Yaron Ben-Avraham

January 12, 2011

ENGL 213

A Summary and Reflection on Stephen Burt’s Always On

The emergence of social and digital media allows users to share information, advice and

experiences with virtually anyone connected to the Internet. In recent years, Facebook’s social

networking module has become a major force in the emergence of social media, accumulating over five

hundred million users by 2010 (Statistics). In his essay, Always On, Stephen Burt suggests that the

popular website works as a breeding ground for insecurity and narcissism, therefore resulting in the

“Always On” phenomenon – the desire to be instantly and continuously connected to manufactured

virtual reality. Ultimately, by negating geographic distance, easily connecting others to those with

similar interests, and “sucking away hours”, Facebook has drastically altered how humans interact and

socialize.

First, Burt explains the root of Facebook’s success, which differentiated it from earlier social

networking websites – exclusivity. At its conception, Facebook could only be used by other college

students, which allowed it to gain the trust of young people as well as status as an elite form of

communication. He references researchers Ana Aleman and Katherine Wartman, who argue that while

Facebook is now open to everyone, its features “mimic the real-life campus, since there are walls you

can write on, announcements for parties and concerts…you ‘see’ lots of people every day….” (Burt,

21). It is in this way that Facebook attracts a young, socially relevant demographic and rejects those

who cannot keep up with modern social expectations. Additionally, Burt is able to explore what makes

Facebook “exclusive” by using the example of MySpace, an older social networking website. MySpace,
he argues, allows users to create their own online identity through personalized html webpage coding,

fake names, and the “friending” of strangers. In contrast, Facebook users are “…expected to use their

own names and connect to people…they already knew” (21). It is because of this, Burt suggests, that

Facebook users tend to be White, wealthy and desirable, while MySpace users are “unsophisticated,

uneducated, and undesirable” (21). Essentially, Facebook’s initial success is explained through the

recognition of a classist bourgeois system.

Burt then leads into his main point of explaining the Always On phenomenon and how it effects

day to day life. Contributing to this effect is the term ‘disintermediation’, which he defines as a term

that covers “the rise of downloaded music, the lawsuits about it, the migration of the ‘little magazines’

to online only versions, the universal availability of porn…the disappearance of newspapers altogether”

(22). Disintermediation is, in essence, the eradication of the middleman in providing the public with

new entertainment and information. As a result, the moral values of mankind are challenged, as there is

virtually no filter for what is shared, viewed and disseminated among the public - Burt provides the

example of easy to find Pro-Anorexia websites that can potentially taint the minds of young girls. The

overwhelming amount of readily available information therefore leads to being Always On; “At one

time I can be banking, paying bills, checking my e-mail, Facebooking, e-mailing my parents, talking

online to my friends….”, says an anonymous twenty-two year old (22). This partial attention span, Burt

asserts, results in an “effort NOT TO MISS ANYTHING.” No matter how often people log onto the

Internet, there is “still the chance of more news a minute from now” (22).

Facebook allows for millions of people to connect and stay in touch, however, this new

technology has shifted the traditional paradigms of socialization and communication. Due to the fact

that Facebook is inherently founded on judging others, I personally feel that the Always On

phenomenon results in little time for developing or expanding on real life friendships, because users are
too concerned with how they appear on the surface. Such profound insecurity results in being hyper-

aware of one’s status and the constant need for reassurance. I believe that Facebook is a result of the

cultural acceptance of narcissism, and is used as a tool to highlight and bring attention to people’s

changing lives – or in Burt’s words, “record our lives online, becoming the paparazzi to our own

celebrity” (22). Facebook has created a postmodern social dynamic, in which tangible human

interaction is no longer necessary. After all, a new friend request, message, status update, or event

invitation can never be missed, lest the user be left behind in the fast paced, competitive world of

Facebook.
 Works Cited

Burt, Stephen. “Always On.” London Review of Books. volume 32, number 11, 10 June 2010, pp. 21-22.

Online Social Networking on Campus: Understanding What Matters in Student Culture (Routledge, 168
pp., £24.99, December 20o8, 978 0 415 99020 2).

"Statistics | Facebook." Welcome to Facebook. Web. 12 Jan. 2011.

<http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics>.