Facebook as Post-Modern Colonialism

by jennpalf

In class today we discussed the concept of Facebook maintaining a particular bourgeois, Western cultural standard through the discretion of its algorithms. As technological beings, we allow Facebook to filter through our online history, presence, and given information, establishing a norm for what we are permitted to post and what is displayed to us in our newsfeed. This seems to inevitably involve capitalist-oriented subject matter that appeals and caters to our consumer society and general identities. With this in mind, I have come to view Facebook as a form of post-modern colonialism by way of widespread and inescapable technological conveniency and invasiveness; thus substantiating (predominantly) American cultural norms.

In his TED Talk “Filter Bubbles,” Eli Pariser speaks of his ideological thoughts concerning the origins of the Internet; believing that the World Wide Web would help to promote democracy through the spread of differing worldviews along an easily accessible flow of information. However, Facebook and Google have evolved to accommodate individuals’ sole interests; moving us toward an online existence where the Internet shows us what we desire to see, but not what we should be seeing in order to promote the differentiation and expansion of our broader knowledge. Personalized filters look at our search history, with the algorithms curating accordingly, ultimately throwing off our “balanced information diet” (an expression that I think is brilliant and will most definitely continue to use).

Pariser asserts that a functioning democracy cannot work without an ethical flow of information that challenges the dominant and oppressive voice(s) in society. The Internet has created a puddle of cyclical information in place of an ocean of new and progressive knowledge. Instead of furthering rigid Western cultural norms, Facebook should act as a form of exigence that promulgates a civic responsibility to open-mindedness and global cultural competency through the subject matter that they exhibit to their users.