Facebook - FRIEND OR FOE?
It was perhaps on the first night i visited Pontins in Southport for Bugged Out that i understood how dominant facebook has become as part of general life. Only when i could not access it and the withdrawal symptoms occurred all weekend did i have this epiphany. In this far flung corner of Ainsdale, there was absolutely no signal running through my allegedly smart phone. I mean come on, surely in this glorious age of technology there would be a tiny whimper of signal anywhere on this globe, barring maybe the Sahara desert and in the middle of an ocean. But it certainly got me thinking about why i wanted access to it so badly.
In little more than ten years, if that, this behemoth of a website has immersed itself so far into modern day life. It is kind of difficult to remember the times we didn't have it. But of course we did. And before facebook, there was Myspace and before that my personal favourite as a horny 18 year old was MSN messenger. But in the glorious days of old, i certainly dont remember access to these sites being so universal, and it now feels that everyone and their mums has a profile page, and if you haven't got someone on facebook who lives within a ten mile radius, its hard to imagine they even exist.
Obviously the improvement in technology has meant that every detail of your life can be posted within mere seconds, and for many of the people out there, this means our walls are constantly filled with gossip, bitching and general bullshit. But we soak it up every day, we can't get through a dinner break without a quick skim over our newsfeeds and we cant get through a train journey without posting a status about it.
But is this everyday essential really a positive addition to our lives. Or is this actually having a negative impact on our social lives. We speak to our friends through instant messages, we can tell them everything that happens over the web but sometimes this can stop us from actually making plans to go and see people and tell them our stories face to face. You can sit in any bar on any given day and you are likely to see a group full of friends. Sitting with their phones out probably talking to each other over facebook. But no words are heard from their actual mouths.
And obviously another advantage of facebook is that we can do mass invites to all those parties/gigs/events we want all our friends to go to. Right? Wrong. And what do we do? We hit that maybe button. Poor turnouts can be found at any night that rely on facebook advertising. The best way to fill a room is still to spread the word yourself by talking face to face with people.
I could probably list a whole host of other things that grind on me every day when looking at my facebook news feeds, i hate how many kids photos are put up of kids doing fuck all with the hash tag bobbies first gargle, i hate it how now when celebrities die the rip bandwagon drives through my feed all day, i hate seeing those attention seeking girls posts that reads "OMG i am just so pissed off with life right now" and hate it further still when those creepy guys comment back "HUGS", i hate how many shit meme's are posted with the words "FUNNIEST THING EVER" above it and don't even get me started on Necknomination.
With all that said, there must be some redeeming features, and of course there are. Last months incredible no make up selfie campaign which raised all that money for Cancer research being a prime example of how good facebook can be when used in the right way, but my point is that so often we abuse this gift. We are all completely connected with each other every minute of the day, And too often our lives our full of the junk that is posted and the good shit is forgotten about, wedged between a post that reads "22 problems all people with resting bitch face will understand" and one that reads "Like and share this to win a free domino's pizza"
But hey, i am no facebook saint. i want my like count to rise and rise just as much as the next guy. And that really is the sad aspect of facebook. Too much is set up for people who just seek admiration on every detail of their life, instead of actually finding the admiration of that moment in their life. Is this rant a complete hypocrisy. The cynics among you will undoubtedly be saying "yes it is, as you are putting your views out there to see if anyone else shares it and clicks that glorous like button" And i couldn't really argue. Such is the nature of facebook, everything you say or do or share, is constantly scrutinised by your facebook acquaintances and yet we still do it.
Perhaps the point of this blog is purely just to see if anyone else is as frustrated as i am, at how much we cant live without this website that most of us will probably say we hate 50% of the time. But will i be deleting my account? No! Will i go and check my newsfeed now i have finished this blog? Yes. And to quote Mark Zuckerberg "The question isn't, 'What do we want to know about people?', It's, 'What do people want to tell about themselves?' I implore anyone who reads this though to make sure we don't waste what facebook can offer us, and use it for good, and for pity sake if i write a status. Hit Like!
