Facebook Effect - The Good and Bad
The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick raises some interesting points in the area of global governance. Kirkpatrick provides examples of organized political events that would never have occurred without Facebook - supposedly helping oppressed nations gain a voice. Additionally, Kirkpatrick mentions that Facebook provides an international communication platform which should promote open exchange of ideas and culture. Peter Thiel, a wealthy businessman and investor in Facebook stated in an interview "The most important investment theme for the first half of the twenty-first century will be the question of how globalization happens." I could easily see Facebook as a stepping stone towards a new model of governance where popular opinion can no longer be ignored or snuffed out - but I'm more interested in the short term social impact of systems like Facebook.
Kirkpatrick mentions that along with the revolutionary power of Facebook, there are also elements equally capable of causing a negative impact. One of these elements I find prominent is the capacity for de-education. Facebook's tendency to pull like-minded people together is also problematic when it comes to broadcasting single-minded and often faulty ideals or information. It becomes so easy to pull up a Facebook news feed and say "Yeah that sounds good. LIKE." that we stop trying to FIND the answers. Hence the broadcast model is impressive for spreading otherwise hidden information, but we do it at the risk of becoming completely academically and politically complacent. Soon whatever our friends say, we consume with little or no criticism - so I educate you via your news feed, but what if I am not educated in the claims I make? Worse yet, what if I have been mis-educated and hence unknowingly push a destructive agenda on you? With newspapers, books, science, television, etc. there are avenues (even if they are small) to combat disingenuous and/or inaccurate educational campaigns. With Facebook there is not. Thus I remain skeptical of the short-term and even long-term social impact of Facebook.
I also thought I would share a link to a recent episode of Futurama that deals with some aspects of information overload:
Comments
... Right?
Seriously though, this isn't a vaccuum. People will hear information and compare it to other information that they've heard, and people aren't so dumb as to believe everything they hear. When was the last time you blindly accepted facts spit out at you from an infomercial?
There might be a time where this happens [and there are instances where misinformation has spread by word of mouth before it was invalidated by an actual reputable source]. I just think it's not a really big problem, and especially not one that is new or unique to Facebook or even the internet.
The Sherrod scandal is a good example of what you mean, though. The Mad Snail Disease episode from Spongebob Squarepants also illustrates your point quite nicely, although it doesn't concern the internet.
Example: I made my status congratulating Tim Tebow on an awesome game this weekend (jokes, of course, but he is talked about enough to seem to still play on the team. My friend instantly privately messaged me to inform me that Tebow now plays for the Broncos. Thanks Social Media for keeping me up to date!).