facebook is interesting. i sometimes feel like our generation is becoming more and more like the borg...a collective hive of people who don't really care. bad direction for humanity to be taking? yes! just watch a couple episodes of star trek, the next generation, would ya?
my birthday is during the summer, and i'd like to think most of my friends know that. now on facebook, i entered my birthday as the 1st of january, because in general i hesitate to make public personal information about myself. so on the 1st of january everyone sees that it's my birthday on facebook, and the say "happy birthday!". normal, no?
another example. i was recently joking with a good friend that we could get married. so we set our statuses on facebook as "engaged", but didn't mark it as engaged to each other. within the next day she gets a bunch of "congratulations!" comments on her wall...and me? i get nothing. i think it's funny..maybe because people realize i'm probably not really, and that she really could be for all they know.
the interesting part is that everyone just simply said "congrats" and left it at that. now...when you find out a friend is engaged...don't you want to find out everything? who is it? when's the wedding? how did they meet? and so on..? i guess not...not facebook friends.
another friend of mine (yes, a facebook friend, but above and before that a friend in real life) wrote a note (on facebook) about friendship, where she talked about the difference between knowing someone, and knowing about someone. people are in general friendly. in some places they can be even overly so..for example some people (probably from utah) seem to feel like they have to give you this awkward smile and half-nod when you walk past them. it weirds me out. anyway, the point is people want to be nice..but they're busy and have lots to do, so it's hard to make a real friend these days. especially when you can just add them on facebook and be facebook friends, right? it's easier that way. you just have to say happy birthday, congrats, and maybe hello now and then.
i would take elisa's idea a step further and say there's a huge difference between real friends and facebook friends. i believe it's possible to become good friends with someone over the internet, just writing or talking online. but..it takes more than an "add me", just like in real life it takes more than just a simple conversation about the weather :)
soo..next time you see a friend who facebook says is 96 years old...or who it says just got engaged...don't just say happy birthday, or congrats! that's like being just one more of the borg collective, plugged into your little facebook account and pretending to care about one of your many facebook friends (hundreds? how many do you have?). let's not become a collective hive of people who don't really care about each other, eh? ask that friend a question..learn something about them and what is happening in their life. if they're happy, be happy with them. if they're sad, offer them your shoulder to cry on, etc.
come on people! i still believe in humanity...just like picard! let's not be assimilated, ok? resistance is not futile!
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i noticed it said you were engaged today, but i figured that if you were really engaged, we probably would have heard something about it... oh and, i don't even have facebook tell people when it's my birthday and it's interesting to see how many people actually remember that it's my birthday.
ReplyDeleteyou should have asked. maybe i really am engaged and am still keeping it a secret :)
ReplyDeleteHey good points. Modern technology- helps us communicate in so many ways, and yet if we are not careful it makes communication very superfiscal. There is only so much deducing you can do as to someone's real intent, their emotion and sincerity.
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