Earlier today, Mark Zuckerberg announced that “this morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month.” He went on to utter what could be the understatement of the century, “Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life.”
To be certain, what Facebook has accomplished is truly amazing. Who could possibly have predicted this kind of dominance? Perhaps Aldus Huxley. And I can’t help but wonder if Mr. Huxley is looking down on all of us right now saying, “I told you so.”
What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us. –
Neil Postman in Amusing Ourselves to Death
What is one of the keys to Facebook’s unmatched success? Unquestionably, it is that it feeds our unquenchable appetite for distraction by elevating the most distracting content to the top of the trough. Using its famed Edge Rank Formula, it destroys less distracting information by making it invisible. And since the distraction, the amusement is what we really seek, the vast, vast majority fail to dig deeper for something perhaps more valuable. In this way, as Huxley predicted, Facebook controls us by inflicting pleasure.
We take to it and other similar social platforms and technologies like sweets, unable to pull ourselves away from the candy to feed on healthier food. And while our rational mind can see the benefit of backing away from the candy jar, we return time and time again because it’s easy and it feels good. Facebook controls us. And we like it.
Many will celebrate this milestone today. On one level it is certainly deserved. I certainly enjoy the connection to family and friends that Facebook’s platform has provided. But like Sherry Turkle, I wonder if “we are too quick to celebrate the continual presence of a technology that knows no respect for traditional and helpful lines in the sand,” Turkle writes in Alone Together. “When media are always there, waiting to be wanted, people lose a sense of choosing to communicate.” In this way also, Facebook controls us. And we appear to like that as well.
I am not opposed to technology. The fact that I am compelled to say that says something about our culture. Love of technology is as American as apple pie. Postman had something to say about this as well. In Technopoly he writes:
“In cultures that have a democratic ethos, relatively weak traditions, and a high receptivity to new technologies, everyone is inclined to be enthusiastic about technological change, believing that its benefits will eventually spread evenly among the entire population. Especially in the United States, where the lust for what is new has no bounds, do we find this childlike conviction most widely held. Indeed, in America, social change of any kind is rarely seen as resulting in winners and losers, a condition that stems in part from Americans’ much-documented optimism. As for change brought on by technology, this native optimism is exploited by entrepreneurs, who work hard to infuse the population with a unity of improbable hope, for they know that it is economically unwise to reveal the price to be paid for technological change. One might say, then, that, if there is a conspiracy of any kind, it is that of a culture conspiring against itself.”
Neil Postman – Technopoly
“It is economically unwise to reveal the price to be paid for technological change.” Let me say this again. I am not against technology. I am simply worried about what we lose when we grant technology more power than it deserves and when we turn a blind eye to the potential pitfalls each new technological change brings.
When we eat too much crappy food, we get fat. The result is visible. Others can see it, we can see it. It becomes obvious that we need to do something about it. But what happens when we consume too much crappy information? If Postman is right, and I fear he is, what happens is that we amuse ourselves to death.
There are one billion people actively using Facebook each month. And I’m not certain if I should celebrate or mourn.
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photo via Flickr Creative Commons by James Cridland
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Incredibly astute perspective Jeff.
Being that I’ve taken to lifestyle of eating only whole foods, leaving most junk food, if not all junk food behind, the analogy struck me right between the eyes. The thought of all the “digital weight” gain, the “Freshman 15” I’ve packed on since joining my first social network, MySpace, is really enlightening.
So, where do we go now? Social platforms aren’t going anywhere. Do we stifle our Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter diet to fit back into the skinny jeans of true personal, face to face, networking and connection? Or is the problem of digital obesity too great?
Maybe its time to go Paleo with our social networking.
Awareness. Balance. Those are words that come to mind as I read your questions. I have the same questions.
Well said Jeff. All this high tech interaction is fun but is worse than a late night bag of chips. How much time is wasted at home reading “nothing” posted on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn…..etc. Have a conversation with a friend or loved one, look up and see that person is stuck on iPhone Facebook. It’s gotten so big that I am noticing, when reading, and listening to, ideas of improving operations, the words “don’t waste an hour on Facebook” are coming up more and more often. Having said that, Facebook is a great part of my internet advertising. I wonder if there will, eventually, be a warning from the surgeon general on the Facebook log in page?
Tom, with every innovation comes unintended consequences. The more pervasive an innovation’s reach, the broader and larger are the unintended aspects of its impact. We need to be aware. Neil Postman is famous for saying, “”new technology can never substitute for human values.” We need to be vigilant that we are not giving up our humanity in the process of taking advantage of technology’s benefits.
“If Postman is right, and I fear he is, what happens is that we amuse ourselves to death.”
There are worst ways to die. We will do something to our death. We will work ourselves to death or play ourselves to death or die in service to others. There is no escaping death…and amusing ourselves to it does not seem so bad to me compared to some of the alternative choices.
Unfortunately, the death he was referring to was not a physical one. 🙂
Wow, deep thoughts. I’m impressed. And since I just recently finished “Amusing Ourselves to Death”, your insight into Facebook’s announcement is very timely. The quote you reference from the book was one that stuck with me after I finished it, but I’d highly recommend the entire book to anyone who wants to understand how everything from the telegraph to the internet has shaped our culture, and not necessarily in a positive way.
So after reading Postman’s book, I’m still not sure what to think about the distractions created by information overload. On one hand, it makes me yearn for a simpler time when current events were more local and information was delivered in long form that required more thought. However, I’m coming to the realization that we’ve crossed the point of no return. There’s no going back, so I’ve decided that it’s best to understand what is happening, manage its implications on my thoughts and actions, and help others understand the effects of information overload. In other words, it better to spend energy productively embracing change and managing its effects rather than wasting energy fighting it.
I hope this post is seen as spending “energy embracing change and managing its effects” rather than me “wasting energy fighting it.” I don’t think it’s possible to put the genie back in the bottle. And I also don’t think we should mindlessly trod forward without looking critically at the implications and at how we mitigate the most negative aspects of what this progress has brought about.
Great follow up. The last part of your reply is a great summary to your post and exactly how I read it. By the way, I have to admit that Postman’s book was a wake up call that took me a couple of weeks to digest.
If you haven’t red Technopoly yet, you should. It will have a similar impact.
OMG, thank you putting into words, feelings I have been experiencing for some time now!
I don’t know whether to laugh out loud or sob silently!
I’ve been struggling, working through these thoughts for some time now, and I’m just beginning to be able to articulate it in my own way. I can only hope I’m doing the topic justice.
Great post, Jeff. I’m the field of knowledge management, I like to repeat the mantra “It’s not about the tool.” The key message is that technology is neither the savior nor the enemy. Technology can be enable wonderful collaboration and connections that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. Or technology can become a soul-sucking drain on your personal productivity.
There’s nothing inherently good or bad about the technology. We have to remember, as Jaron Lanier writes, that “You Are Not A Gadget.” Too often we forget that we are the Master of our technology and allow the shiny objects in our lives to exert too much control.
It’s not a new problem. It’s just manifested in ever-new ways. Before computers and social media we had couch potatoes in front of the idiot box, slowly becoming comfortably numb.
While I agree, in general, I’m reminded of Nicholas Carr’s quoting of McLuhan in “The Shallows: What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains.” He quotes, “Our conventional response to all media, namely that it is how they are used that counts, is the numb stance of the technological idiot,” McLuhan wrote. The content of a medium is just “the juicy piece of meat carried by the burglar to distract the watchdog of the mind.” And he went on to add, “Not even McLuhan could have foreseen the feast that the Internet has laid before us: one course after another, each juicier than the last, with hardly a moment to catch our breath between bites.” Carr, Nicholas (2011-06-06). The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (Kindle Locations 144-146). Norton. Kindle Edition.
Thanks for this thought-provoking post amidst the candy-coated distractions. I’ve read both Postman books, which have stuck with me for a long time. I appreciated your contrast of Orwell and Huxley as well. As Postman points out in Technopoly, technology can be as simple as a writing utensil, which has the unintended consequence of reducing our capacity to memorize the long-form stories formerly passed down in the oral tradition. Facebook is just the latest tool we need to learn to control, without letting it control us.
I wish I could take credit for that Orwell/Huxley contrast, but that was all Neil Postman. It is powerful.
If only more people would think like you! Twitter, Facebook, McDonalds, Krispy Kreme now seem to be somehow similar. Social media obesity, instagram diabetes, twitter addiction and facebook cravings are ideas that people should reflect on from time to time 😀
As Greg commented, the genie is out of the bottle and I fall into this category: “Even people who are wary of the Net’s ever-expanding influence rarely allow their concerns to get in the way of their use and enjoyment of the technology.”
Carr, Nicholas (2011-06-06). The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains (Kindle Locations 147-148). Norton. Kindle Edition.
Jeff, very thoughtful post.
One of the byproducts of the Facebook/Twitter grip on society has been the erosion of interpersonal skills to such an extent that we no longer engage – we post, we tweet, and we reduce the importance of human interaction to such a degree that even the most superficial attempts typically include multi-tasking in order to further detach ourselves from contact and, God forbid, any hint of intimacy. Recently I witnessed 3 young women, sitting next to each other at a concert, and texting – to each other! WTF is that about? Jeff Hester talked about TV spawning a generation of couch potatoes as the forerunner to our current enslavement to technology – and he’s right. Perhaps it’s just a question of degree, because Facebook has the capacity to steal even more of our time, energy and focus.
I know that each of us presents him/herself to the world as a package of perceptions formed by what we deliver and how we deliver it – our own personal Brand. I can only speak for myself in saying that I do NOT want to be perceived as someone whose “friends” are just a bunch of avatars but rather as a caring, sharing human being, capable of empathetic, focused, person-to-person interaction and the ability to listen and to relate.
Bill, since I’ve known for going on twenty years, I can say without question that you are not someone whose “friends” are just a bunch of avatars but rather a caring, sharing human being, capable of empathetic, focused, person-to-person interaction and the ability to listen and to relate. Though, I do find you a bit gruff at times. 🙂
You and I have spoken about these subjects at length. I think you would enjoy both of Neil Postman’s main works, Amusing Ourselves To Death and Technopoly. They have taken me down a path of reading lately that is leading me to pause and reflect on the impact of technology on culture at large and on me as an individual.
A meaningful post and as you quoted in a reply above “Even people who are wary of the Net’s ever-expanding influence rarely allow their concerns to get in the way of their use and enjoyment of the technology.” – I struggle with this very issue.
As Daniel published over at http://retso.com/focus today, I have been working to focus and manage my own addiction to technology. My most recent attempt was changing all of my iPhone folder names and moving everything inside them to somewhere else. This reorganizination of my most often used digital device has helped me become more aware of what I’m doing while using the gadget. All of my folders are named after verbs now. It sounds silly, I know. But when I put apps in a folder titled ‘Spend’, I pause at least briefly before using that app. Do I really want to spend money virtually, right now? It also helps on the positive side, such as labeling a folder ‘Enjoy’. It gently nudges my brain to relax a bit when opening apps within that folder. After all, that’s why they’re in there.
As I typed all this out I realized it’s sad to have such a problem I need to hack my own addiction. Even worse – I’m proud of the hack.
I think it’s time to mourn.
I’m impressed by the hack as well. I’m going to go ahead and give that a try myself. I have way too many folders labeled “photography” however.
I read Daniel’s post this morning on Focus and I think I have a post I’d like to put on RETSO specifically targeted at brokers on this subject. We’ll see if my creating before consuming bender will continue long enough to make that happen quickly. 🙂
I look forward to reading that post as well.
After thinking more about this post tonight I was reminded of an old Louis C.K. bit. I think it’s relevant (and funny) to this conversation – “everything is amazing and nobody is happy”.
I love the phrase “centrifugal bumblepuppy” I worry about how Facebook affects teenagers. I believe it has warped their ideas about what a friendship really is and about which relationships are important or even real. It is so much easier for a teen to build a relationship in facebook than it is to build one in person.