Talk:Avery Wein

Comment 1

Hi Avery,

I enjoyed reading your Facebook Avatar evaluation. As a not-so-frequent Facebook user, I especially found your comments on the social and behavioral norms of the site to be reflective and insightful.

In the “I love Facebook” introduction, you mention that you are an avid Facebook user and “guilty of checking it way too often” but that you have stopped posting recently. In your experience, which identity – the one when you were younger and poste status updates a lot versus your use now – is a more accurate portrayal of your offline self? Has your Facebook behavior from 2009 to now changed because of changes in Facebook’s platform, social norms, changes in your offline life, or another factor?

I thought that your discussion about how “likes” are related to self-esteem was really interesting. A few other questions to consider are: Do you think that the need for approval through Facebook’s liking system has an impact on our normative identities? Because likes are also a representation of your attention and approval, how do you determine which posts to like? I thought that it was really interesting that your dad made a Facebook account to monitor your activity. In the “Privacy” section, you mention that because of your conscientiousness about what you post, you have never felt unsafe on the site. Do you think that your good posting habits were a result of your parent’s involvement in your tech use? As you grew up, did your dad’s ability to view your account ever feel like a violation of your privacy, even if he didn’t view it often?

Lastly, you mentioned that you use Facebook as a photo album but that you occasionally untag yourself from pictures. To what extent is your photo album an accurate representation of your identity?

Great job on the article!

Joanna Warrick