The creation of a facebook profile, in my opinion, automatically comes with the added assumption that people actually give a shit about who you are. We just can't wait to let everyone know where we are, what we're doing. The girls are preparing what I can only liken to a conga line, setting up for their next 'profile pic', and the boys are buffing and tanning getting ready for the perfect shirtless-at-a-festival photo op, and they all just can't wait to show everyone. Friends like and comment it, even Grandma has a page and she raves a negative comment about the openess of today's youth and tells you to put a shirt on; but let's face it guys, Grandma's always right. I mean, about everything, not just the shirt thing.
Today I was confronted with this really snooty feature of facebook called Privacy settings. It just makes no sense. Facebook's purpose is to create publicity for our lives. The other day, a friend of mine noticed that someone who is not listed as my friend, commented a photo of mine. "Do you feel comfortable with that?"..."Yeah," I said. "That would make me feel really wierd, that anyone can look at photos of me," she replied. Well why do you have facebook then, I thought. I mean I know a lot of people say, Oh It's a great way to stay in touch with friends and blah blah, Bullshit. I know that before facebook I was able to stay in touch with friends just fine, and I also didn't waste four hours of my day at a computer desk doing it.
To be honest, I didn't have many photos up before I came overseas, but since I had some exciting stuff to show, I wanted to show anyone who was interested; friends or not. I know I'm lame for admitting it but, I also got facebook because I like to think people would look at it. Admittedly it gets a little wierd when 'Tim is on his second sprite for the day' is being shoved down your throat; but that's what you signed up for. If you want to limit your publicity to a handful of people then you may as well write your posts on a piece of paper and stick it on the fridge at home for everyone to see.
I noticed the year following my subscription to facebook I had at least 10 times the amount of people wish me a happy birthday, assuming sincerely. It made me realise that maybe we don't actually believe people care, rather we want to make people care. So we create this constant reminder about our birthdays, and our daily activities and recent photos to force people to look. Whether they take notice or not, it seems the solace comes in the feeling of being newsworthy anyway; we're in that feed.
Facebook is, by default, a publicity machine and an unstoppable monster. Accept it and embrace it.
