I had some fun asking a new discussion question to my introductory mass communication class last week: “Do you believe in Facebook?”
Not in Facebook’s business model, nor its overall success as a concept. Not in whether it was addictive or not (though the consensus was that yes, it’s addictive). Rather, did the students believe in the fundamental assumptions underlying the creation and use of Facebook?
by Flickr user Luis Perez
One of those assumptions, we decided as a class, was that Facebook assumes that we are willing to give up a good measure of the privacy of our daily lives and affiliations in exchange for the benefits of participation, particularly enhancing and making new friendships and associations.
To me, we ask this question too rarely of our media use, both as individuals and a society.
Personally, I’ve decided that using Facebook (and, yes, two Twitter accounts and a blog) are worth sacrificing some of my privacy. I am willing to consent to their fundamental assumptions. However, the assumptions of other media may not be as easily agreeable to me.
For example, the application of this question to entertainment media becomes challenging – especially media with violent content. When I analyze that type of content with this question, I have to acknowledge than the creators of such content assumed that I’d find enjoyment in it.
As a result, I’m forced to ask myself if I agree that I am gaining pleasure by watching murder, assault and more. The “pleasure” might take the form of mere escapism, rather than glee – I’m no psychopath – but watching something like The Bourne Identity has been enjoyable to me. This means, on that fundamental level, that I am obtaining pleasure from the violent images I’m seeing.
Am I comfortable with that? On a personal level, that’s not an easy question to face. It makes me feel bad. On a larger scale, am I comfortable with a media industry that uses the audience’s pleasure in such imagery to make money?
I certainly believe in free speech and the right to express one’s creative vision. But when our media system creates massive profits through the manufacture of crass and vulgar products that cater to the worst human urges, we can look first to ourselves to see how right this situation feels. Do we really believe it’s right, healthy, positive to consume these products for our own psychological well-being? Then, on that greater scale, do we believe in the mass production of such products? With these questions, we find some assumptions worth examining.
Tags: facebook, ideology, media literacy, social media
