Several
months back, I got an e-mail from some strange guy who had seen my blog and
wanted me to join this site called Storylane. I ignored it at first, unsure of
what this strange thing was but knowing I probably didn’t want anything to do
with it. I got another e-mail. Bear checked it out for me. I gave in and made
an account the old fashioned way, by not linking it to Facebook. I had no
interest in my experimentation with this site showing up on my newsfeed. Long
story short, graduation was looming and the idea of all the free time I would
have was suddenly like a fantastic, delicious desert just out of reach and
Storylane was the cherry on top, along with Goodreads. It’s a fun site for
random writings, just something on the side to enjoy. I’m the type of person
that blogs and other writings I post online are written beforehand and saved on
my computer. I don’t do that with Storylane. Like I said, random and short
writings. It was purely for fun,
Fast-forward
to the present. I received e-mails and saw postings about it on Storylane
itself, that it was joining forces with Facebook. Inevitable right? If this
site was so successful, it was only a matter of time before the rat pack
decided they wanted in on it. It has, along with many other things, made me
question how big Facebook is becoming in our day to day lives. I’ve heard it’s
losing popularity and I could believe that. It’s the Internet. Trends come and
go. Websites rise and fall. But aside from all that, think of how many times
you check your Facebook a day. How many pieces of your life are linked to
Facebook? Your friends, family, your religion, political leanings, likes,
dislikes, and even what you had for dinner last night.
A writer on
Storylane made the point that Facebook has not changed the way we connect, it’s
just given us a platform that most of us like and can deal with, pouring our
information into it like there’s no tomorrow. Is this a bad thing? Not
necessarily, but it does raise the question, especially since this site isn’t
just for friends and family anymore. You add your colleagues and sometimes even
your boss as friends and suddenly this place to see cute pictures of your
newest baby cousin has become a professional network as well. It’s like the
biggest smash up of home and work life we’ve ever known. So it becomes a
question of how much information you want out there for the entire world to
see.
As far as I
know, Facebook is one of the only platforms on the Internet where so many
people I know gather at once. It’s also a place that makes it easy to say far
too much. I’m not sure what it is, but I’ve even caught myself on the verge of
posting something I shouldn’t. Something that was really no one’s business but
my own. Facebook is more than social media, it has become a diary, an itinerary,
and a rant board. People say and post things they shouldn’t, things that could
hurt them when an employer decides to take a peek at their page. This should be
common knowledge now, but people still do it, because the greatest downfall of
the Internet is that it gives a false sense of security.
I’m one of
the worst Facebook addicts out there. I’ve considered deactivating my account
several times, both of them. But for one reason or twenty, I never go past just
thinking about it. The information is already there. You cannot permanently
delete it. Even what you delete, a good IT guy could gain access to. I don’t
think people realize that. What’s the big deal about having all of that
information about yourself out there? Well, from a person who has her old fart
moments at twenty-one, sometimes it’s just downright creepy. Even with privacy
settings, it’s creepy.
It’s like suddenly, there’s two
hundred to five thousand people standing in your living room while you teach
your child to walk for the first time, just for example. And the worst part is
that it’s almost a necessary evil. Friends move away, whether it be thirteen
hours south or across an ocean and they know that Facebook is the best way to stay
in touch. Before I graduated, my English professors were doing an exit
interview with me and how to contact me came up, since my college e-mail
account will be terminated at some point. They don’t have my personal e-mail in
their address books, but we’re all friends on Facebook. Because so many people
use it, it’s become the best way to stay in touch. Because people don’t write
e-mails or letters anymore. We rarely call, occasionally text.
If Facebook has changed the way we
interact, it’s only to make us lazier. Why call up your friends to hang out
when you can just shoot a Facebook message and walk away to do something else
until they reply?
Facebook wants to know everything
from your date of birth to your orientation to your religion to your political
leanings. We control how much information we put down, but really, I like
looking at profiles with a lot of information because I find it fascinating to
learn about other people. I love looking at people’s pictures and seeing how
they live their lives. That aspect of it is awesome, but it’s double edged
sword.
In the
twenty-first century, we have so many ways of connecting that it’s made us
complacent about our human interaction. Far too complacent. And still, the
first thing we think when we make a new friend in real life is “I wonder if
he/she has a Facebook. Should I add him/her?”
And the
saddest thing about it? While I write this post, I’m flipping back and forth to
Facebook, and when I post it, I’ll share it to Facebook. This is more than a
little ridiculous. Gods save me from social media addiction.
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