I don’t have a Facebook account. I have a Twitter account that I’ve barely used, and I’ll probably close it as soon as I feel like logging in to kill it.
It’s not because I’m cooler than everyone else, or anything of the sort. Prior to a little thought, the only reason I hadn’t fixed one up was because of my time constraints – I just didn’t have time to really get into Facebook, when I could just email/text/IM/call whoever I really wanted to talk to. As I began to investigate a little more, and asked myself (once I had time) why it would even be worthwhile to have one. I suppose I could catch up with people…I could find new friends…connect with old ones…and so on, and so forth. I’ve even had a little pressure/teasing on why I didn’t have one. Then, I thought back to my short MySpace experience – and since Facebook is just a better MySpace, I quickly started to realize and recall the epic failures of this sort of media, to include Twitter (and sites like these.)
Information:
I’m basically convinced that the information you put on the pages are going to be used against people at some point. There have been numerous studies on privacy/infosec issues. I suppose the “Big Brother-government” could be an issue, however my real concern is toward how Facebook, Twitter, and other private entities, can use your information. If you look at the terms of service you agree to for your account usage, you will see that they can basically keep and use your content, your name and likeness, and images literally forever. On top of it, you end up disclosing all kinds of information to corporations, corporate criminals, and the regular “I’m going to find your daughter, and trick her into meeting me, and rape her” criminals as well. Data mining has always been an issue, as anyone can find a way to gather all sorts of information, including those 3rd party add-ons and advertising sucking up info.
There is also the stupidity clause that has to be used. Please read the following (from a wikipedia entry):
In December 2006, campus police at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington were investigating the theft of two PlayStation consoles, which had been stolen by the two perpetrators of a beating and robbery on campus. They planned to raid the rented house of Peyton Strickland, an 18-year-old student at nearby Cape Fear Community College. They discovered that the other alleged robber, Ryan Mills, had posted photographs of himself on Facebook in which he posed with guns. Expecting “heavily armed resistance” at Strickland’s house, the officers called in a SWAT team for backup to raid Strickland’s house. When they arrived at the residence, which three students rented, they were not immediately let in. As one officer began to break down the door with a battering ram, another officer mistook the sound of the battering ram for gunshots and shot into the door, killing the unarmed Strickland.[19] The officer, Christopher Long, was not charged with second-degree murder by two different grand juries.
…where do I begin?
And apparently, you can actually do too much on Facebook, to where they can shut down the account – for example, if the big computer thinks you post too much, or you add too many people….they can shut you down for whatever reason. Kind of totalitarian, no?
Time to get stupider:
There is a study that basically say collegiate holders of Facebook accounts do worse in school than those who don’t have them. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re dumber for using Facebook. But the study obviously suggests some sort of negative relationship between learning and Facebook. I believe that there is definitely a negative connotation – if you use Facebook/Twitter/MySpace, you’re dumbing yourself down. You’ve read that clearly: you and I are regressing by use of short burst media.
There is a very negative trend happening in America specifically that has been here since the advent of television. Since the introduction of TV to the American household, the attention spans of its citizens has dwindled. We no longer read newspapers, certain magazines, or books as much as we used to even 5-10 years ago. The home and portable computer pushed this trend even further forward. It was all so, and still is, very “instant.” You can have it right now. You don’t have to read a book/newspaper anymore to get a gist of thing that happen, because it’s been cut up for you in nice bite-size, summarized nuggets. TV meals were invented for the 30 minute segments of shows that would come on – you would get your basic food groups covered: a meat, a veggie, a starch, and a dessert of some kind, to be mostly consumed by the time you finished watching The Bob Newhart Show.
There is an inherent issue in short burst media – the gist has become the end all, be all. The most important aspect of learning something – understand the background and genesis of this new item – is no longer needed. Not only is it not needed, it’s no longer asked for. The gist is basically now good enough to not just get by, but to thrive. Our sense of time, and our aversion to using any prolonged amount of it, feeds into this, because while we want to know what’s happening int he world, or we want to laugh, or we want to drop a quick note to someone, there is no real context. And this goes especially with Twittering. You end up dropping lines, filling up the 140 character quotas, and it sort of defines the state of you – at that particular moment.
Think about that. That short burst of you, represents your essence. It is you, not who you really are, but what you typed out that is cemented in people’s minds. The person have no background of you, and will automatically use what you’ve written as the baseline for your being present, not just online, but in reality. And that’s enough for them, because their attention spans cannot really handle a whole lot more. I know for certain, where someone thought this posting was good or not, in 2009 – it’s not going to be read all the way through. I read Tom Friend’s articles on ESPN.com. I love his work, even though he seems to post small novels on the site. In the comments sections, or here at work, I’ve listened/read that people loved his articles….but some of them readily admitted that they hadn’t read it all of the way through – even though they also admitted they had gotten emotional about the subjects and subject matter Friend poignantly writes about. Hell, I’m guilty of not reading the books I purchased in it’s entirety, not because the subject is boring, but because of my use of time. “I have so much to do…so little time to do it all.”
Thus the short burst media of today – the media of the out-of-context gists. You have celebrities believing they have a connection with the masses through these Twitters, while the masses are in turn hoping they themselves become gist-famous enough for people to track them. Michael Beasley was admitted into a mental institution following some disturbing Twitters he made, although the empty baggies in the photo should’ve been the tale-tell sign. I’m willing to bet he’s not the only person who knows what he had in the baggie – why was a Twitter the signal and sign that he needed help. Are we depending on Twitter for mental evaluations as well? I really hope that wasn’t the case.
Who are your friends really?:
The last thing I want to cover in this thing is the social-ness of these sites. It is of my belief, that these sites helped you learn to eat each other, a type of social cannibalism that permeates real life. The perfect example stems from the first sentence of this posting, or rather a question: I don’t have Facebook. What? Why?
You sees how that works? The implication is that you’re missing out on some huge happening in the world, standing on the sidelines while the games are being played. It suggests you’re not in tune with everyone else, and that by (me) asking why you don’t have it – you should sign up today. There is a clubby, cliquey feel to Facebook, and within it. I think my experience with MySpace really informs me, as I found myself cannibalizing other people in order to make sure I had the right feel in my page. I had to make it a certain color….play these songs….and then I’d only add in people I thought were cool. Now, you’re thinking, that is something everyone does. But you really have no clue about anyone you’ve decided to add or disapprove as a friend (unless you know them in real life.) You’ve decided to contour your page, your piece of space in the cyber universe with shorts bursts. You’ve heard a song from a new artist, and you love the song – you go and add this person. But you have no clue if the person is a complete douchebag. You listened to that 3 minutes, 42 seconds, and you’ve invited this person into your party, even if he’s just going to play the wall and talk shit about all of you and your friends in secret. This is becoming more real everyday – I’ve heard of MySpace and Facebook parties….so in actual real time, you can have a look at all your online “friends” with your real eyes. I’ve heard funny stories from people who participated in these (Trendy Brand X sponsored) parties, and they say they came away feeling a bit strange about the eye-opening experience. The main thing they said was that no one there were exactly as portrayed. Now what if like 500 people showed, you have 500 different people with this same odd feeling. I suppose they work through it and party (read: “medicate”) it out, but it’s like the club – in two contexts. You’re in a club AT a club, where you recognize everyone, and you know nothing about them.
In summation – I believe these sites create unreal realities, and shortening up of attention spans necessary to learn and kills the downward spiral of stupidity people are sliding into. (I also realize I’m not perfect. YouTube is definitely eating my brain….iTunes as well – which a whole other posting…coming soon.)
So what are my solutions? After all – I must have something to fix the issues I’m presenting.
Next – Part III: Stop twittering (and texting) the people you’re sitting next to.
