Matt Mathias

Sports Editor

mcm5909@psu.edu

Last Tuesday, a large bronze statue showed up in front of Facebook’s main headquarters in California. The gigantic statue measured in around 7-feet tall and was installed along with 10,000 bananas which were displayed at the base of the company logo. 

A week prior, the statue was found in New York City facing the iconic Charging Bull statue directly across from Wall Street. There seems to be some kind of meaning behind the gesture, as it would take great effort to transport the memorial all the way from New York City to California, so what was the culprit at hand trying to convey?

The traveling statue has been attributed to the work of Sapien Tribe, which is an organization that supposedly dedicates itself to putting the need and welfare of human beings and our planet first and foremost. According to a statement from the group provided by CNN, Sapien Tribe claims that the activities on display are meant to “show that the dominant power structures created by financial institutions like Wall Street and technology empires like Facebook have become wholly out of touch with the needs of everyday people.” In time, it appears that the statue will appear at other locations across the United States in the upcoming months.

Personally, I support the Sapien Tribe in their unique effort to show how these powerful groups such as the one’s in Wall Street and Facebook have placed a certain chokehold on society. After reading about their goals and seeing the imagery on display with how they have captured people’s attention through the gorilla Harambe of all things, I find their message refreshing and timely with the direction the U.S. has gone in the last 20 years. It seems that the authorities feel the same way, as their display was not approved by the City of New York or California, but police were supportive of the peaceful protest and made accommodations for the statue for a limited period of acceptable time. The bananas utilized in the installation were donated to local food banks following the removal of the statue.

The Sapien Tribe claims that they wish for big tech and business to offer “an alternative social experience to the existing system, enabled by technology but governed by people instead of algorithms.” When we take a look at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, each of us can see how much the algorithms in place affect what is presented in front of us. While I do not personally own a Facebook account due to my lack of interest in being inserted into that algorithm, I do watch YouTube videos every day. I have a subscription feed, but I often browse around outside of my subscriptions. If I watch one or two videos about troubleshooting my personal computer, making a recipe for dinner, or want to watch highlights from a sporting event, my feed will now become flooded with other content associated with those items that I may or may not have no desire to even see. However, that’s just what they want to do to viewers and some find it intrusive to their internet and technology consumption experience.

As it stands, I’m invested in Harambe and where he will travel to next. I appreciate the subtlety in how the Sapien Tribe has communicated their thoughts about the state of technology as well as business and look forward to what else the group has to say.