The World We Face(book)
Imagine approaching your teenage daughter ten years ago with the following suggestion: “Honey, let’s go buy some poster board and paste a picture of you on it. Then we can add some photos of you with your friends, and you can make a list of places you like to go, the food you enjoy, and all sorts of other fun facts about you. Then we’ll hang the board in the hallway at your school, and your friends can write their comments on it.” I don’t know what her exact reply would have been, but it would likely have been something akin to, “Are you nuts, Dad? That’s all personal stuff! I don’t want just anybody to be able to look at it!”
And now, jump ahead to the Facebook Era, where the idea of “personal stuff” seems almost quaint. Lost in all the talk about IPOs and instant millionaires is the sea change that has overtaken our lives. Facebook horror stories abound, and today’s high school student is likely to deal with more anxiety from the number of Facebook friends he has or doesn’t have, or from the number of likes and dislikes he amasses, than from anything as mundane as taking a final exam or choosing a college.
I understand that there’s no going back, and that any anti-Facebook screed is likely to be viewed as the rants of an out-of-touch Luddite. However, it occurs to me that we may be confronting one of the most fundamental societal changes we’ve ever faced without ever having thought much about it, discussed it or planned for it. This generation is acting as the guinea pig, and there’s absolutely no telling what the results will be. Will we look back in twenty years and give thanks? Will we curse the world we created? Or will we see Facebook and its successors as just another creation with good and bad aspects to it?
What do you think?
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Comments:
Re: The World We Face(book)
What do I think? Pat, do you need to ask? Quill pens, parchment, and powdered wigs. Put me down for the eighteenth century.
To be serious--well, semi-serious--I've found exactly two uses for Facebook: Spying on my children to keep them from putting up pictures that would render them unemployable (once they get jobs, they're on their own), and getting in touch with old friends from high school, which, I have to admit, has been delightful. Other than that? Well, let's just say I can't for the life of me figure out why Facebook should be worth $100 million, let alone $100 billion.
You and me, Pat. Cavemen--and happy that way.
Jan '11
Re: The World We Face(book)
Well, if we're going to be forgiving all their college loans then we might as well get something out of them in return.
Jan '11
Re: The World We Face(book)
We used to have 3 TV stations. Now we have an infinity of them ... and still can't find anything to watch. I think the same dynamic is likely to overcome "social media" also.
A couple years ago, I started on Facebook. I happened to catch up with a lot of friends from grade school and high school, and I enjoyed meeting them all over again. But the interest didn't really last.
See, when I was going to school or playing football or hanging out at parties with those people, I was sharing life. We were going through experiences together. Facebook isn't an experience. You can't share it. Talking about your recent experience to others isn't itself an experience. So, you're not really sharing life. You're sharing notes about life.
I'm convinced that after all the technology comes and goes, all the fads and IPOs, the fun in life will always remain sharing life with real, live people. Nothing can replace that.
Apr '11
Re: The World We Face(book)
Peter Robinson:
You and me, Pat. Cavemen--and happy that way. · 10 minutes ago
Would you welcome others to that cave, particularly if they bring their own fountain pens? I'm not so much a Luddite as private; everyone in my family knows I eschew Facebook (my husband has a Facebook page and refers to me as "She Who Will Not Be Named on Facebook").
Dec '10
Re: The World We Face(book)
Peter accepted my friend request today, so I'm all for it.
But seriously, yesterday I connected with a great friend from my navy days (there's a post about that friendship simmering) who now lives in D.C. and will be feasting me during my trip there next month. Facebook might not be an experience, as KC said, but it has enabled an experience, so I think it worth it for that alone.
Feb '11
Re: The World We Face(book)
I think giving a good account of how Facebook has changed society will be as difficult as predicting how it will change society. If someone wants to point at a bunch of bad things and link them to Facebook, there will be no shortage of material available to him. But that doesn’t mean that he will be justified in making the link. And my guess is that he will only be persuasive if the right theory about social change is in fashion at the time.
Think of how you interpret major economic problems. Keynesians don’t suppose Keynesian policies caused the problems, so they look for other explanations. And they find them. Hayekians don’t think deregulation and liberty could explain the economic problems. So they look for other explanations. And they find them.
And social criticism is even less scientific than economics.
Dec '10
Re: The World We Face(book)
When you print trillions, then scatter them to the wind, they must find somewhere to land. Many people will make giga-fake-bucks from this, but nothing will be produced.
The only question is, when will fake-bucks cease being attractive to producers? It's musical chairs and I already have my seat.
Jun '10
Re: The World We Face(book)
The closest I'll ever come to "social media" is texting, which is still a form of one-to-one communication. And I spell out the words and punctuate.
Nov '10
Re: The World We Face(book)
I use Facebook - a lot. As a military family we have moved many times and made some wonderful friends in those places, not to mention that my family, with whom I am extremely close, lives nearly 1,000 miles away. Facebook has enabled to me re-connect with those faraway friends, many of whom I had lost contact with, and also allows my family and I to share photos and messages with each other very easily. I may speak to my mom and sister once a week, but we communicate through Facebook even more often than that.
I have five children, four of whom are old enough to be on Facebook. My 24-yr old son has had a Facebook account for years, but doesn't use it. My 19yo and 15 yo daughters recently de-activated their Facebook accounts (at separate times), citing the inappropriate sharing and drama of their friends. My 21 yo daughter is the only one who still has and uses her Facebook account regularly.
Facebook is a tool. Unfortunately, many people who use it are not capable of setting appropriate boundaries and use it as a clothesline for airing their dirty laundry.
May '12
Re: The World We Face(book)
Technology is only as good as the people behind it. Moral people will use technology morally, immoral people will use technology immorally. The problem is not the technology, Facebook is merely the mechanism that exposes narcissism and other negative behavior. The problem is that the character & virtue of more and more people in the West have been debased and debauched, often by Leftist ideologies (like Feminism) that encourage people to pursue their base predatory passions justified with moral equivalencies.
This is the reality that I think social conservatives don't quite confront. Blame Facebook/iPhones/Blackberry all you want, no one is forcing countless teens, 20&30&40-somethings to send semi-nude/nude/drunk camera pics of themselves and putting them on the web. Nor can one blame sex-obsessed degenerate boyfriends pushing their girlfriends to "self-shot"(Way NSFW if googled) themselves in various states of undress or other debauchery.
It's the education system, it's institutional, but mainly it's the culture, dominated by various cultural Left-wing ideologies and ideologues that encourages this sort of behavior.
Edited on May 19, 2012 at 3:13amRe: The World We Face(book)
Peter Robinson: Well, let's just say I can't for the life of me figure out why Facebook should be worth $100 million, let alone $100 billion.
You and me, Pat. Cavemen--and happy that way. · 1 hour ago
Because Facebook knows so much about us -- where we live, what we are doing, who our friends are, what we like, etc, they can offer large but extremely targeted audiences to advertisers. There have recently been some questions about exactly how valuable that information is, but that's the theory anyhow.
To that end, a good general rule of thumb about Facebook or any other web site is that if the service is free, you're not the customer, you're the product. Once you understand that paradigm, it starts to make a bit more sense how a site like Facebook is worth billions.
May '10
Re: The World We Face(book)
My favorite targeted Facebook ad was a picture of a rosary with the come on "Learn more about Presbyterianism" LOLZ
May '12
Re: The World We Face(book)
I think we have definitely become more passive.
In general we will put up with being on display in a digital zoo in exchange for a free website to connect, socialize, etc.
On a larger scale a slim majority seem happy to give up liberty in the form of more taxes and debt in exchange for an ever expanding 'social safety net' or faux security from TSA.
May '10
Re: The World We Face(book)
You wait. This year's Facebook will be next year's MyFace. Today's Coffee & Markets with Ben. D, and the crew was a fantastic takedown of Facebook.
Aug '11
Re: The World We Face(book)
I sense no recognition of the irony in decrying social media on a social media site. Here at Ricochet we have profiles that include a picture of us, where we're from, and other fun facts about us. We even comment about each others postings.
Also Facebook has a privacy setting so that it doesn't have to be public, you can choose to only let your friends see what you post.
I still love you grampa Pat!
Apr '12
Re: The World We Face(book)
Facebook could have some very positive effects on social interaction. For one, it's quite hard to gossip on Facebook. That comes back around pretty quickly. Also, as Peter observes, parents should be very grateful when their kids use Facebook as a primary means for social networking. Very easy to keep tabs on them that way. Admittedly it can be annoying when I want (for example) to mention a new wine that I've discovered, but can't for fear of scandalizing my Mormon relations. Nothing's perfect, I suppose.
Oct '10
Re: The World We Face(book)
It’s door number three as others have eloquently testified to, particularly Sheila S.
In 20 yrs the average 20-something will only know about Facebook from some (to him/her) goofy retrospective on the Technology History Channel. To be ‘suckered’ will have morphed into being ‘Zuckered.’ Facebook will go the way of AOL ... pioneering company that ends up hugely overvalued and bought up by a fading dinosaur that thinks it has discovered the key to blending the old with the new.
On the other hand, there is a reason I'm not a portfolio manager and that I hand the phone to my teenager when I'm forced to text more than "C U @ 8." Please make some room in the cave, Gentlemen. [:-)
Nov '11
Re: The World We Face(book)
Travel is difficult and I'm rather a hermit during the Winter; FB has been an excellent window on the world for this past 18 months or so. I have to say that Ricochet is rapidly overtaking it as my favorite online destination. :-)
Edited on May 19, 2012 at 7:42amMay '11
Re: The World We Face(book)
I'm not particularly worried about people posting too much personal information for all to see on Facebook. That's their own choice - there are people who are happy to appear on Jerry Springer, and other people who would rather die than reveal any intimate details about themselves. Nobody is forced to broadcast all their personal dramas on Facebook.
What concerns me more is the amount of information held on computer about everyone, whether they want it to be or not.
The amount of personal information stored by various government agencies is a much more serious issue in my view. That's much harder to control than anything that goes on Facebook.
Aug '10
Re: The World We Face(book)
I may be dead in twenty years, so I'm cursing it now, just in case.