The other night I was at the Yankee game with my roommate and her friend from high school. Her friend lived pretty far and was debating going home but feared she would miss the end of the game. I told her, “no need to worry, just check everyone’s Facebook status.” With that statement, I started to think about social networks and the dependence we have on them.
Before Facebook I remember using AIM to communicate with friends. I probably spent hours chatting with folks. Some may say that AIM had a heavy role in starting the whole social networking push however with AIM, you needed to be at a computer. Yes you could talk for hours seated at that computer, but you needed one for these conversations.
With AIM we had away messages where we quoted great thinkers on a variety of topics (mostly love lost or gained), left elusive messages that never related to what we were actually doing, put up messages that actually related to what we were doing, drunkenly typed out a strange combination of letters that let the world know that we probably couldn’t spell or see for that matter, and lastly utilized the ever popular default away message, “I am away from my computer right now.” That had to be the worst because you never knew, was the person really away, what were they doing while they were away and why couldn’t they just let you know where they were?
Let’s not forget the people who never followed AIM protocol by utilizing an away message. The really smart people hid their idle status so you never knew if they were there, hiding.
When AIM was our social juggernaut I believe people still used phones. I mean if you’re home by the computer then AIM was probably the best bet unless you had a long drawn out story that would be too long to type. If you weren’t by a computer then the phone would be the obvious choice to contact your peeps with that urgent message.
Today we’re in an era where everyone pretty much knows what’s going in other people’s lives. This knowledge could be true knowledge provided by a full and truthful profile, regular status updates and pic uploads, in addition to friend comments and wall posts. Or it could be what the owner of the page wants you to believe solely based on half-truths and supposition.
Example: You’re looking at dude’s page. There’s no relationship status. It says interested in women, looking for networking and friendship. You ration that he’s not using Facebook as a dating site which is why it doesn’t say “looking for dating, a relationship, even random play.” You look through pics. General pics of him with different women. No cuddly boyfriend-girlfriend pics. No vacation album. The wall has the same weak cyber flirting, nothing that screams relationship. So you assume said man is in fact on the market. Rather than ask, you assume. In all actuality, said man is happily dating said woman who has bought into his whole story about “not letting the world know their business” by opting to choose nothing as a relationship status.
AIM allowed us to chat with people but we didn’t really get to learn about people. Some had basic AOL profiles, while others jazzed up the info in that little section below the away message. Sometimes you’d add a quote, song of the moment, profound life lesson learned, something that gave the reader a glimpse into the inner workings of you. Facebook (and Myspace), provide us with a big ‘ol eyeful.
These social networks, Twitter included, have eradicated the need to speak. Before when something interesting happened you couldn’t wait to call your friend. Now we can’t wait to update our status. How many times have your found yourself in a situation where you uttered the words, “yo, I gotta update my status.”
A few years ago, updating your status was something most didn’t do and made fun of (myself included). Now there’s an entire site devoted to just that, You have the option of following people to read all of their status updates and essentially find out what they’re doing throughout the day. How about you make plans to go out with this friend and see their status updates “live?”
Earlier in the year, Facebook went so far as to suggest friends that you should have. Sometimes Facebook hit the nail on the head: yes we have 349 friends in common, we probably know each other. Other times Facebook missed the mark: we have 3 friends and common and we both went to Cornell. You graduated in 1983 and I graduated in 2005. No bueno Facebook.
Now Facebook suggests actions that you should take. “Hey you haven’t chatted with so and so in a while, send her message.” No Facebook, I haven’t chatted with so and so in a while and I’d like to keep it that way. Maybe we chat regularly in real life and don’t need to share our relationship with the world. Or maybe I really don’t want to talk to so and so. Either way, stay out of it.
I’m not sure exactly where we’ll be in 10 years with all of these social networks. I’m guessing most likely not talking, eagerly updating our status with every fleeting emotion and/or action, possibly following people (some we’ll never meet) just to be a part of their daily routine. Pretty much a whole bunch of silent stalking without human interaction.
Sigh….time to post this blog entry to my wall and update my status.
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