Monday, May 20, 2013

Facebook gets real ...

Am I the only one to notice how ads are now appearing on Facebook more frequently? Some cyberutopians (are there are any left?) might say Facebook was created to bring "friends" (the dreadful distillation of a formerly meaningful word, a vulgarisation unbearable to some, who actually take friendship, with all its real-world pleasures and "tiresome" commitments, seriously).

Check out Cicero.

The depressing but clever film Social Networks suggests Facebook was, initially, yet another way for a horny friendless insecure male, Zuck, to "diss" reluctant females -- a 21st-century form of caveman behavior, if you will, that some overly-conspirational leftists would claim was at the origins of capitalism.

But hey, dear, dear, dearest Facebook "friends," what about 'em growing number of ads on Facebook, including some from entries intermingled among your Facebook "friends'" that seem to be becoming yet another "new" media vehicle (Facebook doubtless will be "history" in less than a few years) to sell products via "the personal "me-first/you-then" touch."

Nothing sells better in America than making "Me" happy. Let's talk about something interesting -- let's talk about me. No wonder all the Apple gadgets begin with "i." A modest, "I'm-a-nice/ordinary guy non-capitalized "I" ...

Is it not Tocqueville who said that, in America, friendship is expanded, but not deepened? (I cannot for the life of me find the specific reference to this citation, which has stuck in my mind for years).

Of course the obvious Facebook lucrative business deal, which it takes no Wall Street derivative "specialist" to figure out, is this:

Like other online "wonders" such as the Huffington Post, Facebook -- luring its participants (willing info-consuming victims, as they think Facebook is essentially about them) to speak about their favorite topic, themselves, for free !!! Image from


Free (read cheap) speech!!! 

What a deal! Arianna H, I love you, you are an absolute genius, but can I pls. get a check from you for my HuffPost articles!

And, of course, no and yo -- bonus to our hoodie Zuck Facebook corporate friends! -- the advertisers, thanks to Facebook, know more and more about who you are, so they can peddle their goods upon you, incessantly.

Not to speak of American/Russian secret services (I have a special academic interest in Russia) picking up all they can from the "free" social media.

Still, lucrative two-way mirror time for friendly Facebook.

Actually, I suspect it's more of a one-way mirror, with hoodie Zuck and company knowing far more than you and I know about Die Hoddie.

"Real" news from hoddie Facebook? Forget about it! Is not hoddie Facebook, after all, just a vehicle for hoodie-social-media-driven propaganda/marketing, begun by a still-adolescent who was mad at his girlfriend and has now made big bucks, smartly knowing his anxieties can sell?

Bingo hoodie-Zuck!

Isn't this a great hoodie corporate country or what?

God Bless hoodie America!

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