In our discussion of the internet there is at least one website that seems to wholeheartedly support Dreyfus’ claims: facebook. I’m against virtually everything Dreyfus has to say, but it’s hard to not see the blatant support in websites like facebook.
The problems Dreyfus would see (and probably does) with facebook are numerous: by spending time on facebook, you’re no longer contributing to the world around you. You’re practically anonymous, in a list you’ll look the exact same as every other facebook user. There is absolutely no sense of risk, people can do and say whatever they want (and they do). And one point I don’t believe he specifically mentioned but is key to the internet’s support of nihilism, is the dangers of facebook groups to individuality.
When I first came across the facebook group “I Will Go Slightly Out of My Way to Step on that Crunchy-Looking Leaf”, I was overjoyed. I thought I was the only one! However, the problem is that soon it seems that for every quirk, there will be a group. It isn’t at all unreasonable to think of facebook groups called things like “I Set My Alarm Clock to 7:01 because 7:00 is Evil” or “I Turn Salad Dressing Bottles Upside-Down in Grocery Stores” (though there is one called “Squeeze Bottle Booger Haters”, which isn’t surprising) or “I Often Forget and wear my slippers to class.” After awhile, everything quirky you do sounds like a facebook group. The problem, as mentioned, is that there’s a chance that someday ALL of your idiosyncrasies will be shared with 10,000 other people which not only makes them no longer special, but even banal. “Oh yeah, I like folding origami with post it notes, I joined six facebook groups about it the other day.” (well, there aren’t any post it note origami groups yet, but I’m sure there will be soon). What’s more is that there are not only facebook groups that suck out individuality, but there are offshoot groups that seem to iron out every particular aspect of an idiosyncrasy. From a cursory facebook search, there are offshoot groups from the crunchy leaf one not only in the same vein like “I’d go slightly out of my way to step on that crunchy looking pinecone,” “I make a conscious effort to step on crunchy leaves,” and “forget that crunchy-looking leaf, I’m going for the acorn!” but expressing regret, like “Stepping on those Crunchy-Looking Leaves Brighten My Day.” “I hate it when the crunchy-looking leaf isn’t crunchy” or “if I step on a leaf that looks crunchy but isn’t crunchy, I get sad.” There are even reactionary groups like “I don’t give a shit about crunchy-looking leaves” and “I’m not willing to step on crunchy-looking leaf.” Apparently now the whole “crunchy-looking leaf” thing has turned into a minor facebook phenomenon; there are 30+ groups specifically involving crunchy-looking anything now, including faces, squirrels, ice, and beer bottles. More over, there is a group (albeit with only three members) called “umm yess… I am in three or more groups about crunchy leaves on facebook.”
Now the threat to individuality is so severe here, you can’t even think about leaves in the first place because there are facebook groups specifying everything from leaves right in front of you to going “significantly” out of the way to step on leaves, to not stepping on crunchy leaves even directly in your path to preferring pinecones or other flora, and then having a significant emotional reaction to falsely-crunchy leaves. If you’d previously thought about any minute aspect of this particular scenario—which is only even applicable when there are leaves around, say fall—it’s no longer a trait unique to you.
Though there are all sorts of things counter-balancing this particular loss of individuality—your friends will know more of your habits that you could ever name—it’s still hard to grasp how much the internet has really invaded all parts of our lives sometimes. This has become frighteningly even more true, as when finishing this post (which I wrote single spaced, so that I could double-space it at the end and feel like I did more) I came across the facebook group: Writing Papers Single Spaced First Makes My Double Spaced Result Climactic.
Daniel Estrada | 18-Apr-07 at 2:28 pm | Permalink
Excellent post.
Dreyfus doesn’t talk about individuality directly, though he does quote Kierkegaard as saying that the public represents a great leveling, which is related to the issues you discuss. When everyone is put on an equal plane, then no characteristics (no matter how unique) are particularly special or significant.
There is a sense in which these Facebook groups aren’t depriving you of uniqueness, since I doubt there is anyone who is members of all and only those groups to which you are a member. Furthermore, not everyone is a member of the crunchy-leaf group, so there is still room to distinguish you from the rest of the public. Maybe that’s not enough, and maybe it implies your life is rather banal, but it is something.
In any case, I have a question. You seem disheartened by the idea that the Internet reveals how similar so many people are, as if it is a bad thing to find out that people are like you. But why do you think this is bad? One might disagree with Dreyfus by pointing out that Internet communities are not isolating and leveling, but show us just how much we have in common with others, and this is really the source of community involvement. When people think they are unique, this might cause feelings of isolation and loneliness; the Internet allows these people, who would otherwise have no contact, to get together. It allows people to form a community- and these communities might come at the expense of individuality, but thus always with community. The benefits that people get from ‘fitting in’ with others of similar tastes and interests outweigh whatever is important about uniqueness.
I have lots of examples I can use, but I’d like to hear your response first.
Sam Mowry | 18-Apr-07 at 3:34 pm | Permalink
You can feel a sense of community from belonging to more broad groups, like groups about your favorite tv show or book or sports team, etc. I think its when it gets down into more individual things like crunchy leaves on the sidewalk and your feelings about them that it gets closer to threatening individuality.
You say how people feeling unique might cause feelings of loneliness, which is true, but the unique feelings specifically relevant to facebook groups aren’t generally the kind that eat away at you. The internet is great if you want to find an anonymous support group because you feel left out, or something like that, but finding out there’s a facebook group dedicated to people typing single-space so that we can double space it later (which was really ironic that I found right as I was about to double space myself) seems more like that’s not something special about me anymore (not that it specifically was, but for the sake of example).
I think there are lots of examples of communities helping people that outweigh the loss of individuality, but they still don’t necessarily counteract the loss the tiny little preferences that make us exactly who we are.
Angela Kinsella | 18-Apr-07 at 9:04 pm | Permalink
I completely agree with the fact that facebook does partly take away individuality, but it is also completely voluntary. I am not a member of many groups just because I don’t see the point in being in them. The groups that actually get together and do something is a different story but I am in only a few groups that are actually just because I like a certain thing. It also makes me think about the information that people are putting out there. Are the people joining these groups because they want others to think they are cool or to be a part of something that really has meaning to them? Because I would hope people in a crunchy leaf group aren’t that obsessed with the activity that they need a support group to meet with and discuss their problems with. I’m not sure if this post even makes sense, but all I am saying is that those kinds of groups serve no larger purpose except to say that you are in them and get a good laugh out of the people you tell. Individuality is compromised but not really in a way that matters (because, after all, it’s just leaves…..not some greater cause or hobby)
Sam Mowry | 19-Apr-07 at 6:52 am | Permalink
“because, after all, its just leaves…..not some greater cause or hobby”
But the important thing is that it is leaves. You expect to be embraced into a community if you are affected by certain things or if you spend your free time doing x. It’s the little nit-picky things, like stepping on leaves as you walk to class, that you make you the individual that you are. When there are whole groups (30+, in various take-offs) dedicated to each nuance of something you thought made you special, its not very special anymore. And that’s a way that matters alot.
Erin Murphy | 19-Apr-07 at 10:24 pm | Permalink
I think it’s just nice to know sometimes that other people do the same things you do that you thought was weird. It’s a sense of community… let’s all be quirky together!
But I think those groups are created and joined because they sound funny and full of personality. I, for instance, switched from “Catholics at U of I” to “We’re Not Crazy, We’re Just Catholic.” (Well, not just because of the name. They had a funny “you know you’re Catholic when….” list and a more active message board, but you get the picture.)
But after awhile, those groups stop being funny and become cliche. That’s why no one but first-timers join the Derek Zoolander for Kids Who Want To Read Good group anymore.
Andrea Fish | 25-Apr-07 at 5:46 pm | Permalink
First of all, I don’t go out of my way to step on a crunchy looking leaf. But I still do go on spurts of not stepping on any cracks, because I don’t want to break my mamas back. Facebook groups are funny, and when you find one you can relate to you join it with the hopes that one of your friends will look at it and think your that much more original or quirky, or whatever persona you want to portray to them over your page. I can see how it can take away from a persons individuality, but you have to ask yourself why that person made the group in the first place, maybe to find others to relate to?
Sam Mowry | 26-Apr-07 at 7:00 am | Permalink
To Erin- It’s that the groups become cliché that’s the problem. What if all the little groups, like stepping on crunchy leaves, etc, become cliché? I’m not really expecting that to happen, personally, but it’s the danger of these huge social “groups” where you never meet any of the people in them, yet you’re no longer an individual because of them.
Sam Mowry | 26-Apr-07 at 7:29 am | Permalink
To Andrea- I like your comment a lot. It made me think. I hadn’t really given any thought to the people creating groups, just that there were groups created (and thus they destroy individuality, blah, blah, etc). In the description for the group I walk in a way so that I don’t step on the creases between sidewalk panels, the creator says something like Join me so I don’t feel lonely. It’s to know how seriously to take people like that—I’m assuming that this person won’t commit suicide if no one joins the group, but in the same sense maybe they actually are seeking people who do the same thing. I think that one group in a vein like that is probably ok and can be written off with loneliness, finding like people, etc, but that when you get all 30+ crunchy leaves (or whatever) groups, that’s when individuality starts to drop.
Erica Yuenger | 26-Apr-07 at 10:15 pm | Permalink
I thought it was interesting that you said how hard it is to grasp that the internet is invading all parts of our lives. We talked in class today about the lack of privacy on the internet, and how there is a generation gap between our generation and our parents’ generation in this regard. But really, the internet didn’t invade our lives; it just provided a means for people to display their whole lives for numerous amounts of people. We are in complete control of what kind of information is available about ourselves through Facebook and MySpace. In class it was brought up that even if you don’t put up pictures of yourself drinking, someone else could put them up. Simple solution-untag them. It may seem that there is a huge lack of privacy on the internet, but people do not have to put things up that they do not want others to see.