Response to Aristotle and Facebook
My small group discussion on the Nicomachean Ethics and Facebook was today, and from the buzz in the room and the subsequent dialogue we had as a class, it went well. I had expected to find undergraduates, who are at least ten years younger than me and part of “Generation Y”, to think Facebook is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Not so.
They’re very aware of the two-sided nature of the application, and even concerned with the fact that our society (and they themselves) put so much time into upkeep with friends online. At the same time, they thought that it was a solution to the problem Aristotle noted with distance: that it dissolves the activity of friendship and “seems to make people forget their friendship.” The quick communication via Facebook can allay that concern.
We even ranked some of the features in terms of how they might be related to practical wisdom and virtue. Pokes, needing no time or reason, are at the bottom. Super Pokes, in which you have to choose a suitable poke (do I throw sheep, give a high five?), requires more. Writing on the wall and then messaging would be more highly valued to Aristotle.
But what happened to good old-fashioned letter writing?–one student asked. Myself, I have a shoebox full of letters and postcards that college and high school friends sent to me. Every now and again I leaf through them. Somehow I don’t anticipate scrolling through five years worth of contextless Wall posts in the future.
The other thing I learned from the class was that the number of Facebook friends I have is miniscule–a mere 90. (That was the number left on Aristotle’s doctored screen shot.) I heard one group notice it and say, “He doesn’t have very many friends!” They then observed Aristotle saw virtuous friendship as a rare thing, and said he was probably picky about who he adds. Apparently having hundreds or thousands of “friends” isn’t unusual for the younger Facebook set. Of course, they questioned whether those are true “friends”, or about pleasure (zombies and applications) or utility (networking).
All in all, a good session. Now, if I can just find something comparably interesting to do with the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals…
February 13th, 2008 at 7:45 pm
Now I get what the “Best Friends” module is about. If you’ve got hundreds of Facebook friends, you need a way to sort the ones you actually keep up with.
February 15th, 2008 at 2:25 am
I’d just stick with a few friends I know personally rather than have to resort to a special application to denote what friends are more special than the others.
But that’s just me and that’s just how I think about the nature of friendship.
My true friends I treasure but I have few acquaintances.