Maybe once but no more than three times a day, I'll check on my social media platforms. I'll scroll through my feeds to see what everyone else is feeding me and the next thing I know I'm liking and searching down the wormhole of the internet. The habit is its own trending Tweety bird that everyone follows.
At the end of the day when that Instagram sun sets, what can we look forward to? Another three-course breakfast we won't have in the morning or a supercar and supermodel we wish we had. Time management is a priority before posting and sharing ever is and what I use social media for is not how I see myself in real life.
"In real life" is still a phrase and until this life becomes the Matrix, I don't see why Facebook quantifies friendships and relationships. You might have over a thousand friends but how many of those friends do you know? How about on a first-name basis? People are not numbers, but I guess the number of people you know, have known, will never know, is socially acceptable and desired.
This friendship bracelet can't be worn online. Anything you do offline can't be done the same online. Rather than submit to the reality of friends you meet and talk to, we hold onto that keyboard, that app to keep a connection alive.
Facebook friends are social conveniences that confirm and celebrate connections without the validation of a friendship. People from high school I remember seeing, even talking to briefly, have added me on Facebook. Because I'm friendly and I left some impression on them, I will do the same.
My decision to be friends however didn't need a login and password. I recognized these people, admittedly sometimes vaguely, but the moment we became Facebook friends, the conversations lasted just as long.
Mark Zuckerburg says it best, and worst, about what you get with the internet and Facebook: "A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa." That's Zucked up.
Right now, Facebook is a dying squirrel, belly up and still twitching with what little life it has. If it's not advertisement or the abuse of privacy, it's the AI nipple police and a new dating service that Facebook is milking for all it's worth.
Like Google, Facebook changed its motto from something you would read in a dystopian novel to a statement of social awareness, inclusion, and action. The services may be free to use but are not used for free.
Instead of reading that dystopian novel and learning its precautionary tale, we're reading a wall of text that satisfies someone's echo chamber without discernment. We latch onto immediate interests, like a string of posts without a second thought and wonder why the person's shoes we step into don't fit.
We forget that connecting and networking online can become a blinking twelve problem if we do not make these connections offline. Facebook promises social interaction but like any social media, the medium all too often becomes the message.
So please, don't add me on Facebook, but if you have, go ahead and unfriend me too. Our relationship won't be complicated or made "Facebook Official."
Face me like an open book and let's be friends.
