[ICTs-and-Society] facebook and you

[Sean Cubitt]

It is real life that is the zoo – Facebook is the myth that makes us believe we are only zoo animals when we choose to be


From: Erik Jentges <e.jentges at ipmz.uzh.ch<mailto:e.jentges at ipmz.uzh.ch>>
Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:16:43 +0200
To: <discussion at lists.icts-and-society.net<mailto:discussion at lists.icts-and-society.net>>
Subject: [ICTs-and-Society] facebook and you

Thanks to all for the inspiring discussions.
Sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words (some might know this):

Pig 1 : Isn’t it great ? We have to pay nothing for the barn.
Pig 2 : Yeah! and even the food is free.
Facebook and You
If you’re not paying for it, you’re not the customer. You’re the product being sold.

[Beschreibung: Facebook and You Pigs]<http://www.ethannonsequitur.com/facebook-you-customer-product-pigs.html/facebook-and-you-pigs>

After thinking a bit about this cartoon and the analogy drawn to facebook, some unexplainable sociological intuition rather gives me a hunch that users are not so much the product being sold (to whom?) but that facebook is some sort of a zoo, where all visitors are at the same time the animals on display. Those invited can create their own cages, curating and narrating their identities. This still leaves open who is the manager of the zoo (Zuckerberg and his corporation?) and if the zoo has a viable long term strategy. That remains to be seen.

All the best at the conference, greetings,
Erik


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. phil. Erik Jentges
IPMZ - Institut für Publizistikwissenschaft und Medienforschung
Universität Zürich
Andreasstrasse 15
CH-8050 Zürich
Tel. +41 (0)44 634 46 70
Fax +41 (0)44 634 49 34
e.jentges at ipmz.uzh.ch<mailto:e.jentges at ipmz.uzh.ch>
www.ipmz.uzh.ch<http://www.ipmz.unizh.ch/>

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