I will argue that social networks such as facebook is the creation of the most real symbolic universe to date. The social network creates this online world for people where everything is displayed for them; who is their friend, who's a friend of a friend, whether or not they or someone else is in a relationship, etc. As Khilstedt said in Utopia realized* "technology was capable of creating a perfect society" and in facebook we are seeing this come true. This exactly organizes the social world as comprehensible and connected and is a place where one feels comfortable and safe as they know this universe as it is all displayed for them. As more people use this network it becomes more real for them and start to have more effect on their real lives. The media uses this to place advertising and such to feed off of this and designers are heavily involved in the creation and change of these social networks as they understand what the public wants hence their success.
*Kihlstedt, F. (1986). Utopia Realized: The World’s Fairs of the 1930s in Imagining Tomorrow: History Technology, and the American Future (pp.97-118). Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
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