People are People

Before Facebook it was Myspace. Before Myspace it was Xanga. Before Xanga it was Friendster-and the list goes on. When you think about it, people have always been addicted to the idea of knowing what other people are doing and, sometimes more importantly, sharing what they themselves are doing.

Before all of these sites existed, this concept was evident in other, less blatant ways. Instead of plastering your Facebook page with pictures of your new dog, you'd slap a Santa hat on him and send out a mass photo in a Christmas card. This is a natural human instinct to assume that everyone in the world cares about your new dog. It doesn't require a specific technological medium to tell your whole town that your kid made the honor roll, just buy the bumper sticker. Technology doesn't change the fact that no matter what, people will do whatever they can to find a way to put these things out there for the world. These days, it just happens to be on Facebook.

Also, I feel like the more easily we are able to accomplish this mass spreading of our personal lives, the less able we will be to give it up. If Facebook were to disappear tomorrow, would you lose sleep at night wondering if that girl from your Chemistry class ended up breaking up with her boyfriend? It sounds completely ridiculous, but I know plenty of people who wouldn't know what to do with themselves.

I don't see myself as "above" social networking. I too am a college student who is curious about the lives of the people around me, but I don't have a Facebook. I never have and I probably never will. Despite this, I was once an 9th grader struggling to decide who my top 8 friends should be on Myspace. I added pictures, looked at others, and was a huge part of the social networking world.

We are all people and we all feel as if we gain something from interacting this way. Besides instances of true threatening situations that tend to result from misuse of social network sites, I don't feel as if this is anything to be ashamed of. If it makes you feel better to know that someone else is "stuck studying, but still snacking on cookies!" because you happen to be doing the same thing with your Friday night, good for you. Just because someone uses Facebook doesn't mean they have forgotten how to interact person to person. Just because I check my e-mail a trillion times a day doesn't mean I am consumed by technology. I still call my mom on Mother's Day, I still watch football with my dad every Sunday, and I am still a human being that just happens to take advantage of the incredible technology placed at my fingertips.