I was one of the first students at my high school to get Facebook. At that time, it had just opened up to high schoolers in addition to college students. I got hooked via my sister. Once I was on, all my high school buddies thought this new toy was amazing and immediatly joined with me.
razy. I personally haven't seen "The Social Network", the movie about the making of Facebook, but I guess the tagline is true: "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies".
During our last journalism class, we talked about things we liked and things we didn't like in the media. One student brought up the point that it takes away the interpersonal communication with friends. Professor Alloway came off that comment with a story about a guy's daughter and her friends being completely silent while he drove them to a movie. When asked about this the daughter replied that her and her friends were texting each other. In the same car. This is insane!
Today's society is much better at multi-tasking. People can be texting and talking to another person face-to-face at the same time. I tend to lean towards to side that when I am with a friend face-to-face, each of us should make an effort to be completely there, otherwise it's just rude.
Branching off of this comment of interpersonal communication, I personally do not like what Facebook has done to our society, as far as this form of communication goes. Before Facebook and cell phones, if you had something you needed to tell someone, you would wait until you got home from school or work and call them via your landline. It wasn't that big of a deal. Now, I can text my friend and tell her a funny story about my teacher before class starts. It's not important, but I can do it. I can keep in touch with all the important people in my life without even actually speaking to them...whether I see these people everyday or they live in a different state.
Status updates are what I can not stand. I don't really care if you are going to go make a Target run. I don't care if you are sitting in class bored out of your mind. You don't need to announce that to the world. I don't really want to hear you whine about your pathetic problems to your Facebook audience. It makes you look childish and needy and I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want my Facebook friends to think that about me.
Another part of Facebook that really pushes my buttons is relationship statuses. When I was in high school and Facebook was just getting popular with the younger kids, to be in an "official relationship", Facebook had to confirm it. This defeats the purpose of a mature, adult relationship. People shouldn't care whether or not everyone knows about your relationship. A relationship is between two people. Not those two people and their Facebook audience. Go ahead. Look on my Facebook page. Does it say, "Megan is single" or "Megan is in a relationship". Nope. Because I don't care if the whole world knows whether or not I am "single" or "taken". Actually, I do have a boyfriend. The only people who know are the people who care to me. I don't have to announce it to the world.
Ok. I will now thank my computer and you for my little venting session. If you've read this far you should get an award. And maybe some chocolate.
Muchos gracios (my Spanish teacher said today to start to use Spanish more in our everyday lives!) Hasta luego!
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