This cartoon has been making its rounds on facebook the past week. Part of the reason is because facebook has changed its layout (which always creates a large amount of handwringing and consternation among its users) and because a persistent rumor about facebook charging money had been making its rounds. With candid humor this post explains the reasons why charging and frustration at changes are largely not a concern of facebook.

When I saw this, it really made me think about structures and people's participation in those structures. Many people in facebook see it as a tool in which they can get their message sent out to a broader range of people or a place they can keep up with many friends and relatives in the distance. They see facebook in the ways that they use it, but not in the ways that facebook is using them to make a profit and further its own needs. They see only half of the coin, the portion of facebook that they benefit from and can use; they do not see the ways in which the institution sustains itself.

In a rather cynical reflection, I wonder then why do we do leadership. Do we do this because we see the ways in which we can change an institution and our world? What is the other half of the coin? How then do institutions use us to sustain themselves?