September 3, 2008
Artefacts and Politics
Langdon Winner argues of many of the modern material tools we affect much more than meet
the naked eye. I would tend to agree with him when I see that people are using socializing tools such as facebook to categorize people into what they believe. These people never even had a chance to defend themselves personally or face to face. They are subjected to whatever is included in their profile which has been the case since the inaugural year of Facebook not more than five years ago.
First of all Facebook is only available to College students of certain universities. This sets the power divide with a much similar premise to Winner’s low bridges. Employers look through Facebook nowadays to get a grasp at the applicant. This can have both positive and negative consequences, for example, if the applicant does not have Facebook it can be hard to gauge the person to the applicant who does. This can relay a message of non socialization to the employer, furthermore it can relate a message of how the person networks. However, the book can also lead to negative connotations if the employer sees a disturbing picture or something written in the profile that he or she does not necessarily agree with. It is a kind of double edged sword nowadays with regard to these social networking tools. Consequently, the Facebook is equated far above the more accessible MySpace because of the nature that it lets anyone join.
The socializing factor of the book can be a little tricky much like Second-life I feel that people are getting addicted to Facebook. People spend hours on the socializing tool checking out other peoples profiles and pictures. This can be hazardous to people psyches as they are neglecting the only real way to socialize, face to face.