A Facebook mint köznapiság

Abstract

Facebook as a Commonplace

Social networks, especially Facebook, appear as if the utopias we read in our childhoods, and the dystopias we faced a little later, came to life: we can contact anyone in the world, just as anyone can connect with us; we can learn endless things about almost anyone or anything and similarly, all about us is revealed. Seeking a job, we can enrapture HR experts, use the platform as a project manager, and lose our jobs thanks to revelations about our old hobbies. As a consequence of our Eastern European routines, we are not surprised when opinions, articles, books and conversations we read and share, or just haphazardly like (or neglect to like) cause distress. A specific problem is a direct political discussion, which can see careers collapse or take off; even the fate of countries can be affected by various forces.
A great deal of research has been conducted on social networks, and such research is to be discovered mainly in professional journals. At the center of inquiry, we find normal users, their characteristics, pages they visit, commenting habits, advertisements and news articles. The jargon and applied methodology of such research indicate that the social network, which is hardly more than ten years old, is something inherently unique and can only be understood using new or revamped tools.
I seek to show that the social network is a segment of commonplace existence (György Lukacs), which in terms of technique and openness is novel, but at the same time fits the centuries-old routines of daily life.