One of the most ambitious episodes that Community has ever come up with was seen with this past season. In an attempt to create a caricature over how people are emphasizing “likes” and “favourites” to define online social personality, “App Development and Condiments” illustrates how social media is disintegrating people’s augmented reality with the digital environment. Does this exaggerated hype over likes show how technology is inevitably changing culture in society? And if so, how does using the concept of social media identity helps promote the idea that the social environment is change more so by technological advancement?

The premise of the episode started when the app developers introduced the MeowMeowBeenz social media app where students and teachers can rate each other. During this episode, we get to see the transition of the whole Greendale campus from a functioning college into a a la Logan’s Run dystopia as the app gets more popular. The crucial idea was that people who have 5 MeowMeowBeenz are the most popular people who also have the highest ability to influence the ranking system (refer to real life).

5's have lives 4's have chores 3's have fleas 2's have blues And 1's don’t get a rhyme because they’re garbage. — Dean Pelton’s warning for Jeff before the talent show

Within the arc, the characters are struggling to obtain and maintain power before they are thrown into a harsh world where the 1's and 2's are all cooped into a small room cleaning for the ones with higher MeowMeowBeenz. In this episode, the never-so-popular character Shirley is recognized for her extreme niceness which allowed her gain 5 MeowMeowBeenz quickly. Meanwhile, the group leader Jeff sees into Shirley’s passive-aggressive niceness and so he worked his way up the ladder through befriending everyone and participating in the talent show. As always, Britta tries to oppose the system while Annie tries to follow Shirley to be popular. Abed is adding small-talk activities to make more friends without really wanting to be a 5.

Illustrated by these characters are the stereotypical high school roles that are often reused in shows and movies. However, this particular episode illustrated how technology changes the dynamic of online and offline environment. The use of MeowMeowBeenz as a metaphor for the current Facebook likes, Twitter Favourites, and Instagram hearts is one of the indicators of how people are using social media to validate their identity.

In other words, individuals feel a sense of accomplishment when they obtain some sort of positive verification over their activities and presentation of self. This idea is related to a sociological concept of impression management where the goal is for the person to influence others about the way the individual, an event, or an object is perceived by controlling the given information in the social interaction. Think of it as the majority of the people will post certain content in their online media account if they think that it will garner them a good response.

Relating this back to our group of favourite mischiefs, Shirley acts as the motherly hen who is nice to everyone and uses guilt as her primary weapon.

Did you just give me four MeowMeowBeenz? Um I love my four from Vicki. — Shirley in response to Vicki rating her as a 4 instead of a 5

In this section, Shirley is seen as managing her identity through her nice actions that is seen all around by people which allows her rating to be higher. This 5 MeowMeowBeenz then give her the privilege to choose who she wants to be popular for the most part. This example exhibits how Shirley was able to perform in certain social interactions that gathered positive reaction from people which was then solidified into an actual rating by the availability of the MeowMeowBeenz app.

As her adversary, Jeff tries to find ways in order for him to climb into the highest rating and expose the “real” Shirley. He woos specific niches until he had to perform in a talent show as it is the only way to gain a 5.

All right, Trent, Mulch, Dave, herpie, Clutch, Dirth Mouth, Rope,Tingles, Cat Woman, Steve. All right, keep it floppy. Haul it, ball it, never call it. Girls are object — Jeff towards a group of Greendale Bros

With this, Jeff is altering his personality to be presentable to different groups of people. In this way, he can gather higher ratings from more people. This example shows how people alter information and how they present themselves to gain appreciation from their peers.

But what about technology and its role in supplementing and even paving people’s behaviours in these situations? Abed decided to change his behaviour when he meets new friends and start to participate in a “small talk”. With this, his peers are able to rate him with 5 MeowMeowBeenz. Annie’s thrive for constant success led her to follow what all the 5s want for her to be a 4 while Britta’s recurring anarchist personality led her to be a 1. By having an app that rates people and compile these data into a comprehensive file that continuous to be accessible to the public, these characters are changing their behaviour for a reputable identity.

Comprehensive data of online identity becomes the basis of how others see each other without feeling the need to really get to know one another. This sort of efficient and impersonal thinking is reflected in a stream of technological determinism which is the believes that technology is the driving force that builds the social structure and cultural values. Now, many people would find this theory a bit oversimplifying with how it disregards human agency or the ability of people leading their own lives. However, they do have a fair point which was demonstrated with the exaggerated ideas of how a development of a social media app completely changed a campus into an apocalyptic environment with its rigid hierarchy. If this is a viable enough, did a show that was broadcast from a T.V network or any online sites ironically gave the idea?