Writing the book on Facebook

I thought I hated Facebook but, compared to the angry English writer Tom Hodgkinson, I'm actually a huge Facebook fan. In yesterday's Guardian, Hodgkinson launches the most sustained and relentless attack on Facebook that I've ever read. In "With friends like these..." Hodgkinson buries not only Facebook but also the dreadful dreadful (un)reality of social networking. It's a shockingly nasty polemic that well and truly fries the boy Zuckerberg and his libertarian investors.

What Hodgkinson does particularly well is link up Facebook with the libertarian right-wing in American socio-political culture. He analysis of ex Paypal CEO Peter Thiel is appropriately chilling. What he doesn't do, however, is connect the dots between Facebook and the rest of Silicon Valley. YouTube, for example, was also founded by ex Paypal Thiel acolytes. And many of the most fashionable and well financed new companies in the Valley are financed and lead by dubious characters from this libertarian Paypal mafia.

"I hate Facebook", Hodgkinson begins his memorable essay. But the truth is that he hates Silicon Valley (even though the English writer probably hasn't even been here). I wonder, for example, what he would make of the Google boys and their evangelical faith in space travel and artificial intelligence. Or how he would make sense of the fact that Second Life's founder and CEO is an evangelical Christian. There is a really serious book here somewhere -- a Bonfire of the Vanities, perhaps, or a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Tom Hodgkinson is the author of three books including How to be Idle. I hope he turns "With friends like these..." into a fourth book. He needs to come and live out here for six months, get real intimate with the Valley crazies, keep a straight face as they preach their faith in the virtual, then turn the surreal experience into a full blown, relentless attack against their religious faith in technology. Given the refreshingly vitriolic style of his writing, a Hodgkinson book about the Valley would make Cult look tame. And maybe he could bring the great animator Ralph Steadman with him to do the graphics for the book. It will need pictures from a Gonzo artist like Steadman. Otherwise readers won't be able to visualize quite how awful people like Thiel actually are.

 

Comments

[John S]

Andrew,

I agree with the problems of Facebook, and after a friend suggested that I join, I read their privacy policy and also thought
it was too far reaching and declined the invitation.

The issues that both you and Hodgkin raise are difficult ones and related to some loss of reason for being. Or it might be that society in general is morphing into something else in an attempt to confront some perceived, external threat. Many people find their reason for being in fighting some dragon, whether that is being a soldier from one of the world wars or fighting the repression of a screwed-up parent from our childhood. Zuckerberg and his friends are helping to define this new dragon and I agree that it is probably going in the wrong direction. Well, the tools they offer are false, except to fight loneliness.

Re-connecting with those around us in a real, face-to-face situation, may not happen unless we find - or create - a need to do so. I previously wrote about Information Debates which are an attempt to create those reasons. It is not a process that attempts to make people like or feel good about each other, but is centered around problem solving for a specific problem and uses existing tools such as competition. It is a temporary game in which people must face each other but can also create something together and then push it as far as they want.

Today I heard Muhammad Yunus speak at the Commonwealth Club and had a chance to speak with him briefly. The process that the Grameen Bank
has used with the concept of micro-loans have some things in common with Information Debates, most of which has to do with the need for people to speak face-to-face and find useful information among them. This does not preclude being connected to the larger world via the Internet or any other media. In many cases that connection with the larger world via the media will bring so much more experience and knowledge. But outside connections can be useless or a waste of time unless there is some specific problem or situation to address. The poorest of the poor have already found their challenge. I don't know that the rest of us have found it yet.

I'm not sure that you or Tom Hodgkinson have thought about how to counter the Facebook issues, however. Blogging on a site that only allows comments makes one feel as if one has the last word, but compared with what it might be in conjunction with face-to-face groups, it's a small effort.

I'm not one to decide what other people should think about. I'm simply looking at the process.

John S

[Jorge]

I think that the word mafia really describes some current situations.

[Ian Thorpe]

The spread of social networking should concern our leaders. The internet is addictive, it breds low self esteem (ohmigawd, I only have 200 friends and he has 500, why am I unpopular) and encourages detachment from reality.

Unfortunately a population of isolated individuals is a population that is easily controlled through misinformation.

It reminds me of Joseph Heller's Catch 22 and the character ex-PFC Wintergreen, the mail clerk wo controls the course of the campaign simply by filtering the information people are given.