Day 153: The Facebook Effect

The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick.  ISBN: 9781439102114.

In one big sloppy makeout fest with Facebook, Kirkpatrick insinuates that "some" think Facebook will make us more honest people.  The thinking behind it that people who live their lives more publicly will be forced to be more honest and to behave within moral norms.  Here's the exact quote:

"Some claim, for example, that because of Facebook young people today have a harder time cheating on their boyfriends or girlfriends." Page 210-211.

Uh, yeah, no.  If anything I think Facebook just makes duplicitous people more ingenious in their duplicity.  Let's continue on with the example of cheating, since that was so conveniently presented to us.  Rather than simply cheating on two different people, a person could either find someone who is close to the boyfriend/girlfriend (or who just doesn't care) and cheat with them, or just have one night stands.  The first is probably more evil because it involves two people who know that the cheater is in a supposedly involved relationship. It is doubly evil if it someone who is close to the cheated participates because there's twice the duplicity.  If the cheating partner is only using the friend, well, s/he's a total jerk.

I have a problem with the theory of living publicly creating more moral citizens.  I think most people who cheat or do other questionable things do it partly for the thrill, this probably applies more to serial cheaters.  And let's not forget that politicians and other famous people have done ridiculously inappropriate things and you can't get much more public than that.

Besides, do we really want something like Facebook policing our moral behavior?  Granted, religion and law are all based on what is considered "right" by the current beliefs held by the populace.  But we all know how the internet makes with the stupid, and the idea of Facebook law is a scary, scary thing.  Think mob rule, but the mob is a bunch of 17-year-olds.

This review at TechCrunch compares Kirkpatrick and Facebook to a Twilight romance.  Sounds about right to me.

Day 152: The Facebook Effect

The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick.  ISBN: 9781439102114.

If you've read my review already on Goodreads, you know that I was deeply
disappointed that Kirkpatrick didn't tell us how Facebook has changed lives, and doesn't even theorize about future effects.  So I'm gonna do some spooky sci-fi shit and make some of my own posits all over this blog.  Big, messy posits.  Step carefully, readers.

I think we will come to rely less on physical mail in the future.  We already ignore most everything that comes our way thanks to online billing and bill pay, grandparents who know how to type and use The Google, and printers.  I strongly believe in the possibility of being assigned an email address at birth by the government.  It will be printed on your birth certificate right next to your name, date of birth, social security number, and the name of the doctor that slapped your ass and you'll get to tap into it around the same age you have to actually sign you social security card.  In this way the government will have direct access to communicate with you about specific laws, etc. that relate to you.  The email address will also be used as a means of identification for online job applications (if you use it, it grants access for background checks by the employer), college applications, signing up for the draft, etc.  It would also make it waaaaay easier to serve legal summons, divorce papers, and other legal information.

That particular theory requires everyone to have computers and to check their email everyday, but I'm pretty sure we will get to a point where that will happen.  The fact that you can barely apply to a job via mail or paper application now is a pretty good indicator of that.  Fingerprinting will be mandatory, and that's what we'll use to sign onto and confirm that we own those government email accounts.

Basically I think social networks and connecting all the factors of our life together are going to become more normal and more pervasive.  Part of me wonders if these are the first steps to creating a giant hive mind type of social order.  By knowing what everyone is currently doing/liking/reading/watching/etc. maybe Facebook has taken away some element of being human.  We don't get the chance to tell stories anymore, because everyone already knows that we dropped a the pot of boiling water on our foot this morning.  It's like we've made our own digital hive mind.  Obviously we still have control over what we act on, but I think just knowing that someone else has the same thoughts as you can lead to dangerous behavior.

And with the internet you are almost assured of someone having the same thought about just about anything (did someone say Rule 34?).  Knowing that gives you the notion of strength in numbers, which usually leads to stupid.  We no longer have to think about whether or not we should tolerate some other guy's religion or opinions about what constitutes good literature or sexual preference or funny hair cut.  We know that are enough assholes to toss him out of the Society Club, so if we don't like it, we get rid of it.  This is not a good thing for our society or our brains.

We need outsiders to enrich our culture and debate.  We need people who have different outlooks on life and opinions and ways of thinking.  For all we know all the large livestock will die off in the next 50 years, and then we'll be kicking ourselves for ostracizing that group of people who eat all those bugs over there in that weird foreign country.  I don't know about you, but I'm not willing to go hungry just because the only people who can teach me how to properly cook and eat bugs worship a three-headed demon named Jim and greet each other by yelling epithets about their mothers.  I am down with the respect and the disrespect...respectively.  But how many people realize they are doing stupid shit, just because they think they have the right numbers to back it up?


Kirkus agrees with my review.  Here's a brief excerpt:
"In the introduction, Kirkpatrick promises to explore these questions [about how FB will and has shaped our societies, governance, and identities], but readers hungry for a meaty cultural critique may feel cheated by what is essentially a lengthy corporate biography."
-Kirkus Reviews, vol. 78, no. 11, Page 507.

Day 151: The Facebook Effect

The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick.  ISBN: 9781439102114.

I can't read about Facebook without thinking about how I use it, and similar sites.  Nor could I read about it without wanting to check on what my friends were doing, mostly because the writing made me want to bang my head against the wall, due to awkward sentences, overt butt kissing/hero worship, and updates on Zuckerberg's never-changing wardrobe.

But yes, I have a Facebook account.  I've had one since about August 2006.  I opened it around the time I was working on my senior project at Antioch College.  I had previously been on Friendster but spent less and less time because there just weren't enough people to make it useful to me.  But Antioch tends to throw people into the wind, and I couldn't see myself not continuing to connect and be involved in the lives of these amazing individuals.

So between running Antioch's philosophy club, working on my senior project, working in the library and as a nude art model, and taking other classes I was spending roughly 2 hours a day on Facebook trying to friend as many people as I could think of whom I didn't want to lose contact with.  Since Antioch was such a small school (about 200 students by the time I graduated in December 2006), I may not have known everyone there personally, but I knew everyone by reputation, name, and/or face.  This means most of my friends are Antioch alumni, and they are all doing wonderful and amazing things with their lives.

I also use Facebook now to connect with my family members.  I am friends with my mother on Facebook, which happened after I received my undergraduate degree so she couldn't very well withdraw funds for that picture of me with a beer.  I am careful about the pictures I post of myself; I do have my profile locked down to friends-only, and I do not friend just anyone on Facebook (but that's a different post).

I primarily use Facebook as a means of keeping up on people.  I like knowing when someone finds a job (even though a part of me rages that I don't have one yet and a bit of self-hate goes on).  I like seeing pictures of people as they get married or have babies or nephews, etc.  I'm able to download family photos for my own keeping if my cousin posts a picture of my grandpa or my brother's baby momma posts a picture of the Most Awesome Nephew in the World.  These are photos that were previously kept and treasured by the primary family; now people are more geared towards sharing them because they have a way of keeping them relatively private.

I occasionally use applications.  I've gone through a number of games, but I usually keep them for a month before removing them.  I just don't have the desire to spend much time on Facebook besides checking my Newsfeed, replying to comments, and occasionally making a move in Scrabble (which is the only application I have kept since the beginning).  I do use Facebook for social networking beyond people I actually know.  I have on occasion friended friends of friends (uh...wow) when I wanted to expand my network for business purposes or if we were commenting back and forth on a friend's wall.

Mostly my Facebook friends see what you see right now.  This being updates about my blog posts, Twitter feeds, and book reviews.  Occasionally I also post about job interviews or trips to visit my fiance.  For the most part I'm content to just watch what everyone else is doing for now.  I find comfort knowing that the people in my life are generally doing well.

My review can be found on Goodreads.com.