Zygmunt Bauman: Facebook And The Pitfalls Of Social Media

Zygmunt Bauman is a Polish sociologist who gained fame and recognition thanks to one of his works, Liquid Modernity. In it, he denounces that postmodernity brought with it the collapse of “the solid”. There is no solidity in anything. Everything is temporary, temporary and mutant.

Zygmunt Bauman’s youth was not without its difficulties. He had to flee his own country, persecuted by the Nazi regime. He finally managed to establish himself in Israel and since the 1970s he began to surprise the world with his theses. This has earned him several highly relevant awards, such as the “Prince of Asturias” in 2010.

Zygmunt Bauman has analyzed the contemporary world in a stark way. One of the topics that has occupied his most recent reflections is the Internet and social networks. He does not see great virtues in them. Rather he defines them as contemporary traps, in which people fall and feel happy about it.

Zygmunt Bauman and Facebook

One of Zygmunt Bauman’s phrases powerfully catches our attention. It reads as follows: ” Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has made $50,000,000,000 from his company, focusing on our fear of loneliness, that’s Facebook. ” Actually, it does not only refer to Facebook, but to all social networks.

The sociologist has emphasized that the great merit of Mark Zuckerberg was to realize how far the human desire not to be alone goes. In a social network, loneliness  apparently does not exist. 24 hours a day and 7 days a week there is someone “there”, willing to read any of our concerns and reinforce the fact that we share it, to give a lonely ” like “.

People now seem willing to be part of totally inconsequential conversations. All in order to stay “connected”. Days are no longer accompanied by people. In your day-to-day life, the companion is a computer or a smartphone.

The absence of dialogue and community

The work of this sociologist speaks of the new technological dependencies. For him devastating forces, which almost no one can resist. They have impressive congregational power. Never before in history has something like this existed. And yet, Zygmunt Bauman thinks that not before has so much communication been seen that does not lead to dialogue, that is not fruitful.

Zygmunt Bauman says that on Facebook, and similar networks, what people do is a kind of echo. Hear only what you want to hear. He only says it to those who think the same. The networks, then, are like an immense house of mirrors. They encourage encounter, but not dialogue.

Establishing or deleting a contact on a social network is extremely easy. In real life it is not so. We must stand up for each of our acts. Not on the Internet. There is exchange of messages, but no dialogue. Differences, but no constructive debate. Regardless, the illusion of being connected with others is created.

The realm of the “public self”

Social networks invite you to expose yourself. To show, and demonstrate, who you are. Of course, we choose only the most presentable to show. We form small communities that we manage as we please. We are little dictators in the kingdom of our own. We decide who is and who is not. Absences and presences do not end at all affecting us.

The self occupies a decisive place in social networks. Without realizing it, we become dependent on that public exposure on the networks. We want to be identified and recognized in a certain way, and we can even get frustrated if we don’t succeed.

Zygmunt Bauman sees in social networks a trap for the human being. He thinks that this type of space has a decisive impact on what he calls “liquid culture”. In her precarious human bonds prevail. Loves without a face and without commitment. Waves of feelings and ideas that are here today and will disappear tomorrow. People who remain entertained, while power, political and economic, increasingly controls them more and better.

For Zygmunt Bauman, the outlook is not encouraging. From so much information that circulates, we are becoming uninformed people. We never know what to believe. From so much communication we are becoming more and more in a monologue. There is so much globalization that individualism has become increasingly aggressive. Apparently so much freedom has made us more docile than ever to the impositions of those who decide our ways of life.