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As the proliferation of online social media and users dependency of using sites such as
Facebook increases, it becomes important to understand how people portray themselves
online. Extending the ideas of Paul Heilkers, On Genres as Ways of Being and James Paul
Gees, What is Literacy, this essay explores different ways Facebook users illustrate their
home life, otherwise known as primary discourse, to their viewers. The essay explores
Facebook as a genre because it asks users to display aspects of an individuals primary
discourse online. This essay then looks into different ways Facebook puts pressure on its
users to be emotional or even allude to a picture-perfect life, furthering Mary Louise Pratts
Art of the Contact Zone. However this idea is negated by users who use Facebook to
catalog events. The essay concludes by offering advice to taking into account that actuality
of what people see on Facebook. (148).
Tags: Mary Louise Pratt, James Paul Gee, Paul Heilker, genres, discourse, Facebook

Julia Stafford
Rose Pettitt
English 101
24 November 2014
Into the World of Social Media
With the increase of technology comes the augmentation of social media through
certain internet forums such as Facebook, chat sites, online newspapers etc The internet
site that most interests me however, is Facebook, due to its constant popularity throughout the
years. With its continuous popularity, there are generations from all over the spectrum who
now own a Facebook account. I have always been very interested in the idea of how many
people put up personal information, personal photos, and updated posts or statuses about their
life. Be it pictures, posts, statuses, or comments, I have noticed people trying to show off
their home life by writing very personal statuses about where/how they grew up to all who
will read it. Facebook is a site where each user can decide exactly what they want seen on
their profile, for how long they want it to be seen and to which people they want it shown.
This means that each user has the free will to express themselves however they deem
necessary over this piece of social media. This topic interested me because I realized that

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when I found an old friend on Facebook, I was able to find out everything she was doing with
her life from the last time I saw her by just looking at her profile. If an individual wanted to
be able to contact someone that they havent seen or heard from in a while, it would make
sense that said individual would want to be able to look up accurate information on this
person. For my investigation, I have decided to focus in on my familys friend circle. Based
on my observations, Facebook appears to be a space for people to be able to post truthfully
about their life online in order to communicate with others.
Before going into the details about how posts on Facebook are portraying the
individuals behind the computer, it is important to understand the idea of genres. In Paul
Heilkers On Genres as Ways of Being, he goes through several real life examples on how
genres embody and enact ideologies, values, and ideas about what we should believe, what
we should want, and how we should be (97). In other words, Heilker is explaining how
everyone in life has a genre, and said genre is the ideology and values that are associated with
that person. This relates to Facebook because people on Facebook have the opportunity to
talk about and share their experiences and interests to an audience of viewers. If people have
the opportunity to share information about themselves, then they are representing themselves
onto the genre of Facebook. According to Heilker, genres form human beings and how we
feel about things (102). In other words, a genre forms how a human feels about a certain
idea or thing. Relating this to Facebook, when we see someones profile page, we associate
this someone with a certain idea about their home life and what environment they grew up in.
This is known as their primary discourse (Gee 79). When looking on someones main profile
page, a viewer can see where the user went to high school, college, full name, interests (if
filled out), relationship status, where they live currently, and even where they were born. The
various facts that are represented on an individuals profile page are supposed to allow the
viewer to understand that users home life. This means that Facebook as a genre allows the

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viewer to take a glimpse into the users primary discourse, which is the home environment
where this individual grew up in. This idea is represented in Heilkers statement when he
points out that genres are fundamentally altering how [people are] in the world (96). To
further Heilkers point on the idea that genres mold people a certain way in the world, when
starting a Facebook account, Facebook asks the newcomer to fill out all of these categories
about themselves and represent their life. This means that Facebook, as a genre, makes a list
of demands on its users to fit into a discourse. A discourse is when a person has to think, act,
and speak a certain way in order to be in this discourse. According to James Paul Gee, a
discourse concerns itself with certain objects and puts forward certain concepts [and]
viewpoints (74). In other words, a discourse is the way that individuals present themselves
on how they act, speak and look. Because Facebook asks the user to display images of them,
post statuses about their life, and reveal information about personal life, Facebook as a genre
is asking the new users to act, speak, and look a certain way in order to represent their home
life and be part of this online community. These are the concepts and viewpoints that
Facebook is asking users to display online. Does Facebook put pressure on its users to act a
certain way or express their feelings in a specific way when representing their primary
discourse on Facebook?
Now understanding what discourses are in terms of displaying individuality on
Facebook, while browsing my Facebook home page, it appears as though the people online
are expressing their personality for the purpose of emotionally informing others what is going
on in their life. The original intent of Facebook was to be able to get into contact with people
from anywhere around the world. My first reaction to Facebook is the idea that people would
want to display their true genre online to other people. An example of this is when a
Facebook user quoted that she was feeling quite liberated and accomplished! First time
back behind the wheels since October 8th (Deramat). This person is talking about her life

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after a motorcycle accident. After the accident, this woman could not ride her motorcycle for
a very long time, and because riding was her absolute passion in life, this period of time was
extremely hard on her. This quote appears to be more of just an informational post rather
than illustrating anything about her personality. Tying this into Heilkers use of genres, is
the idea that genres enactwhat we should believe (97). This means that genres tell the
individual what to feel. If this is the case, then this status reflecting how this writer feels
about being back on a motorcycle and how happy it makes this person should reflect exactly
how this person actually feels in their life. In this case, it seems as though this user is
accurately reflecting how she feels. This is seen when she talks about feeling liberated and
accomplished. Facebook asks its users to be emotional on Facebook. So in order to
participate in the genre of Facebook, the individual must speak, act, and appear expressive in
order to participate in this particular discourse. This helps prove that Facebook is a genre
because a genre assume things about and require things of their users (Heilker 97). In other
words, in order to fit into a genre, an individual must be a certain way in order to belong to
this particular genre. In this precise case, Facebook asks its users to be emotional. Is posting
emotional statuses a common thing for all Facebook users, or do the ways people represent
their discourses online differ between users?
Adding on to my first hypothesis that Facebook as a genre seems to demand
individuals to display their discourse online along with the idea that Facebook demands its
users to be emotional while on the genre of Facebook, however while people should be
emotive, Facebook as a genre appears to make people represent emotions that are not
authentic. I have found evidence that shows how people on Facebook prefer to portray only
the wonderful things in their life to outside viewers. Its almost as if the user wants to allude
to being completely happy at all times in their life, which cannot be true for any human
being. This is seen when people only post their best pictures, and most positive statuses

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about all of the fun they are having. This idea is represented in Mary Louise Pratts
imagined communities, where people in these communities reflect a utopian way of life
(112). This means that people in this community illustrate an ideal and perfect way of living.
In my own words, I refer to these types of Facebookers as picture perfect posters. My
original hypothesis that people want to accurately portray their life has been refuted by this
evidence that people seem to make their life seem the most perfect it can possibly be. As
seen in this post where a relative of mine posts about autumn, she writes that it is the first
day of Autumn- one of my most favorite seasons. Thankful for the beautiful life that I have
and the beautiful people in it! (Licalsi). One can see that this person only wants to illustrate
the most beautiful parts of her life. On Facebook, this family member would always post
pictures and status posts about how happy she was in her life right now. Unfortunately, this
relatives primary discourse, which is the environment an individual grows up in, was not
anything like how she portrayed it on her secondary discourse, which is a setting such as
online work, school, or sports. Part of her family had split up, and these pictures were taken a
long time ago. However, if someone were to view her homepage on Facebook, they would
assume that this genre of complete joy in her life she was portraying was accurate to her life
at that given moment in time. Knowing about this relatives primary discourse allows me to
understand that the discourse she is portraying onto the screen of her viewers is quite
different. Furthermore, when looking at her profile, you would assume she is the most
happiest of people. In Paul Gees What is Literacy, he says that a discourse involve a set
of values and viewpoints in terms of which one must speak and act, at least while being in the
discourse (73-74). In other words, if a person has to change their speech, appearance and
behavior, then that person has entered into another discourse. If an individual is unhappy in
their primary discourse, Facebook as a genre appears to put pressure on its users to lie about
how enjoyable their life is at every moment as they update Facebook. This is seen when

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people only post pictures where they are smiling, laughing or looking like they are having the
best time. However, is it always a unanimous thing that people are going to be picture
perfect posters? This is not the case because one of my Facebook friends wrote I decided
not to open the door and keep quiet he rang the doorbell a few more times Oliver was going
berserk barking relentlessly there's a car parking in front of my driveway this is freaking me
out! then he left and drove off sounded like he was driving with the rim and not the tire so, he
had a flat tire (Deramat). This quote is not relaying perfect qualities of the individual to
others it is merely talking about a traumatic experience this woman experienced. She talked
about her feelings, how freaked out she was, and then asked for opinions from her friends
online about her reaction, wanting to seek their judgment and approval. If everyone on
Facebook seems to appear a certain way while being on Facebook, then is it realistic to think
people are always going to be so truthful?
After thinking that people are emotional on Facebook and then transitioning my idea
to realize that some people lie in order to appear to be part of a different discourse on
Facebook, now I have reason to believe that some people merely use Facebook as a way to
catalog both good and bad events. Facebook is a secondary discourse where primary
discourses are cataloged. This assumption of wanting to allude to a perfect lifestyle on
Facebook has been complicated by a user who wrote Still can't believe the utter hypocrisy!
Where is her outrage when all our personal communications are being mined and violated
(Koch). In this particular quote, the woman is talking about the fact that cell phones and
computers can be monitored by the government. This shows that this person wants to post
her complaints about whats wrong with the world. In my previous claim I thought that my
peers wanted to show off a faultless life to their viewers, but this quote shows that some
people prefer to post about what is going on in the world. There are several more examples
where people try to either spread awareness or just use the internet as a resource to write out

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their frustrations about a certain topic. This means that some people use Facebook as a tool
to catalog life events. Facebook even has specific pages designed for discussions on certain
political topics. This means that all people who feel a certain way about a given problem can
discuss or argue about their opinions on this page. This is different than my previous claim
because I believed that some people lived for Facebook. Another example of using Facebook
as a tool post is when a person wrote Man I'm grumpy and hard to please lately. Oh well. At
least you don't have to live with me. Odd thing........I always have to live with me
(Malocha). This post is clearly a negative tone and portrays a very clear message to her
friends or viewers. The message she is sending to people that may be looking at her profile is
that she is upset with the way she is. She is troubled and she wants to inform the Facebook
world of this as well. This woman is acting, behaving, and appearing very gloomy, and this
shows that she is not trying to cover up her primary discourse or appear a certain way on
Facebook; she is merely using Facebook as a tool to let out her depression feels. The purpose
of this may be to try and gain support or advice from fellow Facebookers.
When starting this paper, I wanted to examine the genres and discourses that went
along with the community of people on Facebook.

Being a genre, Facebook asks its users to

update the main profile page with all details about their primary discourse and be emotional
in posts and descriptions. Facebook has created a stereotype for people to act, talk, and
appear perfectly happy while online. However, I saw evidence that contradicted this claim
with the fact that some people just post about daily life, using Facebook as a way to update
friends and family; with no image to live up to. There are people who create a different
primary discourse for themselves online in order to convey the message that they have a
perfect life despite actual reality. Seeing how people can relay multiple personas online is an
important feature to understand while reading through and looking at an individuals profile
page. This is important because the more aware one is about the many different discourses

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that can appear on a persons profile, the more they can be attentive to this and take what they
read into account when viewing a page. Understanding different discourses and realizing
Facebook as a genre puts pressure on its users to follow this picture perfect model, and if a
person can acknowledge this picture perfect discourse, then this help them resist the
temptations of appearing dishonest online.

Works Cited
Deramat, Jarunyanee. Feeling quite liberated and accomplished! First time back behind the
wheels since October 8th! Facebook.com. Oct. 24, 2014. Web. Nov. 1, 2014.
Deramat, Jarunyanee. I decided not to open the door and keep quiet he rang the doorbell a
few more times. Facebook.com. Oct. 29, 2014. Web. Nov. 1, 2014.
Gee, James Paul. What is Literacy? Participating in Cultures of Writing and Reading.
Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2015. 73-74. Print.
Heilker, Paul. On Genres As Ways of Being. Participating in Cultures of Writing and
Reading. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2015. 93-102. Print.
Koch, Elizabeth. Still can't believe the utter hypocrisy! Where is her outrage when all our
personal communications are being mined and violated Facebook.com. Mar. 13,
2014. Web. Nov. 1, 2014.
Licalsi, Kadie. First day of Autumn- one of my most favorite seasons. Facebook.com. Sept.
23, 2014. Web. Nov. 1, 2014.
Malocha, Jennifer. Man I'm grumpy and hard to please lately. Facebook.com. May 31,
2014. Web. Nov. 1, 2014.
Pratt, Mary Louise. Imagined Communities. Art of the Contact Zone. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martins, 2015. 112. Print.

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