I'm On A Plane

And on the internet! A first for me personally. It's kewl. Here are some things I've come across on the internet, on a plane.

This article, in the NYRB, by Zadie Smith (whose work I have been staunchly ambivalent about over the years, both fiction and non-fiction), starts off talking about The Social Network in a not-at-all interesting way, but gets more provocative on page two when discussing the actual Mark Zuckerberg and the future and impact of Facebook.

"It’s this type of kid who would think that giving people less privacy was a good idea. What’s striking about Zuckerberg’s vision of an open Internet is the very blandness it requires to function, as Facebook members discovered when the site changed their privacy settings, allowing more things to become more public, with the (unintended?) consequence that your Aunt Dora could suddenly find out you joined the group Queer Nation last Tuesday. Gay kids became un-gay, partiers took down their party photos, political firebrands put out their fires. In real life we can be all these people on our own terms, in our own way, with whom we choose. For a revealing moment Facebook forgot that. Or else got bored of waiting for us to change in the ways it’s betting we will. On the question of privacy, Zuckerberg informed the world: “That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.” On this occasion, the world protested, loudly, and so Facebook has responded with “Groups,” a site revamp that will allow people to divide their friends into “cliques,” some who see more of our profile and some who see less.

"How “Groups” will work alongside “Facebook Connect” remains to be seen. Facebook Connect is the “next iteration of Facebook Platform,” in which users are “allowed” to “‘connect’ their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any site.” In this new, open Internet, we will take our real identities with us as we travel through the Internet. This concept seems to have some immediate Stoical advantages: no more faceless bile, no more inflammatory trolling: if your name and social network track you around the virtual world beyond Facebook, you’ll have to restrain yourself and so will everyone else. On the other hand, you’ll also take your likes and dislikes with you, your tastes, your preferences, all connected to your name, through which people will try to sell you things.

"Maybe it will be like an intensified version of the Internet I already live in, where ads for dental services stalk me from pillar to post and I am continually urged to buy my own books. Or maybe the whole Internet will simply become like Facebook: falsely jolly, fake-friendly, self-promoting, slickly disingenuous."

Full Article

Also, a riddle from n+1:

§ American government is run by and for capital and capitalists.
§ Most Americans hate government.
§ Most Americans love capitalism and capitalists.

Therefore either a. Most Americans really love their government.
or b. Most Americans really hate capitalism.

§ Contemporary American politics exists in the absurd space defined by the impossibility of openly acknowledging either a or b.