Okay, truth?
Lately it has become increasingly difficult to imagine life on Earth without a computer or a cell phone. How much slower would morning coffee go if it wasn't paired with checking the Facebook news feed? By the looks of it, it's safe to say we are being bred into machines whose programing runs rapidly and solely towards the future.
But if the desire was strong enough, and we gave up Facebook for good, how much of our social status would still exist?
I know that I can't speak for everyone, but a lot of my daily plans are often made via Facebook. In theory, I don't even need a cell phone. This makes me wonder about how many people I would never see if I didn't have a Facebook account, and whether or not that makes me want to see them at all. Because Facebook eliminates the obstacles standing in our way of contacting others, there is a certain level of fight that is lost. Our ability to go from "I wish I could get in touch with Joe and see how he's doing.." to "that dude Joe, he just came back from saving polar bears in Alaska for a year and is living in Chicago with his fiance who is way too smart for him, she graduated Harvard with honors last semester.." is beginning to take all the surprise out of life. These days it is no longer necessary to call up a friend and ask them how their vacation went. It's much simpler to flip through the album they uploaded the minute they returned. Had you called your friend anyway, you would have saved yourself a good ten minutes of recounting the unrecountable, because a picture's worth a thousand words, right? Wrong. Facebook is the death of chance, whether you believe in that sort of thing or not.
It is also a huge paradox. While its function is to increase social interaction, it's directly resulting in a lack of genuine human communication. So while we can arrogantly accumulate 365 friends online, everyone knows we only have about five to ten real ones. And maybe if we weren't worried about staying in touch with people who we've met only once and didn't even like, then we'd get closer to the ones who actually play an active role in our lives.
Last month, when my birthday rolled around, I was shocked that people who I never spoke to, people who I met once many years ago, were leaving fake fingerprints all over my wall. This is the problem with today's world, I thought. The need for self-affirmed egos by way of unauthentic altruism.
A friend of mine experienced the same problem and was slightly upset when his 'friends' were a day late in sending him their best. "Is your birthday up on Facebook?" I asked. "No, I took it off because I didn't want people I dont know congratulating me, it's so stupid.." "Well, there's your answer," I said, "At least they're only a day late, If I tried removing my birthday, I think all I'd get would be a post from my mom.."
And that makes me wonder - are we obsessed with Facebook because we subconsciously crave recognition from others? I dont know. We submit, because face it, if you are young, working, and looking for success, there's hardly no other way to properly function in today's society without succumbing to the digital world like slaves who grow to love their chains. Our generation's need for digital interface makes it impossible to do anything these days without a Facebook account, a Twitter page, and a blog – all running simultaneously. A lack of these resources certainly wouldn’t have me doing this.
But as much as I'm enjoying bashing our seemingly mindless generation, I would like to point out that I am not excluding myself. In fact, because I don't watch television or read the newspaper, the Facebook news-feeds have become my way of obtaining actual 'news'. Because of Facebook, we are not only connecting but we are spreading information faster and wider than has ever been possible.
Having said that, I guess I'm due for a status update.
Don't worry, I'm kidding. On the contrary, maybe I will give my trusty Facebook a little rest and instead direct my energy towards enriching this blog. Trade a small cell for a bigger one. If we must communicate, and I believe we must, I prefer to do it with a bit of individuality. Unfortunately though, the best way to promote this blog will be via Facebook, so maybe I shouldn't have just laid a huge, hot dump on it...
It suffices enough to say that I don’t think I, alone, can beat the system by avoiding it. After all, this is the only one we've got. Who knows what past generations could have accomplished had they been given such a blessing and a curse. But for us, it's time to take advantage of how fast we can spread the word.
Hop on for the ride by either following this blog or checking in from time to time. I promise to keep the content as fresh and as reading worthy as possible, and if there are any comments or suggestions I am always all ears.
xx
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