Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin
According to Wikipedia, the idiom “the writing on the wall” derives from the Biblical Book of Daniel, in which a disembodied hand appears at a Babylonian feast and writes on the wall a portent of the kingdom’s destruction. Today, however, mention the words “writing” and “wall” in conjunction around any red-blooded university student and they will automatically assume you’re talking about Facebook.
In Rebekah Nathan’s My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, she discusses students’ self-expression through the written word on doors, hallway bulletin boards, and posters. However, in my experience at Case, I’ve found precious little of this. The writing I tend to see in my residential areas is strictly utilitarian: announcements, organizations’ advertisements, and name tags. Even within the room, the items that exist purely as adornment are few in number and short on blatancy. I have two icons, a dragon figurine, and a paper crane. My roommate has three small posters. A cursory look around my floor revealed few people betraying this pattern. Where, then, are we youngsters declaring our individuality as is our wont? The answer rests in the Internet.
Facebook (which is so recent that Nathan’s research would not have been able to account for it) and similar online sites permit a range of self-expression that is simply unmatched by mere physical objects. While, in the past, I might have found a print from Neil Gaiman’s magnum opus The Sandman to proclaim my passion for that author to all who entered my room, that approach was inherently disadvantaged. It cost money, it ran the risk of damage or theft, and it required people to actually visit me where I live. Today, I can accomplish the same effect by joining a group of like-minded folk on Facebook and posting the work in my “Favorite Books” section on my profile. There is no real reason for me to invest money and space in commemorations of my interests when for less opportunity cost I can replicate it digitally. After all, should I inexplicably begin hating good writing and swear off Gaiman forever, I can just delete every trace of the man from my profile, whereas the print approach would leave me out a good ten dollars or more.
This is not to contradict Nathan in all respects, however. My investigation reveals that much the same themes she described exist – merely in a different medium. The desired message to be sent by one’s Facebook profile is, as she puts it, “stress[ing] sociability, fun, and humor.” People pepper their profiles with funny quotes, choose their profile pictures to put themselves in the best light, and add applications that contribute to the overall effect (e.g. Naughty Gifts, Happy Hour, and PersonalDNA). However, I’m afraid the days of carefully cut out cartoons and quotations are numbered.
All in all, I think the best source of evidence for this transition is in that great hallmark of America (no pun intended): the free market. My mother told me that in her day, countless posters of all types were proudly cached in the front of the bookstores, with many people browsing through to pick out the one that spoke to their soul. When I was shopping to come to Case, it took me ten minutes to find the poster section in Borders, and I left disappointed in their selection. Maybe the poster companies have read the writing on the wall.
Comments
Posted by: Debra
Posted on: September 15, 2007 10:52 PM
I like how you went full-circle, starting and ending with the writing on the wall.... good stuff!!!
tsk tsk, you Wikipedia'd it, though!!!
I like how you pretty much say that our facebook "walls" have replaced our dorm walls, because it is SO true! I don't have much at all on my wall, except for a calendar and my schedule!!!