Facebook :)

The greatest irony of Facebook is the title which is never explained or discussed in the article. In the virtual world neither does anyone meet face to face and neither does language or the art of reading books seem an important part of this mode of communication.” Generation Why? “ indeed as the title cleverly prompts. Do we really need this new invention, and why has it become such an important part of 500 million and counting peoples lives. Did we not get excited that we can be connected by text and instant messaging and email? Did we not marvel that we can carry a mobile phone with us 24/7 and can be in constant touch with anyone around the world? Then why the need for this limiting form of communication called Facebook whose rules we have to live by, whose set format we have to follow like sheep. Why this herd mentality for a device that robs us of our own freedom, privacy and creativity? I think deep down people want their 15 minutes of fame, they want to be a celebrity and feel famous. There is also a social status that people want to achieve. We can now can Google our name and read about ourselves in the way previously only a celebrity could. Yes we are now all celebrities. We add endless so called friends to show how popular we are. But how many of these people do we really know, or even meet. How many of these people will cry at our funeral or even attend? Facebook leads to insecurities galore and now we have another medium to feel small. Earlier you felt left out when you didn’t have a date at the prom or were not picked for the team or were left out of party invite. Wasn’t that bad enough ? Now we wonder why we don’t get enough friend requests or birthday wishes despite the set reminders and desperately hope our “friends” will place kind comments and press the like button of our pictures. Nothing has changed our medium has simply changed. We are still being judged and placed in social hierarchy.

But why the desire to gaze into the lives of others and tell the world about our thoughts, our activities our lives? I think Facebook is perceived as a safe place to get things off our chest, a form of therapy. So we put our status as “sad today” and wait for an outpouring of sympathy or a pat in the back for any small achievement we have Deep down we are all voyeurs who slow down to check a car crash. In the same way we are like flies on the wall checking on the profiles of our old school friends or the like. We snigger if ex boyfriends have not amounted to much or have gained weight. And we do all this in a safe environment in the comfort our own homes. But the question arises how safe are we? Surely there are greater forces who have our information and are monitoring our every move like a virtual Big Brother. Privacy is a big concern in Facebook and a controversial one. Facebook has just introduced a facial recognition technique without informing its users. This will invade our personal privacy as it automatically identifies people in photos without their knowledge. Are we browsing into trouble? Yes, but most users are oblivious to the fact.

There is of course a sinister side to Facebook. People put up fake profiles and fake profile pictures. They can pretend to be someone else and live a secret life far removed from their actual lives. They can chat with strangers and be the person they only fantasized about. Of course there are lurking dangers when phaedophiles lure young unsuspecting victims to their lair. Wolf in sheep’s clothing or computer geek pretending to be a handsome hunk to chat to women, who knows in the virtual world of make beleif.

I think we need to learn to reconnect to communication of the old fashioned kind. Technology is a wonderful tool for business and at times personal. But ask yourselves do you always want to eat at Mcdonalds or once in a while would you like to enjoy a meal at a fancy In the same way would it not be nice to receive a letter, speak on the phone or actually meet over a cappuccino. I fear where we are heading in our virtual lives which instead of giving us more leisure time is robbing us of our time as our lives become more busy. This reminds me of a movie I once saw when a bunch of friends never meet. They even dated and broke up online without ever meeting. Human interaction loses its human touch when we are sucked into the virtual machine.

Lets face it. We can live successful, productive and social lives without Facebook. Did we not do so before its inception? Its time to take our lives back and unfriend Mr Zuckerberg.