I am the outsider who is mocked and pitied for NOT having a Facebook page. There are so many benefits, they tell me. Pictures, old friends re-kindled, even family bonds are strengthened among this community. These are good things, I must admit.
But, I fear that this on-screen "reality" captivates so many. People are reduced to random still shots from their camera phone. Conversations are shortened to sentences, even single letters. Privacy is a quaint modesty from the past. Emotions are expressed as little humorous icons. Time is wasted on caring for a farm that doesn't exist.
It began to bother me when my real-time friends began discussing their life on Facebook. Who was doing what? Did you see what so and so said? How's your farm today? It was not jealousy because I was left out. Rather, it was silent shock at the irrelevance of their concerns. This mass movement of media is not simply a game played in free time. Facebook has changed our reality even outside of the cyber-world.
The sad part is, everyone is enamored with the new reality. Where friendship is a number game, where intimacy is entirely public, where I think about me - not us.
I hope my children will never be limited to living on Facebook.
Our FACE in a BOOK page!
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