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Why I'm quitting Facebook
CNN ^ | 02/25/2013 | Douglas Rushkoff, CNN

Posted on 02/25/2013 1:45:29 PM PST by Responsibility2nd

Editor's note: Editor's note: Douglas Rushkoff writes a regular column for CNN.com. He is a media theorist and the author of the upcoming book "Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now."

(CNN) -- I used to be able to justify using Facebook as a cost of doing business. As a writer and sometime activist who needs to promote my books and articles and occasionally rally people to one cause or another, I found Facebook fast and convenient. Though I never really used it to socialize, I figured it was OK to let other people do that, and I benefited from their behavior.

I can no longer justify this arrangement.

Today, I am surrendering my Facebook account, because my participation on the site is simply too inconsistent with the values I espouse in my work. In my upcoming book "Present Shock," I chronicle some of what happens when we can no longer manage our many online presences. I have always argued for engaging with technology as conscious human beings and dispensing with technologies that take that agency away.

Facebook is just such a technology. It does things on our behalf when we're not even there. It actively misrepresents us to our friends, and worse misrepresents those who have befriended us to still others. To enable this dysfunctional situation -- I call it "digiphrenia" -- would be at the very least hypocritical. But to participate on Facebook as an author, in a way specifically intended to draw out the "likes" and resulting vulnerability of others, is untenable.

Facebook has never been merely a social platform. Rather, it exploits our social interactions the way a Tupperware party does.

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Music/Entertainment; Society
KEYWORDS: facebook; facebookisthedevil; opus
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Also FTA:

Facebook does not exist to help us make friends, but to turn our network of connections, brand preferences and activities over time -- our "social graphs" -- into money for others.

1 posted on 02/25/2013 1:45:38 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: Responsibility2nd

It’s like the Mob - you can never leave.

Ever.


2 posted on 02/25/2013 1:47:17 PM PST by fwdude ( You cannot compromise with that which you must defeat.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Facebook is cool because it lets me be a butthole with a whole new set of rules and variables.

This fact may not be of value to everyone.


3 posted on 02/25/2013 1:49:49 PM PST by humblegunner
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To: Responsibility2nd

I bet this CNN guy got pawned on Facebook by conservatives


4 posted on 02/25/2013 1:52:43 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: humblegunner

Ahhhh, but to us FReepers... You’ll always be our Number One butthole.

Now THAT adds value.


5 posted on 02/25/2013 1:52:50 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: Responsibility2nd

And to supply raw data to be digested by Identity Thieves.


6 posted on 02/25/2013 1:53:56 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: humblegunner

You would love twitter.

Instant butthole


7 posted on 02/25/2013 1:55:02 PM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
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To: Responsibility2nd

to the writer of this filth....You won’t be missed. Never knew you to begin with. Glad to rid of you. I enjoy Facebook enough to keep with it. Talk about a quiter. I guess that motto, “When the going gets tough....”


8 posted on 02/25/2013 1:55:09 PM PST by napscoordinator
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To: GeronL

I like how this article shills his new upcoming book.

And if he quits FB, how will he ever use that media to shill said new upcoming book??

Exploitation works both ways, ya know.


9 posted on 02/25/2013 1:55:18 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: cripplecreek

I just got a tweet from #Instantbutthole.

Humble, is that you?


10 posted on 02/25/2013 1:57:31 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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To: Responsibility2nd

I hope Mr. Rushkoff realizes that you can give up your FB account, but FB owns all your stuff forever.

Facebook: Face of Evil.


11 posted on 02/25/2013 1:58:22 PM PST by upchuck (nobama fact #69: For each job created by the nobama administration, 75 people went on food stamps.)
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To: GeronL

I would say you are correct.
He did not get the pandering and boot licking he thought he deserved.......so whaaa whaaa whaaa he is going home.


12 posted on 02/25/2013 2:00:52 PM PST by svcw (Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)
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To: editor-surveyor

What raw data?


13 posted on 02/25/2013 2:03:43 PM PST by svcw (Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Guess some people just can’t be bothered to find out how to disallow certain unwanted actions by turning off/opting-out various functions; or to read instructions & learn to use their technology properly.

Kind of like the idiot blocking a single-lane road that my brother had to help in the snow. Idjit had 4WD, snow tires & chains on all four, but digging holes in the rear while the fronts did nothing: “What do you mean by ‘I have to engage the front differential for the 4WD to work?’”


14 posted on 02/25/2013 2:06:04 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (Love me, love my guns!©)
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To: Responsibility2nd

reminds me of disgruntled former Freepers that write a long whiny posting why they are quitting.


15 posted on 02/25/2013 2:14:09 PM PST by MNDude (Guns don't kill people, Democrats kill people)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Not sure what this guy is talking about. You can control your image on facebook by deciding what you do or do not decide to post. Just dont post to blogs using your facebook identity. Some like CBS marketplace require an identity like facebook and do not allow anonymous posting. Just ignore those.


16 posted on 02/25/2013 2:15:22 PM PST by plain talk
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To: humblegunner
"Facebook is cool because it lets me be a butthole with a whole new set of rules and variables.

This fact may not be of value to everyone."

___________________________________________

Like the heckling at https://www.facebook.com/barackobama ?!!

It was hilarious last night -- "Yeah, I tried to buy an ar-15 at the gunshow but they wouldn't sell to me, I was gonna show the teabaggers how easy it is, what gives with this, man?" and people going back and forth on that.

It was funnier last night before I came across this obamanation.

17 posted on 02/25/2013 2:16:14 PM PST by cyn (Benghazi...the travesty continues.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Not sure what this guy is talking about. You can control your image on facebook by deciding what you do or do not decide to post. Just dont post to blogs using your facebook identity. Some like CBS marketplace require an identity like facebook and do not allow anonymous posting. Just ignore those.


18 posted on 02/25/2013 2:17:37 PM PST by plain talk
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To: svcw

The data obviously vary from sucker to sucker, but basically family relationships, and locations that provide answers to security questions asked by financial institutions.

That is what facebook is made for.


19 posted on 02/25/2013 2:22:44 PM PST by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Responsibility2nd

FaceBook is inhabited by liberals who accuse you of being a hateful person if you politely disagree with them. GET OFF OF IT!


20 posted on 02/25/2013 2:24:02 PM PST by kitkat (STORM THE HEAVENS WITH PRAYERS FOR OUR COUNTRY)
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