Recently, Facebook and NBC struck a mutually beneficial deal
over promotion of the Olympics. Facebook
would obviously be promoting game coverage, event schedules, and all press
related broadcasts while NBC would use their commentators to push viewers onto
Facebook. Once again, social TV at its finest.
At first, I was a bit disheartened to hear that such a deal
had been executed. The Olympics inspires
national pride, international unity, and a peaceful awareness that some of the
hardest working people the world has to offer can show up to amaze the world
and still be a good sport about it in the end.
Striking a deal with Facebook seemed to take the focus off of the
athleticism and joy of watching the event so that I may redirect my focus to
advertising and clouded newsfeeds.
As I grew uneasy trying to pinpoint exactly why I was trying
to ostracize Facebook from the Olympics and lucrative business deals, I became
frustrated. The only thing I could up
with was a vague statement on how NBC’s focus on Facebook is taking away from
the “essence” of the Olympics. The
essence? Would that mean that I’m saying
that Facebook is taking away from the athleticism of it all? Certainly that would be a shallow and
undervaluing statement to my one true love Ryan Lochte (I never meant to hurt
you , baby. Please forgive my deviant
thoughts.) I really did not know why I felt
so negatively about this deal. It is
hardly any different than Proctor and Gamble being a “proud sponsor”; 2
companies benefitting from each others’ services and publicity.
After much thought, I stumbled onto an answer that will give
me a dose of clarity for now. My unrest
is simply rooted in the principle of change. I see Facebook intruding upon a
tradition that is centuries old. While I
am an avid social media fan and believe in its benefits religiously, I am
apprehensive to mix tradition with technology and have a stigma that technology
is polluting the purities of a unique event like the Olympics. As
self-righteous as I may be, I don’t think this is the way to think.
Regardless of what anyone says, social media is here to stay
and Facebook is a front-runner. No other
platform acts as a cloud to store all of your contacts, photos, and chronicles
of interaction. Facebook is writing our
histories so that we can have and share memories long before it is over. Just like the television set became an
integral part of family life, Facebook will too. For years television was exonerated until it
reached a point of obsession, spurring concern.
Traditionalists claimed it was taking away from the communicative family
dynamic and efforts to promote talk-time, unified dinners, and limited
television consumption ran the nation.
We stand at the climax of Facebook in the wake of the IPO and, just as
television endured, the time-consumption the social media site takes up in our
lives is under intense criticism. The
entire baby boomer generation now dabbles in Facebook, from mothers, to
grandmothers, to keep up with old friends and monitor Millennials. We hustle
and fuss to arrive at the denouement where stabilization occurs and, ironically
enough, going back to sitting around the TV for hours becomes the family time
we are looking for (anything to avoid Facebook chatting your brother in the
same room).
What I am suggesting is that we accept that Facebook is
becoming an essential and norm in every American household, just like the
television. No one would ever dream of
gathering around the family radio to listen to the Lochte-Phelps show-down
because the television has become such a standard. We should not see it as an
evil empire looking to destroy American and cultural traditions, but rather one
that can enhance our lives and viewing experience of something like the
Olympics when the novelty wears off and we finally learn to achieve moderation. The most global “contact” Americans
experienced 20 years ago was watching athlete interaction during the Barcelona Olympics.
Today, Facebook can connect us to a network of knowledge, contacts, and
information from across the globe at the click of a button or a tap of a key.
One single person can reach more people he could in a lifetime in, literally,
an instant. This is where people are
spending their time. This is how to communicate personally, commercially, or
capitalistically. NBC took their
business so that their global broadcast can also become global interaction and
I can now respect that the network sees that times they are-a changin’.
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