Top of the Girl Geek agenda this Monday morning is the subject of good taste and social network decorum. The week has commenced with a noisy foray of commentary about ‘the shank’ on Facebook. This refers to the not-so-super superpoke, where users can choose to ‘stab’ at oneother as a symbolic poke. The story is typical of the summertime lazy journo media as the word on the press street that includes, The Telegraph, Sky and Channel 4 is that ‘Facebook is responsible for knife crime’. But sloppy journalism aside, this topic raises some interesting pause-for-thought considerations.
The implied question is whether we should hold SNSs responsible for other social consequences? This has more to do with the overarching social responsibilities of the individual in terms of their own value judgements. In this particular instance, the potential causality of actions such as ‘shanking’ each other on a SNS has become conflated with the social effects, opinions and assessments of what is good taste.
I am aware that by being a ‘Girl Geek’ this is as much an attitude of mind, as well as the flagging up of my own geek ‘credentials’ and sensibility. On SNSs users believe their profile to represent them ‘accurately’. As a natural follow-on, the actions that we portray on our profile must also be indicative of the ‘who we are’. On Facebook, this doesn’t mean that the superpoke shank is responsible for knife crime. But it does fly in the face of all that is good taste and appropriate behaviour.
Another version of this post ‘Taking a stab at Facebook‘ appeared @ Maz Hardey’s Web 2.0 MediaTalk blogspot.
About Dr Mariann Hardey
I hold the position of Lecturer in Social Media Marketing at Durham Business School. I also spend too much time enjoying social technologies, media+ stuff. That'll make me a Geek then. And a gal.
