Facebook: America vs Jordan

Facebook in America is COMPLETELY different than Facebook in Jordan; same website but 2 completely different ways of using it. In America Facebook is used 2 add people u know, keep in touch with people, share your news. Ok this is something that is also done in Jordan but Facebook goes way beyond that here.

In Jordan Facebook is used as a way to meet people, you make new friends normally through the website and it is not considered weird or creepy. Because the country is so small it is extremely rare to be added by someone who doesn’t share many mutual friends and that is usually the start of all conversations “wow u know this, this, and that person? ME TOO” and the rest is all history.

Facebook is also a way to learn about people, there are many different groups in Jordan, sort of like one big high school. There are the druggies, the popular crowd, the nerds, the gamers, etc. Little by little we all learn ways of telling who belongs to what group by either what car they drive, what area they live in or even as simple as what phone number they have (which is a whole different subject on its own.) Facebook has helped in this categorization of people. Through mutual friends and groups you can basically pinpoint exactly what kind of a person this friend request is asking you to be a friend with.

Your personal Facebook is how you represent yourself in Jordan, you can tell the sluts from the religious, the classy from the low class, the popular from the losers. Before posting a picture there are many things you must think about like; is what you’re wearing appropriate? are there a lot of guys in the picture? Was there alcohol in the picture? There is a lot of stress that goes into my page, something that I never thought twice about in America… (because of this, what Americans see and what Arabs see are 2 completely different Facebooks thanks to the privacy settings )