Mean Girls

Have you ever seen the movie Mean Girls? Even if you haven't, if you went to school, you probably knew or know some girls like these. The stereotypical 'popular' girls, the girls with referent, instrumental power, and who abuse it for their own entertainment and amusement. Unlike when I was at school in the very early 90's however, this phenomenon is no longer exclusive to the mean girls in the schoolyard and has moved into various social media sites, including of course, Farcebook (oops) Facebook. Turkle (1995, p 247) states, the "world of computer networks has created a new space for power" and not just for those who wish to use it wisely.


On the invitation of a friend, I joined one of those 'women only' groups on Facebook. It is a group that currently has greater than 35,000 followers and opens with the disclaimer that it is "not a support group" (and they are not kidding!). The posts in the group often descend into catty arguments and sometimes even outright bullying. Unlike many groups on Facebook however, that at least attempt to maintain a level of civility, this one is an exception. Admins on Facebook groups have various modalities of power to utilise, including legitimate (as admins, they make the rules) and coercive (the threat of removal/blocking), but one can only assume these women enjoy the status quo. The status quo of course being, at least from my observation, "do as I say, not as I do", with the only leniencies shown to those with referent power; the popular personalities. Amusingly, the same behaviour that sees critics and dissenters removed, is also typical of the admin and popular personalities; for example, they are quick to throw the word hypocrite at others but are offended at being called the same in return.

Image 1. Peanuts. 

Sounds horrible, why do you stay? Why would more than 35,000 women choose to follow that page? I can hear you ask. The power of the group as a whole, comes from not only the amount of followers, (I mean, there must be a decent post occasionally for that many followers.. Right??) but also the amount of exposure. Having more than 5 admins, a global, though almost exclusively western community and a page that others can post freely on, means that there is not much, if any time between postings, so anyone 'following' the page is constantly bombarded by posts.


For some of the 'followers', perhaps it is the exclusivity of the group that holds the most power, as the group is private/closed, you can join by invitation only. For others, maybe the group holds the same fascination as a car accident. People don't actually want to see the carnage but most of us cannot help but slow down to look. Possibly for others, it is akin to the psychology behind obedience to figures of authority, like those in a Stanley Milgram experiment (for more info, click this link https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html).

Speaking for myself, it is the power of the curious nature of humans and how they interact that keeps me in the group. Kuttainen (2017) in the week two lecture describes power as, "not a thing, but a product of a relationship" and though the relationships of this particualr group seem mostly dysfunctional, 35,000 followers suggest that even just observing such dysfunction, must have some power to it.






Kuttainen, V. (2017) BA1002 Our Space: Networks, Narratives and the Making of Place, lecture 2: power

Peanuts [Image]
http://psychtutor.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/8/5/20851588/1379832419.jpg

Stanley Milgram experiment
https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html

Turkle, S. (1995) Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the internet. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.