Facebook as a Culture: A Sociological Study

Abstract

The small ‘f’ letter has become the new cultural symbol. The blue world of Zuckerberg has become the postmodern cultural manifestation. Today, Facebook has become the largest virtual networking space with more than 2.23 billion monthly active users. The game of like, comment and share has become the contemporary way of life. The present paper aims to comprehend how Facebook is reconstructing new acculturation and socialization among the youth generation. This advanced cyberculture is reinforcing the most recent sociological concepts like the ‘Net-Generation’, ‘Millennium Generation’ ‘Digital Natives’ etc. The main purpose of the study is to illustrate how the culture of the Facebook is constructing a new pattern of identity, a changing trend of interaction and a new preference about interpersonal relations among the students of the University of Dhaka. The researcher tends to analyze the nature of Online Vs Offline pattern of the youth life. This research also tries to analyze whether Facebook itself is a culture or a subculture or a cultural extension. As a major methodological technique, the researcher uses a quantitative method approach for data collection and analysis. The study reveals that Facebook is encouraging community feelings by facilitating individualism. People are judging another individual through the screen of the Facebook newsfeed. There is evidence of growing night culture, the popularity of English and Bangla mixed writings, Edited picture and edited name to create a new image among students. An awareness building program should be taken by the concerned authority on the positive side and negative side of Facebook use for helping the users.