My OperaThe ‘like’-ly future
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 11:34:50 AM
Many people may wonder why the social network Facebook is offering a „like“-button but no “dislike”-button. There have been numerous assumptions on where the whole liking-mania is leading. A few days ago I read about a new development in our Facebook-Planet which actually made me feel sick. There you go:
In Israel, a 800-person summer resort for teenagers – called the “Coca-Cola Village” –, experimented this year with the extension of the Facebook “like”-button: The liking-machine. This glorious machine links offline-products with online-commerce. The teenagers who were enjoying waterslide, volleyball and massages had now the option to “like” the activity on Facebook by scanning their RFID-equipped bracelets at a nearby machine.
In Israel, a 800-person summer resort for teenagers – called the “Coca-Cola Village” –, experimented this year with the extension of the Facebook “like”-button: The liking-machine. This glorious machine links offline-products with online-commerce. The teenagers who were enjoying waterslide, volleyball and massages had now the option to “like” the activity on Facebook by scanning their RFID-equipped bracelets at a nearby machine.
Social networks were meant to socialize with people, to keep in touch. But the more I think and read about it I become convinced of their anti-social potential. Future trends like the above described “liking-machine” capture users (also called netizens!) and drag them into the virtual world of the www. Blogger Marek Hoffmann from basicthinking.de compares the risk that comes with this new mentality with taking pictures during holidays: “While I am taking the picture, I disappear behind the lens and only perceive it indirectly. Why? Normally to afterwards present the pictures to my friends, only very rarely to have them as memories.” He concludes: “To have a vivid representation for friends and relatives becomes almost more important than to gather the impressions in an unfiltered way.” The self-chosen isolation of people who allow Facebook (or other services in the virtual world) to control their actions, at the same time impedes direct interaction in the real world.
Those so called “netizens” seem to be fascinated by this form of isolation and indirect interaction. Somebody should explain to me the wonder of technology and virtual life. What is so intriguing about this pseudo-connectedness?
Source: “The Future of Facebook ‘Liking’ by Michael Bennett Cohn (http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=960&doc_id=196751&f_src=internetevolution_gnews)
“Pessimismus 2.0: Die negativen Aspekte der ‚like-machine’ und sozialer Netzwerke” von Marek Hoffmann (http://www.basicthinking.de/blog/2010/09/07/pessimismus-2-0-die-negativen-aspekte-der-like-machine-und-sozialer-netzwerke/)
Special thanks to Debora for her permission to publish her blogpost here on JUICEDthoughts | My Opera
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