Facebook Has Totally Reinvented Human Identity—For the Worse

originally posted by: voyger2
a reply to: ~Lucidity

Just to say the problem is not facebook. It's the way you use it.
Even here ppl have «egos» the question is always about your conduct towards your "neighbor".

Sure. That's a big part of it. How you use it. Unfortunately, from what I've witnessed the vast majority use it like idiots. And it seems like the worst behaviors from way back in middle school and high school come rushing back to full-grown, should- know-better adults.

Drama. Bullying. Peer pressure. Vanity. Ego. Yeah...no thanks.

But it sure seems to me like they are painting non-users into a corner.

Not on FaceBook? You don't get a coupon for X.

Not on FaceBook? You can't comment on Y site.

Not going to give us your cell phone number? You can't get an email account here.

I have to say, what I do find strange, is the amount of parents who post pictures of their precious ones as babies and toddlers without any consent from the child. That is totally weird in this day and age. There is nothing more embarrassing than your parents bring out the baby photos. Now it seems the norm to post your kids life storya reply to: ~Lucidity

a reply to: ~Lucidity

I agree with you. I understand somehow the "frustration".
I usual see those "wrong" attitudes coming from ppl on fk.
I believe that everyone should understand the "wrongness" of their behavior by example and I do believe that sooner or later some of them actually understand that.. cause ppl tend to ignore them...

About the discrimination for not having fk. For is me totally irrelevant. If anyone those that to you because of that, it should be "trashed" from your list. Any kind of discrimination is wrong.

a reply to: theabsolutetruth

Yeah, stealing art, be it photos, music, or what have you that is posted online is a big issue, with the even bigger issue being pretending that it's theirs. And what floors me even more is all the excuses they come up with as to why that's okay.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

Yes, nobody's forced but even as a rather young person (almost 23) I've been noticing that social media/other (online) media and identity thingies are becoming more and more intertwined and connected.

It's as if we started out with 10 accounts on 10 separate sites/media/bank/e-mail etc. Then these services began to merge together. They bought each other up or actually were the same group of people form the start.

Then all of these ''convenient'' things started to appear and it's as if we're in that stage now of where responding to Site or Forum X is now connected to your google or Facebook or whatever account. ''Log in on x and be logged in on everything! How nice!''

Here, online banking accounts and government/social accounts and e-mail addresses are becoming connected more and more.

It's as if there's a slowly closing net, where all the little fishes (being your accounts on many things) are being hurled and forced together more and more to finally form 1 definitive identity. Crappy analogy, I know, but I can't think of a much better one right now ^_^

In a social sense it's becoming more difficult to not have Facebook and such, but there's also the process described above as I perceive it. It's weird though that I'm being called alternative or even 'rebellious' for not having a Facebook account. Shows how normal and expected it has become, such as owning a phone or a computer.

I completely disagree . My young son & I live 1500 miles away from my entire family & it's only him & I since he was 2 . Using Facebook is the easiest way for me to connect & let my family into our lives. It's also the only way really to let everyone in . Being a many year full time single father there is not enough time in a day to send pictures , texts , emails & make phone calls to everyone . I am consistently reminded by my family how happy they are to be able to see our life via Facebook .
I may be one of the few who use it for something good but I'm not the only one . Btw I know the ties facebook has with the government & many many other ties with agencies . However i actually work , pay taxes , stay sober & don't break laws on a daily basis. So they can record ,listen or watch me all they want . They are just wasting money . At the end of the day if my government is planning a terror attack,FEMA camps or a new global war while recording what I do on Facebook , well it does not matter in reality because tomorrow I need to food shop , have school clothes ready, make breakfast, school lunch & dinner , homework after, have fun in there somewhere , get myself cleaned up & my son , then get to bed at a decent hour only to do it all again.
Facebook & the government have a great media to keep their ear to the streets so to speak , however if you are just a family person sharing great parts or your day or week with other family or friends then you obviously have nothing to worry about .

a reply to: Pulpfiction77

Think outside your box Pulp. Information can be more potent than 1000 guns in warfare.

Yes we are all busy scratching out a living, more worried about the rent than FEMA camps.

However have no doubt there is what appears to be an impossibly far reaching war on humanity, this planet, and all that is loving and righteous. Everyone has to see for themselves. You start seeing a bigger and bigger picture. My own very limited perception is telling me it is far beyond governments...but that is a different thread.

Not doing anything wrong, nothing to hide so its all good right?

Wrong angle, ask yourself "Who gets all this information, and what could they do with it?"

The FBI/NSA/CIA plus who knows.......and pretty much whatever they want. Information is power. Best believe it is used and abused a thousand times a day.

I have a facebook account but I rarely use it. And whe I do it's to stay in contact and exchange info with martial artists around the world. I always tell my friends. Either call me or send me an email like an adult. I do not communicate through facebook messenger.

SO instead I watch people I've grown up with misrepresent themselves on facebook. slowly turn into self absorbed - look at me I need attention to validate myself type of individuals. You know they are lost when they treat tehir facebook page like a twitter account. Heres me eating breakfast. OMG so precious look at my hair, the wind blew it all crazy on my way to work. 20 minutes later. Look at the water cooler at work. 20 minutes later. post some stupid opinion you just had to shere 20 minutes later OMG I hate being inconvenienced by the stupid waitress at the cafe on the corner on my work break. Like should it treally take them 2 minutes to get my coffee ready. 20 minutes later OMG look at this picture I just took of my sef. 20 minutes later OMG everybody I have another stupid opinion I want to share. 20 minutes later OMG I'm sooooooooo thinking about going to douch fest or whatever concert next month. 20 minutes later Hey random selfie of the hour. don't I look cool. 20 minutes later OMG LOL...Like wow I hate it when no one comments on my stupid blurb I just published on the internet 20 minutes earlier. 20 minutes later LOL I'll just upload another selfie...I'm not pathologically obsessed with my insecurity and manifesting it through a false persona online. 20 minutes later. heres a picture of me with some celebrity I went out of my way going to an event so that I could feel relevant in my life. 2o minutes later OMG I just have to share this link to some stupid S#*$& You don't careabout. I know its trite and stupid, but I just have to throw it out there for people to see. what do you think of this stupid link?!? OMG!!! Look what happened in the news today I need to share my stupid opinion unsolicited again...please somebody pay attention to me. Wait what about now. I uploaded another selfie!!!!

Thats pretty much what goes on on 99 percent of the facebook pages I see. It's pathological.

Zuckerberg is right-facebook has reinvented my friends identities...now most of them are drones.

On the very rare occasions I use facebook it's to communicate on a personal level, now I have no reason to bother because they are doing, watching, and liking the same thing. I can't have a meaningful conversation with any of them because they are too busy talking about a rap battle between Rick Grimes and Jay-Z, because that is a pressing issue.

NTM facebook is just so...impersonal, despite what you can share with the world. A good ol' fashioned phone call is fine by me.

originally posted by: AtcGod
I have noticed that now when we go on trips it has become more about taking pictures of us where we are and not about actually visiting the place. We get there, spend such a short amount of time...take pictures and then rush home to post them on facebook and then the refresh button gets pushed a million times waiting for people to acknowledge our awesome world travel experiences......

Secondly, why do people get so upset about what people post on facebook? My wife will come to me absolutely furious or hurt or whatever because someone posted something.....I find that to be very.......interesting.. I just tell her "It's Facebook" /sigh.

Incredibly interesting. What websites like Facebook provide for people who participate are all the following:

1. A person becomes the center of attention. Hence, it provided instant gratification for someone who may, in some cases, either benefit from the boost in self worth and self esteem or become further entrenched in narcissism. That's such a boost to some people's ego that they can't let go of Facebook.

2. A person's life is validated as having meaning. These websites help distract you from the existential issue of what is your life about, because regardless of what it's actually about you share it with the world and get comments and this creates the illusion that it must be about something worthwhile.

3. A person gets virtual "friends." Social networking is supposedly a great way to gather new "friends," but the strength of these friendships or how genuine they are is never quite evaluated. However, there are people who live lives that are quite lonely, and for them, whatever social interaction they can get through Facebook is worth it for them to feel they are a part of society.

I'm also an ex-Facebooker. There are other websites more worthwhile (like this one).

How this society allowed this idiot to get rich is something I will never understand.

Never underestimate the capacity of stupidity of the mob.

As PT Barnum said there's a sucker born every minute.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

I hear ya. I even dumped LinkedIn. Facebook is evil personified.

I'm on facebook but I definently can see your point.So much loss of privacy and changes how the entire world connects and ruins all privacy.People are addicted to slobbering all over it constantly.

I've never used facebook. When I tell people this they look at me like I've told them I eat live bees or something. It says a lot about the public if they're scared of people who don't conform.

a reply to: ~Lucidity

Ah I've thought about leaving Facebook many times before but the practical uses it has held me back, genuine reasons to keep in touch with your friends and family. But the way the site had changed throughout the years to better suit advertising and corporate interests (as well as governmental) is making me consider a definite abandonment of Facebook. But...

but it has to be done right, and of course, in style.

Check out what Nick Briz has to say about it:
www.vice.com...

Once i decide to leave I'll have my facebook redirect ppl to a personal blog or some kind of creative output to inspire others if they land on my page.

I just recalled someone mentioning on here how facebook is essentially a one of the precursers that will eventually result in some synthesis of human connection to robotics and the internet...

woah man, we'll always be connected through some neuro-internet implants that you come home to afterwork to immerse yourself in some virtual life to lounge with your homies. Didnt facebook buy the technology for Oculus Rift? There's gonna be some weird augmented reality factor to it at first and then it'll turn into some David Cronenberg stuff.

Nice post though, this is a topic we should always be discussing and vigilant in the reality of its symptions.

a reply to: dimaryp

Great, great analysis and summary of all the issues that irk about FB by Nick Briz. This seriously makes a great partner to and is even way, way better than this thread. Yeah the mood manipulation thing...I remember that...totally not cool.

Also particularly mind-blowing: "funding from the Minerva initiative—helping the Pentagon study and quell social unrest—that made it all the more creepy" (yes!) and micropayment.

Your plan for leaving is spot on too. His, though...you can't ever really delete anything on there, even though you can save your "stuff," and his instructions including tools are far, far more thorough than most, things most people would never even think of.

Thank you for contributing this.

I joined 5 years ago at the behest of a friend of mine.

I had, and still have, no interest in social media sites, but I was a novice of the interwebz and joined up using my real name because this friend said it was okay.

I never posted anything on there and never had anything to do with it.

About 3 years ago I decided to delete my unused account...but I couldn't do it (it wouldn't let me).

My account is in permanent 'sleep' mode, just patiently waiting for the day when I might change my mind and make it live again.

Something sinister about it all.

a reply to: CJCrawley

Yeah, what's up with that. I once, like 4 years ago, had an account during at most 2 weeks after which I decided that YES YES I was right after all despite others saying that I'd love it: FB is just not for me.

So I requested for them to remove my account. That was when I still lived with my mom and had another computer. But still whenever I click a link to FB I see my email address and those black password dots suggesting me to come back even though my account has ceased to exist.

I don't like that, it seems... nagging and intrusive.

a reply to: Pitou

a reply to: CJCrawley

Yep. It's forever, but you can get rid of most of it. The article and accompanying video dimaryp posted just about our posts above is GREAT.

Another Facebook doom and gloom thread.

I use it daily under a Nickname, my family are worldwide and sure there are other apps and ways but it's just easier
I also like to show friends and family what I'm up to.

Then there is the kicker, I've made friends with people on there, whether it be friends of friends I am now closer to in real life or new friends entirely.

I've bought items on one of my local selling pages. I got to see live updates of my buddys wedding in Australia.

I've seen people cry for help on there and talked off the ledge by friends.
People I know who's cars have broke down, needed help, they got it.

I know it sounds like FB advertisement, but this is my reality.
Best of all there isn't one photo of me on there, My DOB is false, I don't duck face, take pictures of my food.


I'm what you would call a Globalist conspiracy theorist (Imagine that) but I learned a long time ago the way to break the system is not to ignore it, it's to take part and try to break the system from the inside.

Like anything, its FULL of trolls looking for rage points at every turn, block them out.
A lot of my favourite Authors, musicians, artists etc are all on there and update their FB a lot more than their websites.

If FB shut down tomorrow I wouldn't cry myself to sleep but lets be honest it isn't happening because people use it for the reasons I have mentioned and more.

PS as for advertisements, they are minimal and there's plugins, apps galore that can make them disappear, I've never bothered as I never see them. Perhaps adblock stops them? or maybe my brain is set to ignore them after being on the internet for 18 years.