Steve Jobs is done.
The CEO of one of the world's top corporations resigned. Following his departure, Apple Inc. stocks plummeted. Faith in the technology giant fell. And even though any business major here at UF will tell you that Apple will quickly recover and remain as strong as ever, you can't quite shake the feeling that maybe this is the beginning of the end.
And if Apple falls, who might be next? Microsoft Corp.? Google? Facebook?
Ah, Facebook. Like Apple, it's not going away any time soon. But unlike Apple, we all like to talk about how much we wish it would.
Sure, we use it every single day (usually multiple times a day). You've probably already checked it at least once since opening this paper. It's as critical to our daily lives as email, texting or phone calls. Yet one of our favorite pastimes is bashing Facebook like it's that drunk uncle who ruins family reunions.
But why? What claim do we have? Its glitches are the result of it being immensely popular. It's the same reason YouTube will screw up every now and then. Every time it changes, we run around like the sky is falling, but then we realize the change is probably for the better. We come to embrace it like it was part of the program all along.
And as much as we may try to resent Mark Zuckerberg, we've seen "The Social Network," and we can't help but like the guy.
No, the complaint we always come back to hinges on privacy concerns. Because of the advent of social networking like Facebook, privacy has become an almost archaic term.
Our words are plastered all over the Internet (along with our contact information, date of birth, family tree and, worst of all, our secret hobbies).
Photos of us are posted every hour. If we're particularly unfortunate, that video that got recorded last night that we really hoped would never see the light of day will be uploaded the next morning. Our lives are no longer private.
And we assume that it's an awful, terrible thing. But if you stop to think about it, you might realize it's really not so bad.
We do like our privacy. We want to know that we can do things without anyone being aware we've done them. It's a value that's been socially ingrained in us since childhood. But it's also the very thing that allows for dishonesty, for deception, for bold-faced lies. Without privacy, we're forced to be ourselves. We can no longer put up the facade of being something we're not.
The fact is, we spend so much of our time hiding our differences and shying away from admitting who we really are. We pretend. We're fake. Privacy enables that; it empowers our fraud.
When privacy deteriorates, so too does our ability to lie to each other. We start to embrace each other's differences. We're forced to accept others despite their quirks because everyone has them, and nobody will be able to hide them.
Crimes become nearly impossible to perpetrate, and the crime we commit every day - the crime of lying about our true selves - becomes an artifact of a dark past.
And sure, the pretty girl in your organic chemistry class will easily be able to find out that you like Halo a bit too much. But that just means when you get the nerve to talk to her and she accepts your offer for coffee, it's because she genuinely likes you and appreciates your honesty. You get to build a relationship on sincerity.
So maybe Facebook and everything it represents isn't the devil. Because it's when we're finally forced to be honest with each other that we can finally start being honest with ourselves.
Alex Guilmartin is a psychology and pre-law senior. His column appears on Thursdays.
