Think back to the first
time you remember Facebook changing their layout. You were probably
annoyed, a bit confused as to how the new functions worked, and
repeatedly asking yourself, "What was wrong with the old version?" Of
course, time passed, you adjusted, learned what stuff did what, and fell
back into a comfort zone. But in what seemed like no time at all,
Facebook changed again, and you were back to that annoyed, confused,
"What was wrong with the old version?" rant. Every time, the same old
thing. We complain, flood the News Feed with statuses whining about the
new layout, repeat over and over how much we hate Facebook, and within
two or three weeks, the flood subsides and we stop noticing the
difference, because it's not really as bad as we thought it was. We just
don't like that we have to take the time to re-learn how to use
Facebook.
I see this a lot, and I can guess that if you spend much time at all on Facebook, so have you. It's a long-running trend, really. Not complaining about Facebook so much as complaining in general. I'd estimate about 75% of the statuses I see in my News Feed are one person or another making a complaint about something either unimportant, or vague but personal. These aren't necessarily complaints that the individuals care to elaborate on, or talk about even face to face, privately. They just feel like letting people know that something in their life is amiss. I admit, I've been guilty of it on more than one occasion. Sometimes you just write up a status to see how people react to it. It's a commonplace practice that's slowly becoming habitual.
I'm convinced that people forget exactly what Facebook was created for in the first place. Despite what movies such as The Social Network (which I must confess, I haven't seen yet) seem to portray, Zuckerberg didn't build his empire off the concept that everybody wants in on everybody else's drama. Facebook wasn't designed specifically for people to be able to voice complaints to anybody that will listen, it wasn't created just so people could make themselves look cool or sexy by showing off pictures of themselves taken with a camera phone in a public bathroom making pouty faces in the mirror. Facebook isn't for bragging about that awesome party you went to last night and got drop-down drunk, even though you're only seventeen, and it's not so that parents can monitor their kids or ex's can spy on each other. Facebook was designed with one idea in mind- to stay connected. Keep in touch with friends, maybe make some new friends, and let everyone you care about know what's going on in your life.
However, in the last half a decade or so, Facebook has somehow mutated into a grotesque dinner theater of drama and meaningless showboating, because here on the internet, the whole world is your audience, so you have to always be "on." It's depressing, really, that we can take something so innovative and simple, and turn it into Jersey Shore.
Yeah. I went there. I can't stand that show. But that's a rant for another day.
I see this a lot, and I can guess that if you spend much time at all on Facebook, so have you. It's a long-running trend, really. Not complaining about Facebook so much as complaining in general. I'd estimate about 75% of the statuses I see in my News Feed are one person or another making a complaint about something either unimportant, or vague but personal. These aren't necessarily complaints that the individuals care to elaborate on, or talk about even face to face, privately. They just feel like letting people know that something in their life is amiss. I admit, I've been guilty of it on more than one occasion. Sometimes you just write up a status to see how people react to it. It's a commonplace practice that's slowly becoming habitual.
I'm convinced that people forget exactly what Facebook was created for in the first place. Despite what movies such as The Social Network (which I must confess, I haven't seen yet) seem to portray, Zuckerberg didn't build his empire off the concept that everybody wants in on everybody else's drama. Facebook wasn't designed specifically for people to be able to voice complaints to anybody that will listen, it wasn't created just so people could make themselves look cool or sexy by showing off pictures of themselves taken with a camera phone in a public bathroom making pouty faces in the mirror. Facebook isn't for bragging about that awesome party you went to last night and got drop-down drunk, even though you're only seventeen, and it's not so that parents can monitor their kids or ex's can spy on each other. Facebook was designed with one idea in mind- to stay connected. Keep in touch with friends, maybe make some new friends, and let everyone you care about know what's going on in your life.
However, in the last half a decade or so, Facebook has somehow mutated into a grotesque dinner theater of drama and meaningless showboating, because here on the internet, the whole world is your audience, so you have to always be "on." It's depressing, really, that we can take something so innovative and simple, and turn it into Jersey Shore.
Yeah. I went there. I can't stand that show. But that's a rant for another day.
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