In an earlier post, I suggested that there is much data to be found on the Internet, but not much wisdom. I still feel this to be true. But, occasionally, you can find pearls of wisdom on the Internet. Ergo, I have decided to create a new blog post category entitled Truer Words as in Truer Words Have Never Been Spoken. Today’s Truer Words come from an article entitled Meet The Facebook Conscientious Objectors.
The above article talks about how some Facebook users object to the the idea that Facebook is now a publicly traded company. These conscientous objectors argue that they, the users, are both the product and the producers of that product—selves. They argue that Facebook is in the business of producing selves. But there’s another side to Facebook: they make money by turning those selves over to advertisers. Facebook manufactures selves ready and willing to buy products. In reality, this is nothing new. Let me explain.
I recently finished reading a biography of John B. Watson entitled Mechanical Man by Kerry Buckley. Watson is arguably the father of a very popular form of psychology known as behaviorism. Behaviorism forms the core of the present-day mental health intervention known as cognitive-behavioral therapy. It’s a long story (give Buckley’s book a read) but Watson was forced to move from academia to advertising. (Yes, sexual improprieties were involved.) It was Watson who came up with the idea that as consumer products are produced, people’s emotions too must be produced so that a longing for consumer products is artificially created. It was Watson who came up with the idea that both products and people must be produced. For Watson, behavioristic psychology was about creating the right environment that in essence would push people and products together, whether such pairings made sense or not. Created products must be met by created people. I hate to say it but it sounds like Facebook fits well with a Watsonian worldview. And that’s why a small group of Facebook conscientious objectors are, well, objecting. They are objecting to the idea that Facebook manufactures people. But, again, this is nothing new. Watson introduced this idea to the world back in the 1920s. Consider this quote from the article:
Basically, these former users have figured out Facebook is selling you and they don’t want to help fill the company’s pockets anymore. Not after understanding what that means for their privacy. And definitely not after the way it handled its IPO. “It’s then either a post-modern joke or a Marxist irony (or both at once) that we are able to buy shares of us. But either way, I don’t want you buying shares of me,” writes Knutsen [a conscientious Facebook objector].
So today’s Truer Words are simply (with respect to the recent Facebook IPO—initial public offering): “It’s then either a post-modern joke or a Marxist irony (or both at once) that we are able to buy shares of us. But either way, I don’t want you buying shares of me.” Maybe rather than, “Don’t Tase Me Bro,” we should be chanting, “Don’t Buy Me Bro.” So, the next time you update your Facebook page, remember to put in your request for a dividend check. It may seem odd but Facebook may now be the world’s largest employee owned company with its hundreds of millions of “employees” all working hard to produce selves that ultimately are unceremoniously turned over to advertisers. I can hear Watson from his grave saying, “Facebook … damn, I wish I had thought of that!”
PS – I first encountered this idea of “people as products” or “people being manufactured” through my read of Jean Kilbourne’s 1999 book Deadly Persuasion—Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising.
