We Are Not Facebook

You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are not your Facebook page or other online social site personality either.

This is the real world, not the virtual. Here problems and personal feelings exist, but in the realms of social networking they are hidden away in favor of positive ‘likes’ and personality puffery.

In her article ‘Generation Why?’, journalist Zadie Smith attempts to separate the idealistic world of who she deems ‘2.0 people’, and those grounded in reality which she refers to as ‘1.0 people’.

“We have different ideas about things,” Smith said. “Specifically we have different ideas about what a person is, or should be”.

Society 2.0 

Today’s 2.0 people are beginning to replace and confuse their online identity with the living breathing individual they are.

Facebook does not allow a user to ‘dislike’ items, but encourages users to rate items only within the context of corporate chosen predefined answers. If your personal answer to a question or idea is not within their range of socially appropriate answers, the user must redefine their whole thought structure on the matter to condense complex thoughts and opinions to a mere one-word choice.

“People reduce themselves in order to make a computer’s description of them appear more accurate,” Smith said.

Facebook Privacy Issues

Facebook's privacy policy has cause a ruckus in the news recently, but the majority of users seem unaffected by the change in policy and how their personal information is accessed by hundreds of others. This is mainly due to the unaware user clicking a small check box that is only seen as an impediment to their online clique, rather than as a harbinger of reduced privacy.

In order to mesh with the rest of the online society, individual users adhere to foundations and guidelines set by others to feel a virtual sense of belonging. 

Advertising Extravaganza

The individual is being willingly homogenized into a faceless whole that advertisers see as a vast money pit opportunity.

Like cattle ranchers and goat herders, advertising hands are beginning to corral individuals into groups based on the information they willingly post to their online profiles. Like sheep lead to a slaughter, these online social groups are none the wiser because they have been blinded by the idea of social acceptance.

This is the same sense of belonging felt when we engage in group activities in the real world, but the virtual experience marginalizes the connection of individuals to a mere click of a button.

Social Connection

“Connection is the goal,” Smith said. “The quality of that connection, the quality of information that passes through it, the quality of the relationship that connection permits – none of this is important”.

Facebook users will continue to use the site as a way to keep in touch with out of town friends and relatives, even though email and instant messaging still exist, but these relationships will soon become superficial to the whole Facebook experience of online personality forgery.

Superficial opinions and ideas lead to superficial individuals, and superficial people lead to a superficial society. Absolute superficiality corrupts absolutely.

SA Spurs Mouthpiece Talks

He shoots. He scores.

Bill Schoening, the mouthpiece of San Antonio Spurs basketball, made a slam dunk of a presentation to media broadcast students at Texas State University last week during Mass Communication Week.

Schoening discussed the relevance radio broadcasting still holds in a sports entertainment market saturated with higher technology mediums such as web and television. 

“You still cant watch TV in the car or in the shower, but you can sure listen to radio,” Schoening said.

Sports broadcasting normally consists of a team of commentators designed to provide play by play analysis, and a small amount of color commentary to lighten the production. Color commentary is usually provided by an ex-player or coach who knows the game from an inside level, and has turned to a post career in broadcasting. This dual system is often the focus of criticism for broadcasts where the wrong mix of personalities can hamper the effectiveness of covering sport event action. 

“I remember when comedian Dennis Miller provided color commentary for Monday Night Football television broadcasts,” sports fanatic Lee Michelson recalled. “He sounded dumbfounded and lost in a sport he seemed to know very little about, which made me change the channel many times.”

Schoening does not follow contemporary formats and prefers to tackle his broadcasting duties solo. Working alone enables him to provide a constant flow of information to the radio listener while not being interrupted by an opinion or frivolous statistic. 

“In television the analyst is the feature guy because he provides play by play commentary that is accentuated by what the color commentator sees, but in radio I don’t need that extra color because listeners don’t actually see the game,” Schoening said.

While many newer technology savvy sports fans will ignore sport radio broadcasts in favor of diluted and less lively commentating, radio still holds a market share of listeners and sports fans that advertisers want to target. Many people still listen to sports radio when they don’t have the amenities of home.

“Radio is an on-the-go medium that will never die due to its free and easy accessibility options,” Texas State alumnus James Wilson said.

With the regular NBA season in full swing this week, Schoening has 82 games that will require the verbal expertise and flair that his 30 plus years of sports broadcasting brings to the Spurs basketball organization.  

“Let the game dictate the broadcast,” Schoening said as he offered students a last piece of professional advice. 

Schoening has been with the team for seven years, and remains confident that he will continue his radio reign of bringing live play by play action to Spurs fans across the nation for many seasons and championships to come.

He shoots. He scores again.