The “Corporification” of Humanity

In a world that accepts corporations as individuals in the eyes of the law and these same corporations are transforming their sterile image to become even more human, has this same social mediaized world transformed individuals into corporate figures? So large, that they themselves loose the humanity?

In an article earlier today, Technosailor questions of the validity of “friends” as a social term to denote loose acquaintance and casual colleagues.

Aaron asks,

“On Facebook, how many of your friends are really friends?

I have over 2000 followers on Twitter. How many of them know my real name without looking?

How many events do people with significant online personal brand go to where people know who they really are?

Or is brand all that really matters in friendship?

Is it more important to have presence? Or relationship?
What do we do off camera, and who really knows?

If a tree falls in the middle of the woods, and everyone sees the tree online, did it really happen?

Do you find more value in spending time with four people or forty?

What does technosailor mean to you? Aaron Brazell?

Food for thought. Questions to be answered. Have we hurt our human experience or helped?”

Join the discussion, what does a social brand, like Scoble, Gaping Void and the rest, really mean to you? Is this human corporitization a mere manifestation of physical life idols, similar in nature to the Madonnas, Chers, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs of the world? How many “real life” friends do these individuals have, versus the casual fans who call themselves friends?

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This post was written by Jessica Hasson

April 28, 2008 | Filed Under social media, social media users

6 Comments

Comments

6 Responses to “The “Corporification” of Humanity”

Tabitha Grace Smith on April 28th, 2008 12:18 pm

The same could be said of real life though – how many of your friends are really “friends”. Social Media just makes it easier for fans of your work to become your outer layer of friends and acquaintances and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
Jessica Hasson on April 28th, 2008 12:25 pm

But are they really your “friends” if they are on an outer-layer?

The bigger question is, does the internet bring a new level to the term friend because of the information readily (life-shared) available online to these outer-layer friends? And therefore a false-sense of intimacy is established. And therefore does intimacy get degraded because of this between real friends?

Never before has the average human been able to create such a large “fan-friend” base in a matter of moments.

I do agree that honestly the term friend in life is so diluted that the utilization of it online as a generic term for an acquaintance is relevant and acceptable. Maybe we need to come up with a new term for people that actually KNOW individuals, like “relationship” friends vs. “far-out” friends
Tabitha Grace Smith on April 28th, 2008 12:48 pm

Nah.. we need no labels. You all know who you are.
n.l. on May 12th, 2008 11:53 am

The sad part is some people are disillusioned from the whole friend/follower phenom. While I recognize it as marketing a brand of sorts, many people turn friend lists into an obsession, with no clear goals in mind of why they’re connecting to people and building such lists…
Jessica on May 12th, 2008 3:48 pm

@n.I.
I completely agree. At what point is enough, enough, though? Is it impossible for individuals now, because of the fusion of “friend” and work, to separate professional life and personal life at all? Rarely will your social-graphed “friends” ever pick you up from a bus stop in the middle of the night (bad example, but the gist is there). Are we loosing the real friends in place of the mass friends? Is quantity really better than quality?
What is the Tribe?: The Power of Social Media ‘Friends’ | Social Media World on May 13th, 2008 10:57 am

[...] If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Recently my co-blogger (and friend) Jessica wrote an article on the ‘The “Corporification” of Humanity”, outlining her concerns that social media is turning individuals into corporate brands by having huge social media “friends” lists that turned out to be nothing more than ‘fans’ and ’social media stalkers’. [...]