Generation Why?

        Generation Why? by Zadie Smith is an analysis on the fundamental ideas behind Facebook and social networking as we see it today. The essay begins by informing the reader of the beginning of Facebook and of Mark Zuckerberg’s story. Then, the essay goes on to examine why people need Facebook, and it explains the website’s effect on social norms.
         Zadie Smith claims to be part of Zuckerberg’s generation, making her view credible because she is not just any third party critic. Smith also is a tenured professor of writing at New York University, and she has published many novels.

       This essay is clearly written by Smith shortly after the Facebook fad came to be to bring to attention the falsehood and faults in having a virtual identity through Facebook. Obviously targeting the “new generation,” this essay aims to expose that Facebook is a juvenile way for people to socialize. Smith makes this apparent when she points out Zuckerberg’s own inept social skills.

        Smith utilizes real facts and quotes as rhetorical devices to help prove her point. Real things written on Zuckerberg’s own profile, such as his interests in “minimalism, revolutions, and ‘eliminating desire’” are used in her writing to highlight his faults as a social person (Smith 191). Through these facts, Smith is able to prove that Facebook, and the idea of Facebook stemmed from a lack of social understanding in the first place. Also, Smith uses quotes from high esteemed programmers, like Zuckerberg, but who oppose Facebook. For example, Smith quotes Jaron Lanier, who says “…the belief that computers can presently represent human thought or human relationships. These are things computers cannot currently do” (Smith 193).

       The exploitation of Zuckerberg and Facebook’s intrinsic social loop holes does allow Smith to prove her point because it makes the reader realize that a site like Facebook does a horrible job of feigning real socialization. Through her use of facts about Zuckerberg, and her quoting of other high established people in the computer world bring into the light that Facebook is not all it’s cracked up to be.

(source: http://calibermag.org/articles/the-many-faces-of-facebook/facebook-mark-zuckerberg/)