It has come to my attention that just about everyone has a facebook. Seriously, search for your mom and you will probably find her facebook page. And beware if you don’t have one, because if you don’t, you are likely to be considered “weird.”
Yes I will admit it, I am a facebook addict and should probably look into rehab—but there is one question that continues to boggle my mind on a regular basis: What is it that attracts so many people to facebook anyway? People spend half of their day updating their status, posting comments on friend walls, and uploading pictures to put up on facebook. The other half of the day is spent talking about facebook, “Today on my newsfeed…” is a popular one, or my favorite, “Did you see that her relationship status says single now?” What is the purpose? Are we that interested in other people’s lives? Or is it the thrill of receiving a notification, “Sally posted on your wall”, or, “Sally likes your status.” Perhaps facebook gives people the social acceptance they are anxiously seeking.
Whatever it is, I hate Mark Zuckerburg, the founder of facebook, for figuring it out. I mean, the man is literally set for life. He makes people who are jobless after going through 4 years of college wonder, “What am I doing wrong??” Bastard, I mean, Zuckerburg, who was a sophomore at Harvard (figures) at the time, originally intended for membership to be limited to Harvard students. Soon however, it expanded to include anyone older than 12, and is now the most popular social networking site in the (freaking) world. In 2010, the company announced that it was serving-- brace yourself…500 million users around the world. I don’t think my brain even has the capacity of imagining that many people. And it’s not only people either; lately I’ve found that everywhere I go-- restaurant, library, grocery store, and school, I’m being told to “check us out on facebook.” Popular businesses, companies, and even schools have begun to create facebook pages in order to reach out to their customers and students.
Because of its rapid popularity, facebook is now slowly overtaking the lives of countless people, young to old, and destroying the nature of social communication. Instead of initiating conversations with others, we are now sending friend requests in its place. Whatever happened to the days of email, letters, or dun dun dun…a call on the telephone?
And now it’s not just friendships, many relationships have formed through facebook as well (How…romantic?). But in retrospect, why shouldn’t they? Facebook makes it all too easy. I mean, why go on a date when you can just get to know each other through Facebook’s newest addition, “Facebook chat”, becoming closer with each “Haha” , “LOL” , and smiley face. And why call your partner when you can just leave a romantic post on their wall for the world to see? Just accept it, your relationship just doesn’t mean much unless it’s Facebook, “In a relationship” official. The extreme informality between people these days is concerning and arguably a little sad. Now, the opportunity to dodge an actual physical face to face conversation with another human being is particularly doable. “Just Facebook me” was a recent pick up line I heard not too long ago, I just shook my head and wondered what had become of the world.
Facebook is a way in which you can let others know what is going on in your daily life. And for some, every second of your daily life. Example, “Sally Joe is taking a shower.” Two minutes later: “Sally Joe just got out of the shower.” Three minutes later, “Sally Joe is watching a movie.” Does anyone really care?? Regardless, facebook is proven to lead to jealousy and competition (and is that secretly what our goal is in the first place—make everyone jealous that our lives are better than the rest?). And by proven, I mean me. The real issue is how much of what a person is writing and posting on facebook is consistent to what their actually doing. Their status can read, “Having the time of my life!” when in actuality, they are sitting at home doing essentially nothing at all. Likewise, there is really no way of telling how accurate a person’s Facebook pictures are under an album entitled “Best Weekend Ever!” if they spent the entire time taking pictures for the intention of putting them up on facebook for others to see.
Facebook allows you the opportunity to become whoever you want to be, real or fake. You can post pictures from when you were 20 pounds lighter, and you can make your life sound as extravagant as you please through your clever facebook statuses(even if you are painfully awkward in real life). In simpler terms, it is all a potential lie. Facebook can be truly deceiving, and the sucker gets me every time. Sigh.
Logout.
"In simpler terms, it is all a potential lie. Facebook can be truly deceiving, and the sucker gets me every time. Sigh."
ReplyDeleteGood line! It's simple, it gives a strong and convincing opinion, and it makes a personal revelation that shows a bit of vulnerability, a bit of weakness, but does so in a tone that avoids mawkishness. It's so good, I almost thought you were about to end the blog piece with it. The last point is a good one, too, but it might be worked in earlier in the piece so you can end with that sharp, personal note.
When you--or any of us-- are fortunate enough to write a good line such as that one, it can end up providing the focus for a piece. If you are going to end on the idea that FB is a big lie, you can go back and look at the rest of the blog post with that knowledge, shaping the post so that everything you include in the piece leads toward that ending. If you come across a sentence or paragraph or idea that doesn't lead toward the ending, likely that section can be pruned. Then, in the space you've just made, you can add new thoughts that will lead to that ending. Alternatively, some writers will take that good ending they just wrote, make it their beginning, and start again thinking only about that aspect of their topic.
Thanks, too, for horrifying me with the idea that somewhere in the world, someone is trying to find love by saying, "Just Facebook me."
"...how accurate a person’s Facebook pictures are under an album entitled “Best Weekend Ever!” if they spent the entire time taking pictures for the intention of putting them up on facebook for others to see."
ReplyDeleteHaha! I love it because I have been making this observation for years. I am proud to say I have never been on Facebook...but someday I might need to hawk something and break down. Great, opinionated piece!