No, it is not ridiculuos, it is serious.
I think the Facebook phenomenon rises
a number of interesting questions:
Who are you? What is the core of a
person? Why is social media so successful?
When does a company become evil?
Social media and social networks are
a hot trend, maybe because people feel
increasingly isolated in a digital and
urbanized world. Erich Fromm says in
"The Art of Loving": "The deepest need
of man is to overcome his separateness,
to leave the prison of his aloneness."
All social networks exploit this need.
For example a social network for books
like GoodReads or Shelfari connects you
to readers with similar interests.
Facebook is special. It claims to connect
you to the people you already know.
The problem is:
a) You probably have multiple circles of
friends, and these friends belong to different
areas: family, job, hobby, sports, etc.
Facebook allows you only to have one
circle of friends and one single identity,
your physical identity characterized by
your real name and your real photo. Since
the identity forms the core of a person,
it reduces you to your physical appearance.
If you are not good looking or if you have
no friends, like the shy nerdy student
Kip Drordy in the video, then Facebook
classifies you as a loser. It denies you
to be what you want to be, but the declaration
of independence says: "all Men are created
equal, they are endowed [..] with certain
unalienable Rights, among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
It does not mention the right to have a
Facebook profile.
b) To connect you to your friends, a
company must own your private data.
Facebook forces you to reveal your
private data, to give up your privacy. Would
you tell the government who your friends
are, where you have been, what you are doing?
Then why do you tell it to a private company?
Should our private life and our private data
belong to a company at all? The people who
think Facebook is evil say no. This is similar
to the question of Microsoft a few years ago:
should our Operating System, the Operating
System of our computers, belong to a company?
The people who think Microsoft is evil say no.
Contrary to Twitter, Facebook forces
you to give up your privacy:
"We will connect you to your friends
(if you give us your private data)".
and reduces you to your physical appearance
"We will connect you to your friends
(if you tell us what you are doing
right now and how you look like)"
That's why Facebook is evil.
-J.
----- Original Message -----
From: Alfredo Covaleda
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Sent: Saturday, September 25, 2010 10:58 PM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] You Have 0 Friends
So funny.
My Facebook profile has more friends than me. Isn't is ridiculous?
Alfredo
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