Slashdot Mirror
Current Doctor Who Warns Against Facebook
judgecorp writes "Matt Smith, the current actor playing Doctor Who, doesn't use Facebook or Twitter, despite his geek icon status. He worries that social media encourages us to create "surrogate versions" or "celebrity versions" of ourselves. He also, arguably, doesn't need their help, being a celebrity already. Smith made the comments in St Petersburg, where he hosted the final of Microsoft's Imagine Cup for student inventors, won this year by a British team with a mesh music-playing application."
Use it or don't. Plenty of celebrities fall on both sides of the fence. Some love their privacy. Some embrace the public light and social media for all it's worth. This doesn't need to be a slashdot post.
E.x.t.e.r.m.i.n.a.t.e!
Table-ized A.I.
Famous man bucks trendy thing
Approved by guy who certainly does not to own television by his own repeated admission.
You may now affix your sunglasses
Before anybody rants about them calling him "Doctor Who" rather than The Doctor: I'm a huge Who fan and I call him Doctor Who when talking to people who aren't necessarily fans. Saves a lot of time and confusion for everybody.
Creating a surrogate or celebrity version of oneself is precisely the point of Facebook. It is a version of the self that can be exchanged through a social medium with others. That "surrogate" self can be be cited, exalted, devalued, and circulated. It's "celebrity" for people who don't necessarily have access to major media channels and networks of people to promote a traditional media celebrity self.
Everyone's gonna get their 15 minutes.
The question, to my mind, is why Matt Smith believe this is any different than the media that have made a surrogate version of him.
blog
Or just, 'Matt Smith Warns Against Face Book'. We know who Matt Smith is.
I stopped watching Doctor Who after all of season 5 blew huge balls, and the first handful of episodes of season 6 (except, partially, the one written by Neil Gaiman) were even worse. Still, given they've in the past mercilessly made fun of stuff like people relying on their GPS, I would not have been at all surprised if Current Doctor Who had indeed warned against Facebook, which could have been amusing. But why should I care about the opinions of a random actor?
NT
Schrödinger's cat is not amused—maybe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCa1hyTAqTY
A few years back when I was looking for work out of college, virtually every prospective employer asked to be friended, or asked what my FB/Twitter/etc. accounts were. When I told them that I didn't bother to spill my guts online to all and sundry, the interview was terminated, and was told something along the lines of , "no FB account is like not having a phone or E-mail address, and we don't want any useless Luddites blocking progress in our company."
So, I made dummy accounts, threw some sanitized posts on them, and was able to pass that hurdle.
Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of Facebook or Twitter either. I DO think they have their uses, such as Facebook finding old friends you lost touch with years ago and to be hang-outs for fans and clubs and whatever. And some Twitter feeds are quite useful, giving news or humorous anecdotes.
But yeh, I've seen what Matt Smith is talking about. People exaggerate how "into" something they are, yet I know them in real life and the cause / sport / whatever they claim to be so into.... they maybe spend one weekend a year doing.
And some twitter rants: they just forward something they heard on Twitter and feel it's the truth, when you dig past the onion layers and find out it's not. But, I read it on Twitter Umm, good for you? That doesn't make it true.
Thank you Captain Obvious.
That's Doctor Obvious.
We all seek to create representations of ourself, so-called "personae". We don quite another persona when seducing a potential partner than when we work with a colleague or talk with a friend. Facebook has extended the possibility, for John Doe, to do this, namely online. Of course one can choose not to have a Facebook persona, so did I. But having "surrogate" versions of ourself implicitly states that there would be, somehow somewhere, a "real" version. Which one, pray, would that be ? This alone underscores the vacuity of Smith's utterings.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
But don't get all preachy about it either. Just because you don't watch TV doesn't mean you have to be the snob prick at the party who has to constantly remind everyone "I don't even *OWN* a TV".
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
" doesn't use Facebook or Twitter, "
Facebook is the province of teenage girls, and senior citizens.
You see, THAT annoys me.
Personally I stay off Facebook. I made some dummy account years back just because I was unsuccessfully try to find an old friend I'd lost touch with. It's still there gather dust, I have ZERO friends on it and no posts since the day it was created like 3 years ago.
I'm in IT and I know people that feel the same way, they don't want to bother with the fake socialization or post stuff out there linked to their real name for the whole world to see. I have 10 years of experience behind me and a Masters in Computer Science. If that's not enough to show I'm in the IT field then it's a sad state of the field that someone with 1 year of experience and a FaceBook account would get preference.
Funny - I tell prospective colleagues that my FB account is for my hobbies; if they would like to connect to me professionally they may send me an invitation on LinkedIn. On a related note, I also don't give out my personal cell phone number. If you want to get in touch with me, call my office phone and leave a message or send me an email, or send a text message to my office number.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
some of us use it to keep in touch with distant family and friends, especially those who aren't tech savvy enough for skype.
Doctor who?
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
. He worries that social media encourages us to create "surrogate versions" or "celebrity versions" of ourselves
It's common knowledge that in a new relationship, the first year with someone you don't really meet them, just their representative. Everyone puts on a different face in public, or for new people. This isn't news to anyone who isn't Forever Alone guy. Social media doesn't "encourage" us; We already do it anyway. Social media just allows this to be more transparent.
It's no surprise Facebook doesn't have a "dislike" button, or that there's no notification if someone "unfriends" you or blocks you. Even the website itself tries to hide negativity. Everyone lies. Ask any interrogator. Every, mother effing one of you is a liar. Of course, it's mostly small lies, like how girls lie about their age or guys lie about how great they are at sex, or how we lie about how much we're enjoying it anyway... oh and the list goes on... those are just stereotyped examples.
Social media didn't create this trend, Matt. Hop in your TARDIS and fly back a thousand years and you'll have Kings and Queens demanding the painters take a few extra pounds off their royal portraits...
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
who makes a living as an actor to rail against "alternate versions" of our selves after all we present differently at work with family, friends and loved ones - I do wonder if hes suffering from the same sort of angsty issues about acting that Harry H Corbet did
I'm just as silly, brutally honest and disgusting as I am on Facebook, Google+, Myspace, Bebo and any other site I have ever had an account on. Including here, but I cannot for the life of me remember what the account was again, so I am too lazy to re-register.
I prefer not to lie to myself or anyone I know. In fact, I never do. Why lie to people you supposedly care about?
Lying gets you nowhere. Except in to the pants of some awful horny teenager in a bar.
Why be friends with people you dislike? Why be friends with people you share nothing in common with? It is like people that play League of Legends. Why torture yourself? Maybe you are in to that, but then, why not tell your friends you like stabbing needles in to your nipples or getting slabbed with leather whips just so you can suffer a little more?
Why be friends with prudes? More like blend yourself in to a delicious pudding since that is your only use. If only humans were tasty.
Why be friends with boring people? They hold back EVERYTHING. They are the reason we aren't in space yet or have 5-boobed females and ballsacks on our necks to we don't sit on our balls!
I know tons of geeks who eschew social media so I think it actually gives him geek cred.
It's really an age thing, and I mean that in a non-discriminating way. I'm 22, and to me and the people around me, it's simply the de facto mode of communication, for better or worse. It functions very much like a public forum (in the Roman Forum way), the central place of the village where everybody hangs out and exchanges news. If you're around 40 or 50, I understand very well that you'd find Facebook useless and pointless.
... more of a commentary around the importance some people place on social media. Slightly tabloid, this slashdot article is. Mmmm...
I noticed that a ton of IT students at my college don't use Facebook. And it wasn't some hippie fine arts college or something with people bringing typewriters in to be ironic, it's a low cost public one. So I researched it and in the #1 most likely demographics to use Facebook, the least likely group within it is IT professionals. I have a feeling we're all on to something, as I don't use it either.
Having spend some time during my BA in History reading copy books (books with copys of letter that people sent out) and other stuff they wrote - keeping a collection of selfs is normal. People behave differently to their family, around different friends at work and to neighbors. My sister I understand when her sisters aren't around is very talkative. At home Mom put in a 30 sound bite summary of the day rule in at dinner when she was in high school because otherwise she'd never tell us anything. Facebook is what the person lets it become. You can says some really dumb things; it could be an insight into your heart or you can fill it up with quotes write over pictures. As a historian I say fill it up or not...it will make nice essay for future Historians to try pick into something useful later.
Life is like untied shoe laces; it always tripping you up and getting in your way.
I noticed during my limited interactions with Facebook that people who are morons in real life are twice and annoying, rude, and stupid on Facebook. So much for an idealized, sanitized, celebrity version of themselves. I don't think it's true for everyone or even close to the majority.
Emphasis mine. That's like saying someone doesn't smoke, despite being a doctor.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
There is a lot of smart about Matt Smith. I have a facebook account, but only use it when truly necessary, usually for development. I've always known there is nothing for free in this world and I value my privacy more than free internet socializing. I would rather PAY for an account with the guarantee that everything is 100% under my control.
Personally going to dump my cellphone after this one dies. (its a nokia dumbphone however, so that will probably be around 2036)
I just don't trust them nomore. I know its a great convenience to have a cell phone, but I can live without that convenience.
That he would make these comments at an invent that probably spawned a lot Facebook and Twitter wannabes
... elites not wanting their status undermined.
Technology that has brought people closer together has allowed a great deal to be changed in the perception of things in many fields.
I.E. Music, Movies, and more.... and now there is what he is concerned about.... star status
Any company with an attitude like that is in for more problems than just Luddites blocking progress, unless the company's entire business revolves around making insipid privacy-violating Facebook games.
At least twice now, I've interviewed for jobs (and got them) and when asked about Facebook I told them that my part-time side job was teaching advanced web design at the local university, and I didn't have a Facebook account because their interface was offensive. Both jobs were in IT, and one of them involved re-building the company's internal data tracking web application. In that case, my disagreement with Facebook was what got me the job.
I have a problem with Facebook because I keep it around mostly to keep in touch with very different groups of people. I have a bunch of cousins and uncles and such in other states, and then I have a bunch of people I used to go to church with in another state. And somehow, everything gets weird when they blur together in a thread. People are, socially, different dependent upon which group they are around, and it almost forces the creation of a new you. Not on purpose, just that need to conduct oneself in a way that makes sense to everyone.
The NSA on top of that makes it even more uncomfortable.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Funny as it sounds, I read the title as "Doctor, who warns against Facebook" - so I read on thinking it was about an actual doctor warning against Facebook for some weird health reason. :)
So it should have sounded as "Current Doctor Who who warns..."
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
Numerous studies have been done indicating that it's not just an alter-ego problem. Here is a fantastic post on the deeper issues. As with TV, there are addiction mechanisms build in to keep you doing it. Of course lets not mention altering your brain waves and making you less able to process information.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
yes back in the late 80's i owned a software company that wrote addons for a BBS system called the MajorBBS that was really one of the first true multi-user online systems available for the general public to own and deploy. the interesting thing was that, consistently, when sysops ran the numbers, online chat represented 85-95% of the use of these systems that allowed all sorts of other really cool things to do, in real-time, with other users.
the point of this is that facebook and twitter are really nothing more then personalized chat rooms, and looking back it isnt surprising at all that they represent the 800lb gorillas of the internet because, to be honest, it seems that all everyone really ever wanted to do online is chat (besides pr0n and "research" of course).
i think a facebook backlash is inevitable, like everyone hating nickleback or david guetta...i stopped using it except to get a hold of my kids about a year ago, and i enjoy letting people know i think its a total waste of time...now if i was younger i could see a lot more useful uses for it, like hooking up...but im sure Matt Smith isnt hurting along those lines.
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
More like Dr. Hu.
He's a pretty shit doctor.
I've continued to watch in the faint hope that it will get better, and thankfully with a regeneration coming up, maybe..just maybe..
"Surrogate versions?" that's kind of funny when you consider the vast complexity of what you're actually creating. social media is a not-so-private index-able record of events and contacts in your personal life complete with timestamps, pictures, anecdotes and exacting degrees of separation to others -- added bonus is the illusion of privacy. It's hardly surrogate when you consider the social profile may actually be MORE accurate that the IRL version.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
*spits*
A fucking actor?
I think its time we give the hipsters the nod they aren't welcome here. Scene killers.
That's too bad. I purposefully do not link my Facebook account with anyone at work (anyone at all). I have to work with these guys. Finding out they're racist assholes makes it a bit harder to deal with them without having to think about their personal beliefs.
[John]
Shit better not happen!
"Matt Smith, the current actor playing Doctor Who, doesn't use Facebook or Twitter, despite his geek icon status. He also worries that social media encourages us normals to have more outstanding view points and to express our selves rather the welcoming our new meta-media overlords" -I for one welcome our new Microsoft music playing overloads.
You have 5 Moderator Points!
Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
Except "Doctor Who" is just a common response to the character's name "The Doctor" so to those familiar with the show, your parsing still makes more sense.
Thank god we all listen to actors on how to run our lives... especially ones barely old enough to shave!
Doctor Wut?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Freaking Journalists today, apparently, never went to school! They seem to have no idea how to form correct methods of communicating things accurately! So why in the hell do the Editors even keep them?
For they do not wish company.
The tinfoil is strong with this one.
And why he avoids youtube
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=xDj7gvc_dsA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DxDj7gvc_dsA
Silence is a state of mime.
I think you mean "fitting with his geek status".
You're not a geek, are you?
PROTIP: Owning an iDevice or any other kind of dumbed-down e-penis/e-tits does not make you a "geek". And no self-respecting geek would go even close to Twatter.
Geeks use IRC (duh), XMPP+Jingle+OTP, and e-mail over IMAPS and SSMTP, using GnuPG on top of it.
Frankly, we don't even need a phone. Just a portable computer. (An actual one, not a gadget implemented on a locked-down one.) Nobody calls us anyway.
Doctor Obvious
Well then, I'm glad I have at least one thing in common with Matt Smith.
And The Doctor (the character) apparently isn't very impressed with Twitter either:
Amy: Have you seen my phone?
The Doctor: Your phone?
Amy: Yeah.
The Doctor: Your mobile telephone. I bring you to a paradise planet two billion light years from Earth and you want to update Twitter. (This line is delivered with wonderfully gushing disgust.)
Amy: Sunsets, spires, soaring silver colonnades. It's a camera phone.
The Doctor: On the counter by the DVDs.
Amy: Thank you.
(From 6-10 "The Girl Who Waited") The line in question is part of the main promo commercial that my local PBS station currently uses, so I get to hear it a lot.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Knock Knock.
Who's there?
Doctor.
Doctor Who?.
Correct
This signature is false.
You only know it's about the show AFTER you read the summary. The title doesn't tell you that at all. :)
Sadly, I am not really familiar with the show either
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
I don't agree with him, but there is merit to the idea of being careful. No one can argue that "social media" has literally changed society, and the good will come with the bad. Historians will probably teach that it had as big an effect as widespread acceptance of the car: had a lot of benefits to society, and caused some problems as well.
Either way - Isn't Matt Smith now a former doctor technically?
where did anyone say it was "a guiding principle for his life"?
A few years back when I was looking for work out of college, virtually every prospective employer asked to be friended, or asked what my FB/Twitter/etc. accounts were. When I told them that I didn't bother to spill my guts online to all and sundry, the interview was terminated, and was told something along the lines of , "no FB account is like not having a phone or E-mail address, and we don't want any useless Luddites blocking progress in our company."
I suspect you are lying.
Except "Doctor Who" is just a common response to the character's name "The Doctor"
Oh, it's a lot more than that now. See link in my sig for more information ;)
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
That's poor use of a comma. "I helped my Uncle Jack get off a horse." Simple.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Is amazing how much can progress in life a baseball player
Knock knock.
Who's there?
The Interrupting Cow.
The Interrupti-
MOO!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
The Doctor Lies.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
...coming from an actor.
You're making shit up.
Real companies will ask for Linkedin accounts if anything. I've been looking for a job for a month now and I haven't even heard the word 'Facebook' in the dozen interviews I've been on.
At least he can spell "paedophile" correctly so that it refers to child lover rather than foot fetishist!
That's only relevant in-character. To the outside world, the character is "Doctor Who", like it or not. Doesn't help any that for a few years his costume included question marks on the collars, at JNT's insistence - the battle was lost in the Baker years.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Every single celebrity I have ever social networked with online has completely broken any celebrity preconceptions I had.
You, the fan, should not add any celebrities you really like to your FB or twitter feed. As it is impossible to keep the celebrity mystique without writing and CGI staff.
I was so disappointed after adding Riddlick that I unfollowed him.
And it was only last week that I got into an argument with the writer/designer of Babylon 5 on FB. And I came away from that with far less respect for him as a writer, if also more because he is so willing to interact with the fans.
And then Sulu posted the most offensive thing I had ever read on the Internet earlier this month on FB.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
An actor who is afraid that other people play out their acting fantasies.
What a dick.
Free Manning, jail Obama.
Except "Doctor Who" is just a common response to the character's name "The Doctor" so to those familiar with the show, your parsing still makes more sense.
Except that in that case the who is superfluous (it makes it sound as if there's a line of doctors waiting for their turn to warn us about Facebook). It should be "Current Doctor Warns Against Facebook". Which makes me wonder who gets a doctorate in current...
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
It would be great if more people did not use facebook and twitter. Hopefully The Doctor will help influence more people to break free and live in the real world.
You for real? Does no one remember the "Give us your facebook password so we can log into your account and look through all your posts and friends to clear you as a potential employer" shit that was going around, which actual *laws* were created in the US to stop?
Yeah, it's like you kill one, and the next one regenerates and carries right on preaching against social networking. Weird, huh?
You do realize that Facebook has fallen in popularity a lot since things like Linkedin and G+ came into existence, right? Those things weren't always around, and before they existed, a lot of places would demand access to their potential employees' facebook pages. There were even slashdot articles about what to do when an employer demanded access to your facebook password, like this one and this one
Though I would think that if I were a successful TV actor, that my publicist or assistant would be charged with maintaining a Twitter feed and an official Facebook page for me. I would expect to use social media as a revenue stream just like any other official public appearance or interview.
"The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
Using facebook or twitter doesn't make you a geek... at all. You're just casual scum.
Nay... Matt Smith is *NOT* the current Doctor. Someone needs to catch up. ;)
Apart from in the Vincent Price version where he introduces himself with the line "I am Doctor Who", but most people who've seen that movie like to file it with Highlander 2 and other things that were a waste of film.
Wrong actor - Peter Cushing was the doctor in a couple of movies with terrible scripts.
No, real HR people will ask for whatever fad they are into - don't make the mistake of thinking of them as "professionals" no matter which company they infest.
They keep saying things like "we need facebook to check out prospective employees", which is a pretty bad way to to it IMHO, but that's irrelevant since the logs show they are playing the facebook games for half the day instead.
There's an IT crowd episode about the downside of that.
It was so useful to you, that you made a dummy account, on the hope that someone else made a real account?
Outside world? what outside world?
"I think this line is mostly filler"
He's been sucked into the wifi! http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2013/03/howto-make-a-doctor-who-bells-of-st-john-style-wifi-name/
Oracle and unix guy.
LOL! Don't bust on Dr. Who (cares) on \. or you'll get modded into the hospital boiler room. My post was neither overrated nor troll-ish. I was just pointing out that the story is a non-story about someone who is obviously out of touch with what social media is to a lot of people that aren't him.
where he hosted the final of Microsoft's
How convent he says this at a MS convention, a company that has nothing in the form of a social site, like facebook or twitter. And he knows no matter what he says or does because he is a celebrity they'll just eat it up.
I do agree with what he says about people creating alter egos to impress people, but that is few and far between...
It was so useful to you, that you made a dummy account, on the hope that someone else made a real account?
Honestly, yeh.
It was an old friend of mine and we lost track after college, she was a pretty social person and FaceBook sounded like the thing she'd be into. I tried looking her up via the normal route such as white pages and stuff and asking a couple of people that knew her. When I didn't have any luck I tried FaceBook but still never managed to get in touch.
That's as far as I took it though. I figured if she was off the grid enough to not be found via the normal non-stalker-ish methods she probably had her reasons.
I left Facebook months ago, but I'm seriously considering returning. Not because I have something to say or to prove (as Matt Smith warns against), but because I have too many people in my life who use Facebook as the sole means of communication.
By leaving Facebook behind, I've left friends behind, and some are family. Should I ask them to double their efforts just for my sake? Would they double their efforts for the sake of one person that doesn't participate in a free service?
Facebook disgusts me, but if I want to stay in touch with friends or family, it seems to be a necessary evil.
I've had accounts on both for years, just to be sociable and not be a digital hermit, but never felt any particular need to update them for fans (or even family) Like ever.
Because more adult people feel like him, they started tying everything to "online identity" to grab more data. I find the current practice of tying other services to the big 4 revolting especially when they start trying to cross populate your Slashdot posts on your twitter feed or Facebook... NOBODY CARES about my Slashdot posts on facebook, certainly not my family, and I certainly don't appreciate features enabled without proper notification.
Score another point for the Doctor. So just what evil force is it that runs Facebook? The cybermen? The Daleks are out because we already know they are behind apple. Witness the iDaleks of the new series, and the fact that the late chairman of apple was obviously Davros himself: http://cheezburger.com/4659524352
Anonymous_Coward pokes kannibal_klown.