Multiphrenia: looking at a friend’s facebook account.

In class, we read about multiphrenia, the presentation of the self in different ways according to the situation. I decided to do a small ethnographic study to see how my friend from home, Laura, presents herself on facebook as opposed to how she presents herself to me and to people that she has just met.

I have noticed that Laura is very shy around people that she doesn’t know well, and I expected her to present herself this way on the internet since she would not know who is looking at her profile. I would say that Laura is a person who values privacy and is not quick to open up to strangers. I was surprised to find that she presented herself on facebook much closer to the way she presents herself to me. She is very open about her likes and dislikes in movies and music when she usually is embarrassed to tell people that she doesn’t know well what she likes.

Many of her facebook profile pictures and albums are of her making faces or acting silly. When Laura meets someone for the first time, she is not usually this open to show her silly side. Laura presents more of her “true self” on facebook than she does when meeting strangers. We have read that since the blogger/internet user can’t see the audience and doesn’t know who is reading what they are putting online, they are free to be more themselves. I think this is certainly true of my friend.

Minnesota vs. Pennsylvania

It just so happens that most of my friends are either from Minnesota or Western/Central Pennsylvania. Our group is divided according to accents. Though I don’t usually recognize the fact that I have an accent, my friends are quick to remind me. The MN people have also commented that they don’t realize that they have an accent except when the PA people tease them. The functions of these conversations are both phatic and metalingual.

However, all of us are proud of our state and, to a certain extent, our accents. I tease the MN people for saying “Ooooh yaaaah” or “Suuuure yooou betcha dontcha knooow” or “oofda!” They make fun of my colloquialisms (gumband = rubberband, read up = clean up, sweeper = vaccuum) and failure to pronounce L’s and double O’s.

Accents define who we are to a certain extent. They let other people know where one is from and often are the basis by which people are judged. I have become much more aware of my accent by comparing the way I speak to the way my friends from MN speak.

Questions about Language:

This course has answered a lot of questions that I had about language but also opened up the possibility for more questions:
1. How aware are people of the functions that their language performs?
2. What are the functions of politeness? Phatic?
3. Why is it that when verbal art is analyzed, it is no longer funny?
4. How is electronic communication perceived by older people who did not grow up with it but who use it now?
5. Why is it that people who are aware of the techniques persuasive language are still persuaded by it?
6. Are there any examples of pure performance?

So many questions, so little class time…