Rhizome has another pro-Facebook post up, in this case a strange argument by writer Dorothy Howard that gives reasons for not being on Facebook (anti-privacy, commercialization), gives several examples of "alternative publics" outside Facebook, and then concludes with a plug for the author's newly-created Facebook group. Why stay on there if it's so bad? "These days," Howard writes, "Facebook is so widely used that opting out constitutes an act of defiance of the norm."
The article has drawn a few comments. I questioned Howard's demographics but more to the point, isn't defying the norm what artists and radical politicos are supposed to be doing? Howard wants to defy the norm and also receive "likes."