Of Convenience and the Digital Age

I know the subject is far from new and a number of people have beaten the topic to death, but just hear me out on this one. There still might be some semblance of life left in it.

Facebook has gotten the strangest and most confusing reputation I've seen in anything. People complain about how intrusive it can allow others to be [often referred to as stalkerbook for this reason] and how addictive all its functions make it. At the same time, people are flocking to it on a regular basis. I don't think we've come to be dependent on a parasitic entity, though. It's more of a symbiotic relationship born from mere convenience. Messaging, sharing links, sending invites to different events, creating digital 'clubhouses' for groups to meet and interact...Facebook makes it all so easy. It has so many functions built into it now that one doesn't really need to go anywhere else to socialize online. This makes it awesome for me because I don't like to use the phone anymore than I have to. In some instances, the phone is nicer and more convenient than anything online, but it is far from my preferred medium of communication. Above all else, I treasure face-to-face communication, but when that isn't an option, instant messengers and Facebook become my medium of choice. I don't mind txting too much, but unless you have Verizon [I can txt people on my network for free] we won't be having many conversations that way.

Anyways, the reason the whole topic of Facebook and our relationship with it came to mind was because of an occurance that I became aware of today. There is a person, of whom name, gender, and all other identifiers will be withheld, whom my acquaintance with has been manic-depressive, to put it quite mildly. I went onto one person's page to leave them a message and I saw this acquaintance had left a wall post there. This acquaintance had changed their profile picture and I decided to go to their profile to get a better look. Instead of being directed to their page, I was given the pop-up giving bare-bones information about the acquaintance and the set of options that include 'Add as friend.' Not much more than a month ago, this person and I spoke with decent frequency. We never had an argument or fight. I had noticed the acquaintance completely ignoring me when our paths cross anymore, which is frequent, but I figured it was nothing mroe than a phase like all the other phases. It didn't quite strike me as serious until I found out I was no longer their friend on Facebook.

Now, I know the initial reaction by most people I know about this sort of thing is 'See how seriously people take occurances on Facebook? It's sad.' I know this because I've been one to say that time and time again. This little event changes my perspective, though. When we want to know something and can't/won't use any direct methods to gain that knowledge, we become little sleuths that search for evidence to prove or disprove our personal theories and others we've heard. Facebook is a major method or interaction among people now, and it makes the gathering of evidence much easier and faster. We're not doing anything different...we're just using a faster and more convenient method to do the same things.

With that explained, you can't really blame me for taking the news that my acquaintance and I are no longer Facebook friends as a slightly serious matter. As far as I've ever observed myself and others doing on Facebook, the removal of someone from your friends list truly marks the end of any interaction you hope to have with that person. Now, I have my theories as to why this has happened, how serious this really is, and all that blah blah blah that in the end doesn't matter. That's not what is important here. What is important is analyzing Facebook for what it truly is instead of tacking on opinions and ideas that have only scratched at the surface. I challenge you all to take a close look at all the many parts of Facebook and create an educated point of view on it.

-Josh