That feature on Facebook that allows a user to say that he or she is "interested in" an event has been confusing me lately. You used to just be able to say "yes," "maybe," or "no" to an event. But for some events now you can opt that you're "interested."
For some, the "maybe" button and the "interested in" button might be analogous. But the addition of the "interested in" button is starting to get me mad.
Every time I scroll through my feed, I see really interesting events that would be interesting to basically anyone that would see it--Shakespeare in the Park, Beyonce at Gillette, a certain author doing a book signing, etc. Who wouldn't be interested in that?
The part that really drives me crazy about the "interested in" button is that people just use it to show off how cultured they are. They know that they don't have enough money, time, or real interest or knowledge to see Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 conducted by some hot shot Austrian conductor, but they want all of their Facebook friends to see their interest and be impressed by it.
Bottom line: everyone's interested, and none of us is going.
I'm not falling for it. Just because you express interest on a webpage doesn't make you adventurous, intelligent, well-versed, or worthy of my envy.
But what's the broader implication of such a vicious, blunt attempt at creating a social-media persona determined to propel their imagined selves to a higher intellectual level than the rest of us? It swims the same stream as most other trends on the internet today: trying to be someone you're not, for whatever reason.
If MTV's Catfish: The TV Show is the most extreme felony of this, being "interested in" an event is a minor malfeasance. But yet, how far can this go? Everybody starts somewhere, and everything used to be something else.
I'm not saying that clicking a button that denotes interest in an event is overly similar to catfishing someone by pretending to be someone whom you are not, but it sure is annoying.
We're all interested if it's something interesting; you don't have to tell us.
