Dylan Wittkower, author of
Facebook and Philosophy, calls The Social Network -- the new movie about Facebook -- a dark creation myth lacking any of the connection and redemption one often associates with New Media and social networking.
Dishing it up on the show are KPCC's
Molly Peterson and CyberFreak alum Jackson Musker. Wittkower talks about his students not having a problem with Facebook mining their personal info -- likes and dislikes -- to sell them ads. Twenty-five-year-old Jackson agrees. If companies find out he likes basketball and put ads up shoes ads accordingly on his Facebook page -- all the better. Molly finds this disturbing, and I just plain don't know what to think!
Perhaps Facebook's creator, 26-year-old Mark Zuckerberg, is a misanthropic corporate overlord hacking away at our privacy, or perhaps his particular brand of genius just hit the zeitgeist -- either way I doubt I'll be getting off Facebook anytime soon. Molly, Jackson and Queena say they will...but I'd like to see them prove it.