Facebook’s curated self-presentation created a misleading realm of unreality

Evidence

Facebook had supposedly replaced cyberspace with something more “real,” but what it created in fact was just another realm of unreality, one that, on account of looking real, was more misleading. Here was a place where friends always congratulated and celebrated; where couples did little but eat at nice restaurants, go on vacation, or announce engagements or newborns; and where children never cried or needed diaper changes or hit each other. On Facebook, all happy families were alike; the others may have each been unhappy in their own way, but they were not on Facebook. Of course, all human communication is slightly inauthentic, but in person or even on the telephone there are limits to our dissimulations. The sugared-cookie-cutter self-styling enabled by Facebook made America seem a Lake Wobegon online. In retrospect, the 1950s looked dark and angst-ridden by comparison. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1013

Categorization

• XREF: Pairs with the earlier attention-economy chapters on how platforms shape self-presentation and with Goffman’s dramaturgical self; also resonates with DeLillo’s White Noise on mediated happy surfaces. — connects to: Facebook’s routine behavioral manipulation made its research experiment appear legally unremarkable. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 949; Facebook’s early draw was an augmented self-image, not social connection — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 995; Facebook cultivated the self-as-brand among ordinary individuals — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1004 (+8 more)
• SEED: A history-of-curation essay: how each social platform’s design constraints shape what version of the self users perform, from MySpace to Instagram.

Broader Connections

• Facebook cultivated the self-as-brand among ordinary individuals #expands (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1004
• Showing oneself as a self online begins the manufacturing of the self as commodity #expands (0.85) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 61
• Lifestreaming is a crafted self-presentation rather than transparent self-disclosure #corroborates (0.82) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 638
• Online self-presentation expresses a neoliberal subjectivity applying market principles to identity #expands (0.80) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 25
• Social media self-presentation is a technology of self-governance under neoliberal capitalism. #expands (0.78)
• Facebook exploits the psychological needs of young people during identity formation. #expands (0.72) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1421
• Viewing others’ highlight reels on Facebook measurably degraded users’ mood and sense of meaning #complicates (0.72) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1012
• Personalized internet feeds destroyed shared common knowledge and split the public into oppositional realities #expands (0.70)