I really struggle with Facebook. It's a very weird thing to log on and observe updates from people I have very little interaction with, and interact with people I have very little in common with. I have over 416 "friends" on FB, and regularly interact with maybe 3 or 4 of them. The rest are peripheral observances of people who no longer represent an individual voice as much as they regurgitate the paradigmatic rantings of a demographic and cultural/political lean (I'm sure I fit into that box for many of my FB friends). Sometimes they will "like" my status update or comment on another FB friend's comment. I've come to realize that Facebook is just as effective as a weapon in expressing, whether it's passively or aggressively, your general dislike of someone you apparently call a "friend". I seem to be concerned with this, because I want to be liked and I want to like everyone (It's a condition those of us with addictive personalities tend to suffer from).
Anyone who is on Facebook and believes that there aren't a myriad of their FB friends who haven't blocked their posts or unfriended them because it's easier than actually confronting someone is probably deluding themselves. Also, that's no reason at all to even worry about that person. As my friend in this post said: "Why would I waste a second of mental energy on my enemies, when I can take comfort in the thought of my friends, people like you?" Well, I can actually think of one right now: 1. Because they're making some sort of effort to effectively ignore, thereby erase you from what information they take in from the world. At worst, they talk shit about you, at best, they just simply forget you exist.
But...why do I even put any effort into worrying about that? At worst, they'll convince people who want them to be in their favor but know nothing about me that I'm not worth knowing, and at best they'll alienate others who see that kind of backstabbing as indicative of a real winner. There's no reason to believe that I'm not that person to a myriad of my FB "friends" who haven't hidden my posts by now. And I find myself worrying about it when really, I shouldn't. Life is full of people who think they have the right answer for others, and it's just a matter of time until those others come around to their way of thinking...or is that really the case? Do we all sit around thinking that we know the way of the world? I know I certainly do. It's not the greatest thing to admit, but I can't escape that the world makes sense to me, even though it really pisses me off that I can't always be happy in the uncontrollable chaos of it all.
The long and short of it is that the main function of Facebook in my mind is not to change the landscape and quality of human interaction between acquaintances, but to allow for quicker access to that interaction. The quality of the interaction in fact, is lessened. Rich depth of communication due to body language, eye contact, tone of voice, and surrounding is removed. We're merely advertising our current marketing techniques for 'Brand "ME"', and 'Brand "YOU"'. Our fears, petty differences, passive/aggressive behaviors, many of them holdovers from grade school cliquishness seem to remain for the most part. Have some of my FB friends changed since I knew them in grade school? Sure. They've either had profound religious or ethical dilemmas that have caused a large paradigmatic shift, but their behavior still exhibits petty little snipes or just the right amount of cold indifference to make a point that I've somehow irritated them. Or maybe it's just that I keep thinking I'm the center of the universe and any time the nature of my interaction changes with someone it upsets me as well. Am I that different from those I've just described? I think, not so much Andy, not so much.
Facebook: What's YOUR point?
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