A rather obvious topic of discussion. Sitting at my desk savoring my ideal writing scenario the topic seemingly dropped from my ceiling, bounced off of my head and fell a top my key board. Here's a topic Ive discussed in moderate detail with friends of mine but never to the degree which i would have liked and never addressing the bigger theme it presents. Well..thats the purpose of this page.
Allow me to login..
Its what we follow beyond daily. The most efficient avenue to remain socially informed. With up to the second updates, viewing both alluring and unappealing information are inevitable. We all want to see pictures of our friend's trip to Europe. A high school video-chat conversation..not so much. But thats what facebook is..a program for everyone. For some its a well placed "poke" to get the attention of another. For others its a way to stay in touch with friends we're able to see only certain parts of the year. A melting pot of ages races and every demographic imaginable...in reality. Because on the surface our "friends" only show us what they want us to see. They're tagged in photographs that depict them as fun-loving, attractive and social. Photographs that project the persona they're striving to present. People aren't tagged in photographs when: they first get out of bed, they had a little too much fun at a social outing, they're doing something embarrassing, or even something bad. We (the facebook community) see what we want us to see. I particularly find that fact terrifying. That people have complete control over the exposure of the factors which determine how they're perceived. Facebook is a fantasy land. If one wants: to appear intelligent they can say their favorite books are "war and peace" and "the tipping point", to appear informed their favorite shows could be "anything on cnn" and "sportscenter." One's page depicts any role one wishes to play. To the extent of a relationship with another appearing of greater caliber than in reality. The fact of total control is not solely terrifying, its available on online dating sites. But those have something that facebook doesn't, doubt. People recognize others may dramatize their youth, physical attributes and salaries for the sake of attracting a mate. Doubt is non-existent on facebook. The general community trusts it, believes in it. If something appears on facebook its basis enough for its possible or actual occurrence. The most far fetched relationships seem possible when the heart icon appears upon a news feed. Just as everyone is shocked or pleased upon viewing the broken heart icon. Facebook is powerful. The power to turn two people against each other. For whenever one acts or presents evidence that conflicts the with the persona another is attempting to project, conflict arises.
The makers of facebook know how seriously the users take the program and how much time we spend on it and have developed brilliant ways to make it easier for us to stay logged in. The applications, the surveys, the fan pages, all accoutrement of a simpler grander idea. People love people. What two websites have had the largest growth in the last 5 years? Facebook and Youtube. What do they have in common? A simple premise, they're user fueled, Youtube is nothing but people watching videos other people posted. Facebook is nothing but following people's lives on what now is a momentary scale full of depictions of their events. People watching people. This is what the makers of these sites learned from reality shows. They projected the same response being the first big people watching people websites (after viewing the mistakes their predecessors made) that the first season of survivor received as television's first reality show. The human race likes to be considered as so unfathomably complex, yes its correct in some areas. But when it comes to what entertains us, what genuinely interests us, it is what other human beings are doing, how they live, who they're doing it with, what they're thinking. That in a way shows how self absorbed/curious we are, because we're what we want to know most about, we're what we're interested in. But I digress. If facebook is so simple and so fake..then why do we visit it several times a day, why is it the first website programmed into our heads to type into the address bar? I believe its for two reasons. One is because people are genuinely interested in what they're friends are doing (though some more than others). The other is that in some way we're in love with the ideal, the control. We all know the harsh realities of life, even the harsh realities of looking in the mirror. We all know that we're not exactly who we want to be in some aspect. Facebook takes that away. It portrays the topics, the fun loving social girl with 1000 friends from different locations. It glamorizes and glorifies that girl. But it doesn't show the details behind the topic, the insecurities that girl feels. That the reason shes so outgoing and has so many friends and people around her all the time is to distract her from her insecurities, that she really doesn't feel as attractive as all her friends tell her she is. No facebook doesn't show us that. It doesn't show us the tears. Afterall that's why we're all smiling in our photos. Because we don't want to see tears in our fantasy world, in our ideal. Hell we all see enough of them, cry enough of them even. I suppse a fake ideal is good..in a sense. Its therapeutic, its an escape from reality. The only real question is...
can you log out?..
Fakebook?
Ds&Ps
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