Kierkegaard

In Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Soren Kierkegaard is all about subjectivity. Kierkegaard argues that it is attaining subjectivity, not objectivity, which is the "highest task confronting a human being." He says that subjectivity is indeed quite difficult pursue and it takes art and skill to be subjective. Social networking websites such as Facebook or Twitter provide an outlet for just the type of subjectivity that Kierkegaard is talking about.

By creating Facebook profiles, a user may find himself figuring out exactly what he wants his friends to know about him. He is creating an objective portal through which others see the user. He boils all of his superfluous information down into one profile that gives views a sense of the person behind it. The user is creating a snapshot of himself, an objective lens in which others see him, and publishes it for the public. In the process of creating this objective snapshot, though, the user may find that he looks more subjectively at himself. Facebook enables users to not only learn more about the others around them, but also to learn about themselves.

While Facebook or Twitter profiles may help the user understand himself, it does very little to help the user know the people around him. Facebook and Twitter profiles portray an objective snapshot that is really not even real. After all, a snapshot is just that, a snapshot—a portal into someone's life at a specific time. It may seem obvious, but there is no way that a Facebook profile can provide a realistic, dynamic view of a person's life. The only subjectivity to be had is for the creator, not the viewer. The Facebook News Feed only adds to the observer's illusion that they know another user. To some degree, the News Feed keeps people informed about the objective truths in someone's life, which some may confuse with the dynamic, subjective truths of his life. Although an observer may know that Jim joined "Bears Against Colbert" or that Sally broke up with Johnny, what does he really understand? Without understanding the dynamic, essential details of a person's life, do you really know them or are they just ghosts?

Kierkegaard would seem to argue that by trying to live behind a virtual identity, a person is restricting himself to a life of continuing objectivity; it is the real relations with real people that count, not the online relations with virtual snapshots. It is intuitive: the more time that a person spends on weak and shallow ties, the more time he loses with real, deep, dynamic people—the very people that seem to promote subjectivity. It seems as though Kierkegaard would argue that the less time a person spends observing through objective portals, the better. It would seem that while Facebook and other social networking sites are sometimes useful, perhaps it would be better if we spent our time interacting with real, engaging, and genuine people, rather than just their profile or online persona.