Jeff Jarvis, a media pundit, visionary, and advocate of hyperlocal, has come out with a brand new book and a new word. Publicness, which he defines as “the act or condition of sharing information, thoughts, or actions” is the subject of “Public Parts,” just out from Simon & Schuster, which argues that sharing information in the digital age is mostly a good thing.
It’s a tricky balance, as he acknowledges, in a culture that disdains show-offs but fawns on celebrities.
East of Hollywood, most Americans were brought up with a social stigma against being too public: Don’t be a show-off, a braggart, a narcissist, an exhibitionist. Don’t draw too much attention to yourself. Don’t set yourself up for a fall. That varies from culture to culture, of course. As an American, I’m well accustomed to pubic displays of affluence, affection, accomplishment, opinions, taste, cars, and Christmas lights. But even as an American, I was raised not to poke my head up too quickly. Then again, fame is our culture’s drug of choice.
Jarvis’s book — celebrated last night at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism — comes perfectly timed for controversy. Just yesterday, CNN published an article, “You’ll freak when you see the new Facebook,” already recommended more than 45,000 times, which says that Facebook is rolling out a new user timeline that might be a lot more intimate than what you thought you bargained for. Says writer Pete Cashmore:
While a typical social networking profile might highlight what you ate this morning, or what time you left for work, or where you had lunch, Facebook Timeline takes these thousands of seemingly inconsequential events, discards the irrelevant ones, finds the most emotive, the most visual, the most striking and emotionally touching moments and pulls them into sharp focus.
“And you’ll realize, as I did,” Cashmore said, “that Facebook knows you better than you know yourself.
Sounds scary to me. But @jeffjarvis reassures: “there’s always a fuss at fb change followed by growth.”
Tell us, do you think privacy is overrated? Or is it time for its return? And are you afraid of the new Facebook Timeline? Also, which social networks do you use: Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Linked In?
I am assuming, correct me if I am wrong, that you can delete posts you don’t want. (Providing they are your posts and not others’). I’m not afraid of it, no. I’m just annoyed that Facebook just rolls out these changes but doesn’t give you a clue how to use them. It’s trial by fire. Re: the latest changes. I am still sorting out which friends’ statuses I want to subscribe to. It becomes time-consuming if you have a lot of friends. And no, I don’t care for the distracting ticker on the right side of the page. What purpose does it serve?
But, I realize that it’s a free service (all those rumors about FB planning to charge for usage are just that, rumors) so I really don’t have a leg on which to stand.
As for what I use…right now it’s just Facebook. I have Twitter and Google+ accounts but I don’t see the point of having all these accounts. Facebook works for me. LinkedIn is just for professional use, I don’t use it to socialize.
What is that device he is holding in his hand? Looks like some ancient scribing tool.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15069858
You can run but you can’t hide anymore.
I’m with you MM. it really ticks me off when free services don’t consider their customers enough.
Has anyone read the fine print on the apps they download onto iphone, droid, etc? There is a reason the apps are free, you’re basically agreeing to share all of the information on your phone, ie. contacts, calls, location, etc.
FB users are not customers, they are suppliers. The customers are the companies that pay FB for the information that users supply. Same with Google and many others.