The Facebook Universe
source: http://trickyrelativity.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/escher-faces.jpg
-
-
- trickyrelativity
- added this
A network of faces from different places leaving fragmented traces
Andy Warhol is well-known for many things, but many know him solely as the peculiar white-haired man who once said that "everyone will be famous for 15 minutes." Prior to the social networking phenomenon whenever I heard that quote my mind would instantly conjure up an image of something akin to a Soviet-era bread line with all of us patiently awaiting our fifteen minutes in front of a video camera. Basically American Idol for everyone.
"Quick. Do something special. You got fifteen minutes."
But now we have Facebook and well, that changes everything. No need for a claustrophobic fifteen-minute time frame to figure out just what's special about you. With Facebook as long as you're alive you can post and boy do we love to post. With literally little hesitation we willingly put it all out there. Having issues in your relationship? We know. We've watched it play out through a series of status updates, an abrupt relationship status change and assorted other methods of broadcasting once personal tribulations. Life is good? We know. Look at all those pictures of you dancing in the club or look how happy you look with her. Look at the car you drive. Look at the shape you're in. But these all are aggressively temporal states of being. Perhaps Facebook is our way of documenting all of those tiny fleeting moments of our days. We don't want to lose a thing.
Even more peculiar is the paparazzi-like infrastructure that keeps it afloat. We’re all out there snapping pictures of ourselves, friends, family, random strangers and then we post them, tag them and essentially create society pages which end up reading just like these. This is paparazzi cannibalization! We on this thing scandalizing ourselves and others. That’s kind of like Will Smith hiding out in Brad and Angelina’s bushes trying to snap a couple pics of the family. And then we’re all chimin’ in. Saying things like "Wow, you look gorgeous!" or "Seriously, he wore that out!? OMG!!!" And odds are the he who wore that out is totally unaware he’s being commented about.
READ THE REST HERE: http://trickyrelativity.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/the-facebook-universe/#more-457....
Andy Warhol is well-known for many things, but many know him solely as the peculiar white-haired man who once said that "everyone will be famous for 15 minutes." Prior to the social networking phenomenon whenever I heard that quote my mind would instantly conjure up an image of something akin to a Soviet-era bread line with all of us patiently awaiting our fifteen minutes in front of a video camera. Basically American Idol for everyone.
"Quick. Do something special. You got fifteen minutes."
But now we have Facebook and well, that changes everything. No need for a claustrophobic fifteen-minute time frame to figure out just what's special about you. With Facebook as long as you're alive you can post and boy do we love to post. With literally little hesitation we willingly put it all out there. Having issues in your relationship? We know. We've watched it play out through a series of status updates, an abrupt relationship status change and assorted other methods of broadcasting once personal tribulations. Life is good? We know. Look at all those pictures of you dancing in the club or look how happy you look with her. Look at the car you drive. Look at the shape you're in. But these all are aggressively temporal states of being. Perhaps Facebook is our way of documenting all of those tiny fleeting moments of our days. We don't want to lose a thing.
Even more peculiar is the paparazzi-like infrastructure that keeps it afloat. We’re all out there snapping pictures of ourselves, friends, family, random strangers and then we post them, tag them and essentially create society pages which end up reading just like these. This is paparazzi cannibalization! We on this thing scandalizing ourselves and others. That’s kind of like Will Smith hiding out in Brad and Angelina’s bushes trying to snap a couple pics of the family. And then we’re all chimin’ in. Saying things like "Wow, you look gorgeous!" or "Seriously, he wore that out!? OMG!!!" And odds are the he who wore that out is totally unaware he’s being commented about.
READ THE REST HERE: http://trickyrelativity.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/the-facebook-universe/#more-457....
