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Daniel Pocok blogs about the misguided picture that most people have over social media. These web sites turn out to be an effective means to monitor and control the population. One key point he makes is that the public ignores the ease with which social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, facilitate the effective kettling and surveillance of activists, campaigners, and other groups. He writes:
Facebook helps kettle activists in their arm chair. The police state can gather far more data about them, while their impact is even more muted than if they ventured out of their home.
And further down he asks,
Is somebody who takes pictures of you and insists on sharing them with hundreds of people, tagging your face for the benefit of biometric profiling systems, really a friend?
The addictive nature of these so-called services combined with the network effect make it really hard for people to escape, but the negative aspects really suggest that they should make the effort.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 03 2017, @12:44PM (5 children)
He's making a very generous assumption that said activists would have gotten out of their arm chairs otherwise. I think that is not just in error, but a purely imaginary concern. Anyone that obsessed over Facebook wasn't ever going to get out much. This otherwise reads like a typical more-sophisticated-than-thou screed for which it clearly has a lot of benefit. We don't have enough people telling us that they are smarter. \sarc
As to surveillance, most groups just aren't going to be hard for the surveillance apparatus to investigate, with or without Facebook. Surveillance isn't control. Sure, Big Brother needs surveillance in order to control you, but they need a lot more than that. In contrast, my view is that the ease of organizing groups via these sites more than counters the slightly easier surveillance environment.
(Score: 3, Informative) by tangomargarine on Monday July 03 2017, @02:47PM (1 child)
For those of us not familiar with random British slang :P
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday July 03 2017, @08:59PM
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kettling only points to a recent US source.
As a Brit - you can have it, I have several words for corralling and otherwise containing, I don't need any more.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 03 2017, @05:25PM (1 child)
Well, that can be annoying, since being more intelligent than the vast majority of people is not very impressive at all given that it's an extremely low bar. When morons blindly allow themselves to be used by massive surveillance engines like Facebook and don't care about the implications this has, it's difficult to think of them as anything more than garbage.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday July 03 2017, @08:13PM
The problem is that the garbage acts unintentionally like an extension for the surveillance apparatus. So they do need to be contained and shunned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 03 2017, @06:48PM
http://www.milkthefunk.com/wiki/Wort_Souring [milkthefunk.com]