The Facebook Epoch; Fossilization Of Self In The 21st Century

The Facebook epoch; Fossilization of self in the 21st century Algirdas Nakas Professor Palacio 27 September 2009 Marshall McLuhan, be seated please, the global village is speaking. No longer is it enough to be one big earth village gazing at timed slices of events punctuated by words from sponsors and projecting from cathode ray tubes . The cool medium that was the 20th century message (McLuhan) is overwhelmed by the mushrooming use of a warmer medium, the social network. As social networks exponentially evolve we have found that our messages are now the message. In less then 5 years active Facebook users have grown from 1 million to 300 million worldwide (“Facebook”). We send them out ad nauseam to our friends or friends of friends (likely perfect strangers) or fans never certain as to where they may land or exactly what, if any, the reaction will be. However, reaction or not, what we send through the electronic ether does remain forever imbedded in the matrix of 1’s and 0’s that defines our present existence. Little fossils of ourselves, our lives, our homes, our families, our work, left floating in perpetuity. The ultimate form of self-publishing, the permanent record of the energy of our ideas. Something has happened to our time constricted social lives. Physical social interaction has been largely usurped by ethereal exchanges of digital images and electronic messages. This is true for the innocent, naïve adolescent as much as it is for aged, world weary academic. To be sure, many opportunities for genuine points of face-to- face human contact still exist, but more often than ever before, electronic social exchanges made possible by social networking have become an acceptable, and even preferable option. The exchange of personal and affectionately selected imagery, both photography and videography, is the social contact du jour. And the social network du jour is Facebook. Significantly, Facebook expression is reaching beyond the boundaries of personal friends and acquaintances into the “friend of friend” or even into the public at large regions of the complete stranger. Should we view this phenomenon as a trend to a frightening demise of privacy, which indiscriminately opens the windows and doors to our personal space? Or, perhaps a world changing opportunity to broadly publish brilliant commentary and prose as well as exhibit our creative visual expressions as often as we choose to? Could it be that the ease of entry into the Facebook universe has unleashed the narcissistic or exhibitionistic traits in some of us and allows indulgence in a shallow, hedonistic pleasure. Or is Facebook something in-between, just a relatively innocuous new form enhanced email communication? The simple answer to these questions is that Facebook is, in different instances, and to differing degree, all of these. But I will examine here

3 the aspects of Facebook that have to do with the public expression of personal identities. This is the part that is most relevant to my own art and very unique culturally. What are the possible reasons for this expressive discourse, why do we do it, and what is the true value and the real or hypothetical consequences of this autobiographical selfpublishing. What is the ultimate potential for this stylized, instantaneous human interaction. As an artist and an art educator it has always been my belief that all our forms of self -expression; writing, imagery, speech, dance, dress etc., have great value. The freedom to express ourselves openly and honestly not only benefits society, but is crucial to our own health, spiritual and physical. This is the backdrop for my opinion that Facebook is the most important form of communication since the birth of McLuhans global village made possible by television. Facebook not only lets us see the world, but have a real time dialogue with it’s inhabitants that could affect action and human events. These dialogues could be aesthetic, mundane, crisis oriented or political in nature. But importantly they are still largely uncensored and immediate and they are usually expressed from a point of view that is somehow genuine. This honest expression of ideas can spontaneously ignite not only more Facebook comment, but also political and social change. This is nothing short of revolutionary. It is the exponential expansion of the printing press to the television to the internet encased in a palatable, easy to use and very powerful tool that lets the global village speak to each other. This democratization of personal expression is liberating. We all now have the opportunity to quickly send our vibrations around the world. Not just the photographer sending pictures to a newspaper, not just an anchorman reporting news on a television network, but any of us can now publish our ideas instantly for anyone to see. And if an idea has resonance, the idea can spread virally into the world’s collective consciousness with a speed never before imagined (I am including MySpace and YouTube , etc. in this equation). So exactly what sorts of personal, powerful, ideast are being sent via the network? What is this earth shattering, personal expression that defines the importance of Facebook? The beauty of Facebook is that it elevates the small event, the little thought, the smaller audience and the individual as well. Facebook is the medium that is being mostly used for expression of the niche idea, the cult image, the singular fetish. Ironically, it is these smaller expressions that give Facebook it’s humanity, it’s real beauty. The simple photo of a group of friends on vacation or at a party, it is this aspect of Facebook that says our friends are important. It is the birthdays, the moments of joy or fatigue, the melancholy or the laughs that we share with those we connect with that gives us satisfaction or relief. This facet of Facebook creates a Thorton Wilder’s “Our Town” sort of character to our networks, where the passing of the seasons, the sunrise, the personal relationships of

4 neighbors, are expressed within our own community as the things that really have meaning (Wilder). Just as the dead came back to speak in Wilder’s play, we will be digital ghosts dwelling forever in this Facebook ether, forever leaving a record of someone’s 16th happy birthday wall messages. I have many “friends” on Facebook, and the majority of these are the high school or college students that I have taught or currently teach. The remainder is family, current adult friends and acquaintances or friends from earlier years of my life that have reconnected. The group that most interests me are the students. This is a group that was born into this digital age and it is completely second nature to them. They take the Facebook network totally for granted. I am stunned by the thought that I can put up a picture of what I am doing at the moment and it can be instantly seen by my network, while these young people find this fact as mundane and ordinary. They see this as how they live, they see electronic computer networking as nothing more significant than casual chat in a school hallway. And that is pretty much how they use Facebook. With casual conversation and imagery of what they are doing, just did, or are planning. Importantly however is the fact that their conversations are often vividly illustrated with candid and posed photography as well as live video, video stills or recorded video. This personal publishing by adolescents is unique in the history of man and to adults gives great insight into their developing consciousness and states of mind. As someone who has recorded many of their school events, my own photography has been a part of what dwells on the pages of my student friends. My photographic work has been a portion of the evidence that reveals glimpses of their personalities, growing, learning young people, that I care for greatly. As such I am concerned that students of this age are less aware of the possible hazards of freely releasing access to their lives to the world than older generations (Govani/Pashley). I have always had a kind of detached attitude while shooting photographs of what is occurring in front of me. Or at least the portions of what is before me that hold my visual interest. But no subject has ever intrigued me to the degree that these young people do. The world that they have inherited can be terrifying in many ways, yet they face it with a light heartedness and an endless energy that is has always been the hallmark of youth. I would love to see them use their networks and energy to improve the human condition, and I believe as they mature into an understanding of the communicative power they possess through mediums such as Facebook, they will. And actually there already exists on Facebook many groups and pages that are definite green shoots sprouting with the possibility of that sort of impact. Most of the charities and action groups that benefit the earth outside of social networking are now found on Facebook as well.

5 So in the pre-social network era, private, personal photos and communications were limited to means of exchange that excluded larger circles of people. We would physically show our albums by turning pages while meeting a few others. Or we would send pictures or videos via regular mail or possibly as email attachments or as email with links to web pages enclosed. This effectively gave little access to unanticipated viewers. We pretty much understood who was inspecting our personal worlds. Today those circles have expanded to all those that have some access to our networks. We set our privacy preferences in Facebook settings to control this but, users are often liberal with these settings (“Facebok”). For example switching a privacy setting from “friends only” to “friends of friends” can expand the audience of our digital selves by a factor of 10. For example if a user has 130 friends allowed access but settings are changed to “friends of friends” that audience of 130 could easily reach numbers like 16,900 (multiplying the 130 friends, the current Facebook average, with an average of 130 other friends). Our private worlds would be anything but. Facebook does let you control most aspects of Facebook access with their Privacy settings page. But mastery of these settings can be a daunting task, for younger users or adults. The need to understand the settings has created a market for information with regard to this. A fellow named Nick O’Neill posted an internet article called “10 privacy settings every Facebook user should know about” which was viewed millions of times. This spawned a 24 page e book called “The Holy Grail of Facebook Privacy” which is sold to those interested (O”Neill). But to read and apply 24 pages worth of privacy control information is something most adolescent users would bother to do. This could potentially leave them vulnerable to sexual predators or identity thieves. This is a frightening aspect of the brave new world we inhabit. With exponential expansion of opportunities for self expression also comes an equal increase in the possibility of unwanted consequences. Savvy adult users sometimes take unusual precautions in protecting themselves and their intellectual property. One of my Facebook friends is photographer Lauren Greenfield. She has established herself as a premiere artist and has an interesting warning to Facebook posted on her profile page:

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For whatever reason, Lauren found it necessary to watermark her content in this fashion. So even beyond 24 pages of privacy control, their may be a need to go further. That is by overriding Facebook’s Terms of Use policies with a personal disclaimer. I can’t imagine younger users or those without the experience of Lauren going that far. Nor do I believe they probably have any need to. But with so much detail about their lives being made available on their pages, more education on self protection could be in order. With that said, young people do usually safely communicate using basic privacy settings and this list of Facebook options: ~Info pages use of linking to relevant sites ~Video pages for posting video creations ~Photo pages for sharing photography with others ~Status use for rapid conveyance of personal news ~News feeds for quick checks of what is occurring within their circle of friends ~Calendars for keeping up with timely events ~Pages tabs for sharing info about important causes that affect our world

7 My strongest interest is with the positive use of photography and art in networking by young people. Let’s examine some examples selected from my friends pages.

In the screen grab on the right, one of my former students, now at RISD, discusses a photo he posted of an art installation he created in the hallway of his dorm. “Nothin’ like 600 slices of bread on the floor.” Though somewhat simplistic, think about how many spontaneous works of art you may have published for news feed to a network as a college freshman. Myself, in the 70’s, zero.

In the grab on the right a former student, now at Syracuse in the school of fashion, discusses the right to source of a graphic she used on a t-shirt design from the catalog of her start up company, “metropolis”.

8 Fairly heady debate for a college sophomore.

In this screen grab, one of my current high school students provides a link to his Flickr Page containing a huge variety of his illustrations and photos right below his profile pic :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/harrisontelyan/ If you have a minute, it’s worth clicking on the link. I find it fascinating to no end the maturity these students exhibit as they launch bits of their creative selves out into the public domain. As someone born in the early 50’s I am awestruck by the progress we have made in technically democratizing art and expression so that anyone with the desire and the energy can have contribute. Even if this personal expression remains only as an eternal fossil, laying exposed in the desert of digital time, waiting to be discovered by searching eyes.

9 References: "Facebook Pressroom Statistics." Facebook. 04 Nov 2009. Facebook, Web. 8 Nov 2009. . McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The extensions of man. 1st ed. NY: McGraw Hill, 1964. Print. Thorton Wilder. Our Town: A play in three Acts. 1st ed. NY: CowardMcCann, 1938. Print. Giovani, Tabreez and Harriet Pashley. Student Awareness of the Privacy Implications when Using Facebook, 2005. http://lorrie.cranor.org/courses/fa05/tubzhlp.pdf The Unofficial Facebook Resource. 09 Feb 2009 . Social Times, Web. 8 Nov 2009. .

"Facebook privacy." Facebook. 05 Nov. 2009. Facebook, Web. 8 Nov 2009. . The Unofficial Facebook Resource. 09 Feb 2009 . Social Times, Web. 8 Nov 2009. .