Facebook Frenzy

“It seems that with friends today, quality counts for nothing and quantity is king. The more friends you have, the better you are.” (326) This quote is one of many examples from Tom Hodgkinson expressing his disgust for Facebook and how Facebook is in fact not helping people connect it is essentially making people become more disconnected with other individuals. Hodgkinson furthers his argument by explaining how Facebook is lying to society about helping them and is truly isolating them instead. Facebook is also more than simply a harmless social media website where friends find other friends and reconnect. Hodgkinson states, “Facebook is a well-funded project, and the people behind the funding, a group of Silicon Valley venture capitalists, have a clearly thought out ideology that they are hoping to spread around the world.” (327) Tom Hodgkinson in his article With Friends Like These… uses tone, pathos and ethos to take a firm and powerful stance that Facebook is not a place for people to truly connect; Facebook is a business simply looking out for themselves, not the people who support them and use the social media website, and in reality there are several reasons as to why people shouldn’t be using Facebook to interact with others. They should be doing what everyone has done since the beginning of time and truly connect with people face to face. To begin, Hodgkinson waists no time when it comes to expressing his true feelings about Facebook. Hodgkinson’s first few words of his argument are, “I despise Facebook.” (326) He continues on with writing, “This enormously successful American business describes itself as ‘a social utility that connects you with the people around you.’ But hang on. Why on God’s earth would I need a computer to connect with the people around me?” (326) These two particular quotes are examples of the tone Hodgkinson sets and continues with through out his entire article. Hodgkinson is honestly angered by the simple concept of Facebook and