Two Faced Book
Cocooned on the Eurostar the other day I was left with no option but to count sheep at 189mph or read a discarded copy of The Guardian. When my eyes eventually started to bleed I picked up the newspaper and came across Tom Hodgkinson’s article on why he despises Facebook, or more to the point, why he hates the “neocons” that are behind it.
His argument against Facebook, itself is that it detaches us from face to face social interaction. “What’s wrong with the pub?” he chimes. And in that he has half a point as there is genuine concern that we are breeding a generation of pallid-faced, socially inept, introspective teenagers who can’t make it out of their bedrooms. That said, since bedrooms replaced communal cave-dwelling, pallid-faced, socially inept, introspective teenagers have been synonymous with the firmly closed bedroom door. Nothing new there then. At least Facebook, may keep them briefly from sniffing lighter fluid.
Hodkinsons other oft-repeated moan is that “It simply mediates in relationships that were happening anyway” which, of course, is so off course, it is to run his ship into the rocks directly beneath the lighthouse. Facebooks genius is the re-connections it makes. The digging up of blasts from the past. Some welcome, some unwelcome and some down-right life threatening. I personally have made many re-acquaintances that have brought me great pleasure, amusement and new business and haven’t yet caused me to get divorced.
But really what Hodgkinson wants to have a go at is neocons, the USA, the CIA and Big Brother – the Orwellian version not Endemol. He hates the fact that a few very rich individuals are getting very, very richer through creating the platform upon which the bacteria of a real Big Brother can feed and multiply. Valid concerns indeed, but the Internet is a catalyst not the cause of the inevitable slide into bigger and more intrusive databases. It was going to happen anyway. While inevitability is not an excuse for complacency, sitting in a smoke free pub with the same people who you sat there last week with isn’t going to further anything. So Tom, get in the game or get out of the kitchen. You can be my Facebook, “friend” anytime.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
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