The Los Angeles Times seems to be preparing for Ray Bradbuy’s 90th birthday by publishing his most recent angry remarks. This one caught my eye (I love it when people pluralize “Internet”):
“We have too many cellphones. We’ve got too many Internets. We have got to get rid of those machines. We have too many machines now.”
In contrast, in my A2 English class we reviewed some of our media studies ideas by looking at an article by James Harkin, writing for The Observer, who reviews Kirkpatrick’s book chronicling Facebook’s rise in popularity. In the book, titled The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That is Connecting The World, he cites Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg’s philosophy behind his website:
For [Zuckerberg], Facebook is primarily a social movement: as he tells it, he is motivated not by money (he refuses to sell up) but by a passion for radical transparency. Sharing our data and making our lives publicly available to each other turn us, he believes, into better people.
Lastly, Peggy Orensten writes an article titled, “I Tweet, Therefore I Am,” for The New York Times, and suggests:
Each Twitter post seemed a tacit referendum on who I am, or at least who I believe myself to be.
and
The expansion of our digital universe — Second Life, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter — has shifted not only how we spend our time but also how we construct identity.
Does Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest help us weigh in on these ideas? What would Chief Bromden think about all of this? Is it all just part of the Combine? And what about Bradbury’s short story “There Will Come Soft Rains”?
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest brings up the same ideas as the disussions about Facebook do, but with a different attitude directed toward them. The idea of surveillance, conveyed through Zuckerberg’s “passion for radical transparency”, includes the positive thoughts of giving people the opportunity of sharing “the real them” with the world, as Facebook helps them do. There are however some flaws with that. Do you really share “the real you” on your online profile, or do you create the person you want to be? Does that not give your prospective friends a misguided image of you, and therefore creating a fake reality?
Bromden’s view on surrveillance does not resemble Zuckerberg’s. Being watched is one of Bromden’s biggest fears, and he feels like everything, even his medication, is keeping tabs on him. Bromden’s situation is consequently viewed as a microcosm of the “Big Brother” idea.
In my eyes, the Combine can be related to Facebook and we can be compared to Chief Bromden, as we share the same roles. The Combine is watching Bromden, and Facebook is watching us.
Facebook relates to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by the way how they both watches over what you do; patients at the ward and staff on Facebook. However, there are different reasons to why they are surveillance people. The nurses and doctors at the ward are watching over their patients because they want to see their progress in recovering whilst how Facebook is tracking you may seem rather creepy as the article could guess with up to 33% accuracy who would be in a relationship with who depending on certain events taking place. How Facebook can turn make you into a better person, i’m not very sure of, but there are many fake profiles and creepers that lurk around and may therefore disagree with how it makes a person who they are if they are creating a profile of someone other than themselves.
Bromden would be scared as he is always paranoid about everyone and everything around him is always keeping an eye out for him.
The Combine can be related to Facebook, but only in certain areas such as the surveillance and the face that it “keeps people together”, although in a different fashion.
It sounds like what you are talking about aligns closely with what Kesey describes as the “anti-cure” in his novel. I find it odd that the founder of Facebook would suggest that using his website is a moral good that will help users become better people. One could argue the same of Nurse Ratched’s Therapeutic Community sessions, which R.P. McMurphy rightfully describes instead as “a bunch of chickens at a peckin’ party.”
One can draw many similarities between Facebook and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, namely the issue of surveillance. In both cases, this surveillance is presented by the respective institutions as a helpful system or is otherwise disguised. Facebook users are particularly oblivious to the criticisms the social network has received due to its collection and management of its user’s personal information. When commenting on this, Zuckerberg refers to a radical transparency which he is trying to achieve, something he illustrates as a progressive movement. However, it can be argued that the level of surveillance that Facebook undertakes mimics totalitarian or Orwellian qualities, particularly with the addition of the belief that “Sharing our data and making our lives publicly available to each other turn us, he believes, into better people.” This is an absurd suggestion given the determined views on privacy rights in right-wing politics. In this respect, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is very similar. The MO, so to speak, of a mental institution is to carry out very thorough surveillance on all its patients and exploit this transparency to improve their mental health. In principle, this is exactly what Zuckerberg was proposing. ‘Making us better people’ is essentially a euphemism for ’sane’. We could get tangled in truly defining insanity, but the key point is that from a right-wing perspective Facebook and mental institutions have the same goal: reducing their users to a more manageable population through intrusive surveillance.
I figure Chief Bromden would agree and see Facebook as just another component of the Combine machine. He has paranoid and irrational fears over much smaller things, so surely an entity such as Facebook which practically advocates it’s tendency towards surveillance would arouse fear from Bromden. Afterall, the Combine can be seen as everything mechanical and inorganic. Throughout One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, it is not only their mechanical nature that frightens Bromden however, it is more importantly their ability to control and to dehumanize. It would probably seem to Bromden that Facebook is attempting to inventory all humans, categorize them, strip them of their identity, and dehumanize them which is one of the more common exaggerated fears of radical transparency (essentially a socialistic approach to identity).
I just read this: “New Facebook Location Feature Sparks Privacy Concerns”
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/18/new-facebook-location-feature-sparks-privacy-concerns/?hpw
Facebook can seem similar to the Combine because of the aspect of surveillance. Facebook provides its users with the option to make their information more secure towards other users, yet they do not guarantee that any of the information posted will not be viewed by their staff, or any unauthorized people. I think to Bromden Facebook is just a part of the machine, yet another feature designed to store information about its users. However, unlike the hospital Facebook is 100 percent optional. People are voluntary allowing the Facebook staff to peek into their lives. Can it really be so wrong then? Many join Facebook without really reading too much into the terms and conditions. As I stated before Facebook does not guarantee that any personal information posted will not be viewed by unauthorized individuals. The terms and conditions also state that “By using Facebook, you are consenting to have your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States…”
Another condition to using Facebook is that “Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Facebook service through the operation of the service (eg, photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience.” Facebook works at collecting together information on its users and categorizing the users into groups in order for them to make more money through product placement. The fact that this is referred to as a way to“provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience” seems like a cover up.
When posting on Facebook words must be chosen wisely. Jobs have been lost over Facebook photos and posts, because some of the higher ups at a job may have been studying there employee’s Facebook accounts. They a literally watching their employees and what they post in their free time, and if it’s not acceptable behavior they may lose their job. It’s not just the Facebook staff watching over their users, but also the people around them, the people they without thinking of the consequences agree to befriend. The problem is people are too relaxed when they go on Facebook. They sometimes forget their actions can have consequences. They forget that the Big Brother is watching them, because they are in the security of their home.
Facebook is a part of the machine, but because it’s all optional people need to take responsibility for what they do. People agree to the terms and conditions and willingly post out information. People sometimes need to be a little bit paranoid like Bromden in order to protect themselves. Most of us have a Facebook account and don’t look too much into what we do on it; Bromden, however would probably stay far away from Facebook.
Facebook can be compared to the hospital in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in certain aspects. The idea of the Combine is to meet the psychological needs of its patients through various treatments, Facebook is similar in the sense that it meets their needs but on a social basis. The constant surveillance in the ward over the patients and the surveillance the Facebook staff have over its users is another similarity. The difference is that we are aware of what we are getting ourselves into and we have an option. We agree to licensed terms of agreement which eventually allows us to upload our lives to the internet. The example we discussed in class as Mr. Li mentioned earlier where the creator of Facebook conducted “experiments” and was able to predict who would be in a relationship with roughly a 33% accuracy is quite impressive and slightly frightening. This was just based on him lurking around and accumulating various pieces of information that were available to him through his friends profiles.
Cheif Bromden i am sure would disagree with the concept of Facebook as an easier, faster, and more convenient way for people to stay in touch. He would assume it is a way for the authoritative figures like the nurses in the ward (in this case it would be the staff of Facebook) to intrude your privacy, control you, and monitor your behavior similar to Big Brother.
It is up to us to choose what we write on Facebook and brings me to my next point about how honest we actually are when we upload pictures of ourselves, or write on a friends wall. You could completely disguise your personality when you make an account on Facebook when you upload pictures or just by adding new friends. It is a way for people to interact with each other and meet others through a vast network of people, it is a place where you can manipulate others to perceive you as someone else or vice versa.