Zuckerberg's a Sophist, Punk Hypocrite; Consumers are his Pawns and Social Media Gurus, Thanks, but no thanks, for being his Evangelicals

Facebook erased CrushedPlanet's user profile this week. This erasure was clearly timed in concert with the "launch" of Facebook's new site design, their "FB connect" and their "Not-All-Apps-Are-Created-Equal-Preferred Apps" initiative (Damn is Kara Swisher's sophisticated coverage of the Silicon Valley-"echo-chamber"-herd-mentality dynamic a welcome break from The LAX's sychophant M. Zuckerberg's, "Today, together, we are going to start a movement," which the LAX's Jessica Guynn recycles hook-line-and-sinker).

FB has created an architecture where the average business user is not allowed to create a company profile. In contrast, larger companies who can pay FB for "ad buys" are given increased capabilities such as company user profiles and cool group features (you think it's a coincidence that Apple and Target have such cool "group" pages). As Doc Searls reminded Jeremiah Owyang (see Searls' response in the comments) awhile ago, FB gets away with not only arrogance, but punking their own users, who love their consumer entanglement, ur, connections:

My one quibble is with calling Facebook’s users 'customers'. They’re not. Facebook’s customers are its advertisers. This split between users and customers is one that has troubled all commercial media for the duration. It’s one big reason for the social failures of commercial radio and television. It is also at the heart that “arrogance” you speak about at Facebook. The company’s desire to make money, and to start the “next 100 years” of advertising (or whatever they called it when they announced Beacon), has caused them to cast blind eyes toward their users. This was a an extra huge mistake, because social networks are not comprised of mute viewers or listeners to whom commercial media have in the past been accountable only through ratings statistics. They are dozens of millions of human beings, exposing their lives and trusting Facebook to do Right Things by them.

But Facebook is a young company. Perhaps they’ll learn.

Facebook's actions this week show that they've only become more arrogant and power-hungry, wrapped in a cool, glossy, "we choose the 'preferred' apps", but AND restrict overall consumer-freedom arrogance. According to the Journal's John Paczkowski,

According to popular legend, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once kept two versions of his business card in his wallet–-one with the title CEO, the other with “I’M CEO . . . BITCH.” Seems that before Facebook became the de facto platform of the attention economy, it was a platform for the attention-starved (link).

But oh well, at least we all get to plug in and connect.

Postscript: Our surreal, digital flows of Hollywood arrogance and social networking hypocrisy only intensify: now there are reports that Aaron Sorkin, the ex-cocaine addict, now-MNNBC President analyst (because GE-controlled hacks at NBC news have failed, again, to promote the public good and address issues of substance, like say, substantive, innovative, networked public education, war, failing health care system, failing jails/criminal system, failing industrial infrastructure, neglected digital infrastructure, social security in case they were wondering) is penning a "Facebook script." OMG, OMF'ingG-d, this is loco, shmoco, loco, amigos y amigas.

So news has become entertainment; entertainment has turned to social media; social media tech guru think this new internet communication technology will provide some magic wand to our social lives and meanwhile the echo-chamber expands and, sorry to break the news, real people continue to suffer as the global economy falters and we all justifiably lose faith in our nation-state and corporate feudal lords.

Oh my, oh my!! The feudal, corporate over-lords in charge of the MSM and the tech wonder-kinds who have to bake break with them are creating a toxic, ugly new type of song and dance. The scary thing is people have lost faith in the MSM, but wrapped in cool yourFace and MyBook colors, well, we're all happy to accept these walled gardens.

We can either let the resentment build toward these arrogant corporate lords or, let them know, you're on the wrong side of history and party as we change things at the core.

So in honor of the latter choice, enjoy this Magnetic Field's brilliant song --- a 21st century ode to love from ShmuGooTube