F***ed by Facebook

Four years ago, the bubbly comedian Jessica Barker had a heck of a great idea. First, she refused to sign up on Facebook, as opposed to three-fourths of humankind. Next, she had a t-shirt made to prove it. Her t-shirt, “Fuck Facebook,” was so successful that she started a website and a virtual shop to make the t-shirts.

During the first months, her t-shirts sold like hotcakes, or as some would say, as fast as crystal meth cakes or ecstasy tarts. In September 2008, she received the ultimate recognition with a mention in the blog by Michael Musto, the celebrity and gossip columnist at the Village Voice. There was even a picture with Jessica and her friends Rafaële Germain, Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge, Vincent Bolduc and Patricia Paquin, proudly sporting their “Fuck Facebook” t-shirts.

Four years later, the energetic Jessica continues to sell her t-shirts online, but at a more moderate rate of three or four per week. She still has not joined the ranks of the 500 million Facebook subscribers, but remains convinced that in the next few years this gigantic social network will have completely disappeared from the face of the Earth. She reiterated that to me again this week.

Obviously, this blond child has not read the newspapers which, over the last few days, have been celebrating the new friendship between Facebook and Goldman Sachs. This giant investment firm, described by some as a vampiric money-sucking octopus, has in fact just invested $450 million in Facebook, stating that the business created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 is worth $50 billion today.

Between you and me, the amount of $50 billion seems to be a touch exaggerated, but what do I know about it?

Absolutely nothing, just like the vast majority of Facebook subscribers, who I still have not joined (even though an evangelist has created a page for me). On the other hand, I know that things have changed since the pleasant civil dissidence movement that came from Jessica’s t-shirts.

In 2007, Facebook was not a religion and it was even less the essential marketing and promotional tool. We could still see Facebook with a critical mind, we could choose not to join without missing anything and above all, we could maintain the idea of one’s relative independence compared to its increasingly overwhelming trend.

Unfortunately, four years later, this notion of independence is very difficult to maintain. Today, there is not a movie, CD, new condo project or new brand of car or rollers that is launched without having its own Facebook page. Moreover, it is often on Facebook, and not on the official website for the product or artist, where we can get the first glimpse at a picture, slogan or video clip.

Facebook has brought about an incredible cultural standardization, erasing the boundaries between popular culture and elitistism, between business and art. Rihanna and Lady Gaga are on Facebook, which speaks for itself, but Arcade Fire, Camille and CocoRosie, artists who are closer to the fringe and consider themselves as independent, are also on Facebook.

The OSM is on Facebook, as are Ozzy Osbourne and Metallica. Also on Facebook are Michel Houellebecq, Yann Martel and V.S. Naipaul, an author who, at almost 80 years old, has honorary doctorate degrees at several universities, has been knighted by the queen and is a Nobel Prize winner in literature. In short, he is a man who has no reason to be on Facebook, but who can be found there like millions of other people.

It is not surprising that Goldman Sachs has just taken the plunge and invested so much dough in Facebook. The arrival of this giant investment firm, which hopes to triple its wager, undoubtedly by selling the personal information of millions of subscribers, is the sure sign that profit has triumphed over friendship. If I were Jessica Barker, I would immediately begin to produce a new series of t-shirts. I would put “Facebook nous a eus” and the English version: “Fucked by Facebook.”