Irenic Road

Principalities, Powers, and Facebook

Last week I began the process of extricating my identity from Facebook. Zuckerberg et al’s decision to forcibly open my profile information drove me to either accept their radical, self-serving values about privacy and identity or remove my information. As it becomes clear that Facebook looks at its users as a resource to be mined of personal information, high-profile technorati like Cory Doctorow and danah boyd are abandoning Facebook and writing excoriating blog posts. Only time will tell if the the hoi polloi will follow, but from the number of Google searches for “delete Facebook account” it appears “the chickens are restless.”

It turns out that removing my information doesn’t actually delete it from Facebook: no, they will keep it in their database until I completely delete my profile.  I’ve quit all my groups and what used to be called “pages,” and will no longer post anything to my wall. I saved all the old messages I care about via good ol’ copy and paste; the more recent ones are sent to me as emails so I have them already.

I’m uncertain what to do about my wall posts and photos. Stretching back 5 years, they record a history (a selective one to be sure) but are nonetheless real glimpses into my life. Senior year of college and inside jokes posted back and forth between classes give way to friends moving away and leaving sparse notes on their new surroundings. Some people disappear while new faces keep popping up. I’ve tentatively decided to copy and paste the entire thing to a file on my computer. The photos are more likely to stay, though perhaps not all of them. Many record cross country or track meets, Christmas parties, and other gatherings that are part of a collective story, not just my own. To remove these photos would ignore the stakes so many others have in them.

I feel sorry for Zuckerberg and his crew. Hooked on Facebook I may be, but their creation dominates their lives much more than it does mine. Likewise I pity Steve Jobs, a man who seems lost in his own virtual reality, defending his technological fiefdom from his citadel at One Infinite Loop, lashing out at random critics and gossip blogs in weird personal emails. I see the same basic forces at work in the Apple “openness” and Facebook “privacy” flaps: control (fundamentally, power) and wealth. What pro-business advocates like to call “growth” usually boils down to a pursuit of these two things. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness power and wealth. Is that really the American way? No, it’s the way we all tend to go, given the opportunity: what Christian theologians call “original sin.” It’s a hard doctrine to swallow, but it points us to deeper happiness when realize we’re not good enough to make it on our own– we need someone to save us. (Rumor has it Jesus is that someone.) Though the powers Facebook and other tech companies now wield are in many ways unprecedented, the fundamental motivations of humanity are the same as ever.

9 That which has been is what will be,
That which is done is what will be done,
And there is nothing new under the sun.

10 Is there anything of which it may be said,
“See, this is new”?
It has already been in ancient times before us.

Ecclesiates 1:9-10