer of a person that is revealed to only
important people. The Breath is the numerous topics that are covered in a relationship. Lastly,
the last layer is the depth which is the degree of intimacy that guides the numerous topic
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discussions. Reciprocity is a very important factor to the success of the relationship. Reciprocity
is the feedback of openness from one partner back to another. Reciprocity is associated with
increased satisfaction and perceptions of equality. Rewards and costs of self-disclosure balance
the positives and negatives that the relationship goes through. Rewards and costs have a greater
impact sooner than later in the relationship. When a relationship creates a positive history of
rewards and cost, that relationship is better fit to handle conflicts effectively.
The Social Penetration Theory is helpful to my claim because Facebook allows you to get
to know people in a more efficient and easier way. Instead of randomly meeting someone in the
mall and the conversation may be uncomfortable; you can ignite conversation over Facebook and
maybe a shyer person would feel more comfortable then he or she did if it was face-to-face
communication. Facebook may allow one to go deeper in conversation than as oppose to face to
face. Hiding behind a computer screen may be more beneficial and may protect one from getting
embarrassed if they asked an inappropriate question. Facebook also allows you to penetrate and
learn a lot about that person before interaction. He can learn a lot about that person through their
about me portion or through their wall posts. Facebook communication is a great tool to go more
in depth with that person when you have a shy personality.
The Symbolic Interaction Theory states that constructing meaning for human beings is
the communication process. It is complicated to communicate with one another, maybe even
impossible without meaning. Symbolic Interaction Theory has three assumptions. The first
assumption is the importance of meanings for human behavior and has three key elements.
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Humans act toward others on the basis of the meanings those others have for them. To
communicate, language and gestures have to have a general meaning and both parties need to
understand one another. This is the reason we assign symbols to words and objects. The words
and objects are not important unless they take on the meanings that occur during people’s
interaction with one another. The second element of this assumption explains that meaning is
created in interaction between people. People have to share common interpretations of what the
symbols stand for, in order for meaning to exist. There are three different approaches to
meaning. One approach explains that meaning should be intrinsic to the object. The second
approach is within an individual that produce a meaning, isolating the psychological
components. The third and final approach is seeing meaning as it occurs to people.
Communication is successful, because the meanings created by people while they engage in
social interaction are unique to those people. The third element of this assumption is that
meaning is modified through an interpretive process. There are two steps in this process. The
first step is pointing out things that have meaning. The second step is selecting, checking, and
transforming meanings in the context in which people find themselves. In order to have a
successful conversation with others, people need to listen for remarks that are relative to what is
meaningful to them. The importance of the self-concept is another theme. Self-concept is a
relatively stable set of perceptions people hold about themselves. Two assumptions support this
theme. Individuals develop self-concepts through interaction with others. This explains that
people are not born with self-concepts; they learn them only through interactions with others.
Self-concepts provide an important influence for behavior. Beliefs, values, feelings, and
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assessments about oneself can affect their behavior. The self is seen as a process which people
are forced to construct their own actions and responses. The third and final theme of Symbolic
Interaction Theory is the relationship between the individual and society. There are two
assumptions that guide this theme. Cultural and social develops the influence between people
and groups. Social norms constrict individual behaviors because people choose to do things that
are socially acceptable. Social structure is exercised through social interaction. People choice
what and what not to do and are not completely confined to just their social norms. The three
key terms of Symbolic Interaction include, mind, self, and society. Mind is the ability to use
symbols that have common social meanings while interacting with others. Self is the ability to
reflect on ourselves from the perspective of others because self does not come only from one’s
own. Society is defined as a web of social relationships that humans construct. It exists prior to
the individual but is also shaped by the individual.
The Symbolic Interaction Theory is a helpful theory for the support to my claim due to
the fact that it realizes that if people have a shared meaning in various pictures or conversation,
these similarities encourage other friends to join the group or network to enhance their shard
understanding. It is also observed that when you have certain similarities with your friends on
Facebook you often join or create a group that allows you all to display your shared meaning.
The social structure of Facebook is based on the interaction between you and your other friends.
Users choose what to display on their profile to everyone on the network or they can choose to
keep their profile private and only display their profile to their friends. The friendships you
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establish with the constant communication through Facebook evolve the friendship to a greater
sense of a shared meaning.
Coordinated management of meaning focuses on how individuals assign meaning to a
message. It is also focused on the relationship between an individual and his or her society.
Human beings inhabit the communication process, due to the fact that humans live in a world of
communication. Individuals create their own interactions, which give each potential to be
different. Social construction is a process which human beings co-create a social reality along
with the belief that people co-construct their social reality in conversations. Social reality is a
person’s belief about how meaning and action fit within his or her interpersonal encounters.
While conversing, each person has their own personal position on the discussion from previous
interactions. Two people are engaging from two different vantage points, because new realities
are elicited. This is how new social realities are created. Information transaction depends on
personal and interpersonal meaning. Personal meaning is when a person interacts with another
and offers his or her own personal experience. Interpersonal meaning is when the two people
agree on each other’s interpretation of the experience. The hierarchy of organized meaning is
the way in which human beings distribute the six levels of meaning. The levels include cultural
patterns, life scripts, relationships, episodes, speech art, and content.
The Coordinated Management of Meaning Theory effectively influences by
acknowledging that through communication, people co-create their own social reality and this
reality creates the format of Facebook. When two people are interacting on Facebook, it is
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important to defend his or her viewpoint as well as understanding another’s point of views
throughout the conversation. It allows them to build a new reality together. The communication
and interaction held in a conversation in such as a Facebook instant messaging chat, wall post, or
message is essential when building a friendship through Facebook. Facebook allows you to have
constant interaction with another, therefore which creates a social reality between the two who
are conversing. Also remember you are not confined to one person. Facebook allows you to
create a social reality with millions of other users. People must engage and work together
efficiently, to create a successful Facebook experience.
The question to “Why do People use Facebook so much?” can be supported by three
theories which are Social penetration Theory, Symbolic Interaction Theory, and Coordinated
Management of Meaning. Social Penetration Theory allows one to go in-depth and learn a great
deal of information about one through Facebook communication. Symbolic Interaction Theory
recognizes the fact that through Facebook you and your friends develop a shared meaning about
various things such as groups, pictures, wall post, or friends. Facebook may encourage you and
your friends to keep a positive network and expand it to everyone you may know to stay
connected. Coordinated management of Meaning states that through communication, people cocreate their own social reality, which is imperative to building up your Facebook.