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People are talking about visual customization, but the article is mostly talking about how Facebook forces you to conform to social definitions of yourself by g

People are talking about visual customization, but the article is mostly talking about how Facebook forces you to conform to social definitions of yourself by giving you checkboxes for gender, language, forced spellings of particular concepts, etc. Foucault talked about (I don't remember where) how technology isn't neutral, its expressive power is limited by the nature of systematization. and as technology takes more of a role in daily life, people are forced to conform to whatever limited system was thrown up that you have to interact with to get government services or buy groceries. Your life is complicated but the form gives you four options because a computer can't process your freeform answer. The article explores how Facebook does this, admits more or less to the technical and business reasons that underlie this, but then goes ahead and blames white males anyway. Three years later Facebook has far more options for languages and genders and naming, which is still limiting, but blows apart the hegemonic white cis male attitude argument and all you're left with is what Foucault observed. I don't think you can lump together technical reasons, business reasons and racial/gender hegemony reasons anyway, but these claims have currency with some people whether or not the argument for it is defensible.

mrxd 12y ago
Lacan argues that this perception, that there is an inexpressible, ineffable something which can't be captured by a limited conceptual system, is itself a product of that system. The male/female binary scheme produces the experience of being more than simply one or the other. From this perspective, the best way to support a diversity of self-definitions is by providing fewer options, not more. Facebook only lets you make one kind of connection to other people, the "Friend". As a result, two people being Facebook Friends has many different possible interpretations. No one believes it means you are friends.

mrxd 12y ago

Lacan argues that this perception, that there is an inexpressible, ineffable something which can't be captured by a limited conceptual system, is itself a product of that system. The male/female binary scheme produces the experience of being more than simply one or the other. From this perspective, the best way to support a diversity of self-definitions is by providing fewer options, not more. Facebook only lets you make one kind of connection to other people, the "Friend". As a result, two people being Facebook Friends has many different possible interpretations. No one believes it means you are friends.