Facebook’s early draw was an augmented self-image, not social connection

Evidence

These early reports touch upon the effect that would always represent Facebook’s apologia pro vita sua: it was bringing people together. In truth, however, what Facebook was offering users was not a fuller and more ordered “social” life but something even more alluring: an augmented representation of themselves. Not as they were, exactly, but at their contrived best, with hundreds of friends (before success became equated with thousands) and others still in queue awaiting “approval.” It is useful to recall what limited functionality the site had when it started tempting thousands of students to spend hours playing with it. There were no messages, no pokes—no forms of social interaction but the invitation to be friends. Apart from stalking others on the network, there was nothing to do there except refine one’s own profile, reconsider one’s photograph, and marvel at one’s own numerically and geographically determined social cachet. The profile was really the attentional bait, the pool into which untold undergraduate Narcissi were staring while they ditched class. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 995

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s work on attention harvesting—the profile as ‘attentional bait’ is the platform model in miniature. — connects to: Facebook cultivated the self-as-brand among ordinary individuals — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1004; Facebook’s curated self-presentation created a misleading realm of unreality — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1013; Facebook exploits the psychological needs of young people during identity formation. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1421 (+5 more)
• SEED: The self-branding insight—platforms sell an augmented self (curated number of friends as status metric)—could seed an essay on how social media turned identity into a competitive attention commodity.

Broader Connections

• Facebook cultivated the self-as-brand among ordinary individuals #corroborates (0.90) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1004
• Social media reframed self-identity as a personal brand selling attention #corroborates (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1031
• Facebook’s curated self-presentation created a misleading realm of unreality #expands (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1013
• Social media turned attention capture into mutual self-display at unprecedented scale #expands (0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1062
• Social media does not transmit identity but requires its continuous self-production. #expands (0.80) — , The Braided Reading EPUB, 1463
• Facebook exploits the psychological needs of young people during identity formation. #expands (0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1421
• Social media flattening makes the self easier to confuse with someone else’s #expands (0.75) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 129
• Facebook builds fabricated social realities that normalize surveillance as interaction. #expands (0.70) — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 348