OK, so I work in "higher education" with the national staff of a national fraternity (read higher education however you wish to), I have been to about 25 different college campuses in the course of the past eight and a half months and I have seen the rise of the new internet hobby. The new crack, the new AIM. It is called "THE FACEBOOK" and it's existence borders on unholy.
More and more computers have dragged individuals further and further away from actual human contact. First was the chat rooms, then AIM became a craze (one that I was sadly sucked into), and now this Facebook thing. It has taken meeting people to a whole new level of laziness.
You don't actually make friends, you list individuals in your "Buddy List". Everything is virtual. You don't even have to post your own picture for goodness sake.
Sure you get to meet loads of people who have a common interest, but seriously, of all the people that I have seen who have Facebook accounts, they all belong to close to 10 groups at a minimum and when they go through their buddies, they are usually going on about how they never talk to anyone, but it's always cool just to collect friends.
We are powerless to stop The Facebook. The best we can do is pray and hope that it evnetually crashes into itself.
Dude you are so right about how computers have given us an inability to be social. It's ridiculous. Whatever happened to going out & meeting people? Hell, I am as guilty as anyone. I don't feel bad about sitting in my living room by myself gettin shit-faced as long as I am talking to people online or playing poker or euchre with people online. I am still doing something, i am still in a social setting (albeit a virtual one) & so somehow that makes it ok. I often step back & look at how my own social ability has downgraded since becoming an avid internet junky & it makes me sad. Still, at least I can say that I have not stooped so low as to facebook myself. If I ever get to that point, I will simply have to gouge my eyes out with a tomato corer.
Posted by: Eddie Zyglis | April 19, 2005 at 01:15 PM
Don't you find it the least bit hypocritical to complain about Facebook on a weblog?
Posted by: Randy | April 19, 2005 at 02:54 PM
I see your point Randy, but no I don't really think this is hyporcritical especially since I have raised this point all semester long in my travels and i have bitched about it in bars with real people, long before i brought it to the web.
Posted by: Jim Beanan | April 19, 2005 at 07:51 PM
Whether you bitched about in bars prior to bringing it online is irrelevant. What is relevant is that sites like this (and Radical Cowboys, and the Subliminal Messages, and the Freefall Account, and a slew of other sites) revolve around a virtual web community where people often don't know each other. It's the same thing as facebook (or Myspace, or Friendster), only with designated discussion points (and no goofy pictures).
I mean, sure, the conversations and comments left on those sites appear, at first, to be far less poignant than the ones on weblogs. Then again, though, those sites serve different goals- keeping people in touch with one another. I know that, through Myspace, I've gotten in touch with a ton of people who I thought had dropped off the face of the planet, and thereby have built myself a nice little network. I rarely interact with everyone on there, but, should I need help with something or other, it's a neat little resource to have.
As for facebook, well...it serves no purpose for me, because the graduate student section isn't their forte. However, were I a few years younger, I'd likely use it a lot more.
Posted by: Randy | April 24, 2005 at 08:49 PM
For the record, I don't use facebook because I want to, my fiancee was going to post an account for me so I had to beat her to it. I don't actually use it, it is just sorta there.
Posted by: Eddie Zyglis | April 25, 2005 at 04:33 PM
I've never even HEARD of this so called Facebook until Jim's post. I'm curious to see how it all functions, but since I get on AIM these days about as often as the Brewers playoff appearances in the last 20 years, I probably wont bother looking into it.
Posted by: Big J | April 28, 2005 at 06:23 PM
I think Facebook is as well as myspace should become obsolete and wiped from the earth. Its so private that you would never know what some1 is up to. I say this because I date some1 who lives 100miles away. Many of these things come off as more of dating services. I don't know what my some1 is up to; but if they are up to something it would be best to just know the old fashioned way. Sure it may only be internet flirting, and they never really talk in person. Its still bad though. It drives me crazy not knowing anything. It also is like "hey this is me, this is what I like, now you know so you can BS your way into my pants...".
Posted by: Jon | September 01, 2005 at 05:52 AM
jim beanan...you my friend are a racist...end of story
Posted by: grand master hiram abiff | February 25, 2009 at 02:54 PM