Time's Person of the Year and no, it's not YOU

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/25/generation-why/?pagination=false

When a human being becomes a set of data on a website like Facebook, he or she is reduced. Everything shrinks. Individual character. Friendships. Language. Sensibility.

 

It's an odd choice. They kind of covered the facebook thing with You. The only reason I think he gets it this year is a) the movie or b) the editor finally launched a facebook account and thought WOW! this thing is really great!
Although maybe they gave it to Zuckerberg because of the "impacted America for better or for worse" clause in the award's guidelines.

 

In a sense, the subject line of this thread is as inaccurate as it is accurate.

 

Don't reject it. But please use it responsibly. Hard to do without editors and the need to be immediate. And there's the rub.

 

That's a highly subjective opinion.

Here's this sentence that could only have appeared in the NYReview of Books:

In The Social Network Generation Facebook gets a movie almost worthy of them, and this fact, being so unexpected, makes the film feel more delightful than it probably, objectively, is.

 

I had the same thought after I posted it. Good grab, J.D.

 

Reminds me of the print mantra, regarding the broadcast "enemy"

"They get it First!!! But WE get it RIGHT!!!!!!!!!"

Reporters can be responsible with whatever tools they have available to them. It's up to the individual reporter to not have his or her head in their ass.

 

Agreed, but it gets at the heart of something that I think bothers me about Facebook, in particular. The idea that all of us can be neatly configured into Facebook's template. I think someone on Slate at one point called it a "flattening of personality." I feel like I'm more than that. I feel like Facebook can't do me - or anybody else - justice. Not saying Facebook makes that claim. But I think a lot of people use it as a mechanism to express who they are.

The other day, a friend of mine was frustrated because the guy she just started dating was not on Facebook. She actually had to put in the effort to get to know all the little details about him.

We do lose some of that with Facebook. But life is full of tradeoffs, I guess.

 

One other thought. I think awards like this ARE tougher to call simply because our media landscape has become so fractured. When 90 percent of Americans were getting their news and info from the three networks and the NYT, AP and WashPo, there was some "consensus" on what was important because there weren't other outlets to say otherwise.
And oddly enough, Facebook, with its abillity to allow people to "filter" their own reality has played a big part in that.

 

What's my favorite sports section? I'm dying to know so I can begin reading it.

 

I have four HDTV's in my house so I would say your premise is false.

 

Nah, we're the new "I don't have a cell phone guy."

And I love my cell phone, and I text more than I talk, and can't understand how anyone can function without one.

But this FaceBook thing ... I don't know that it'll ever really develop beyond just a fad.