I've been on Facebook for a while now. Sometimes I use it a lot; other times I don't really go on it at all. In a lot of ways, I think Facebook is very much like going back to High School-- and I didn't love high school. Well, I did like the socializing part. I think Facebook is popular because it is the new way to 'hang out', and some people take it very seriously. They think that it's actually important to report what little things they do to fill their days.
I think people are learning to socialize in a totally different way these days, and that is due in part to social networking sites like this one. I wonder if people are truly satisfied with socializing over the Net and how much face to face contact is actually going on. Though I like communicating with people over this site, I would still much rather meet someone in person for coffee to chat.
My next door neighbour is also one of my 'friends' on Facebook, and one day we both were on Facebook at the same time and started chatting with each other. Eventually she ended up just coming over-- we both laughed and thought it was a little absurd that we would be chatting over the Internet instead of her just popping round. But then that is what people might have thought about the telephone when it was a new medium for communication.
Another component of Facebook that I think is great is when you reconnect with someone you have lost touch with. I recently found a friend who I went to elementary school with and we got together and reminisced when she was visiting Calgary last year--- that was great. I like Facebook for staying in touch and for posting pictures. I think it can be a very useful way to communicate. But like when I was in high school, I sometimes think "why do some people have way more friends than me?"
No comments:
Post a Comment