#deletefacebook & “1984”

In my last blog, I talked about the current state of social media, while referencing recent events such as the Parkland mass shootings, as well as our class reading, “Social Media is Bullshit?” I came to the conclusion that social media isn’t “bullshit”, and that it’s simply a tool. And as with all tools, it can be used for good or bad.

Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about social media being used…again as a bad tool. #deletefacebook is a current campaign to, as the hashtag states, delete the Facebook application from our lives. The reason for this action against Facebook is because the company shared peoples info with other entities, some harmless and some harmful.

Personally, I find it ironic and humorous that people are punishing a company for sharing info that individuals are freely sharing. We are at a crossroads as a society, and at some point we’ll have to make a decision whether or not to exist in complete transparent lives.

Do you remember the George Orwell novel, “1984”? The book is set in a fictional province of the superstate Oceania, whose citizens are victims of ongoing war, omnipresent government surveillance, and public manipulation. Even though it was published in 1949, the troubling societal themes reverberate today. This novel seems to be a prescient reflection of the current and future state of social interaction.

So what is the end game? There’s so much access to people, their information…almost everything with the right resources. I think we need to look to the mechanisms that are ultimately behind all of this.

Stay tuned for the next blog where I discuss the future of social media and humanity’s downfall.