But Facebook isn’t true communication. Yes, it may be the new age way to communicate with friends. But there is no truth to it. You type something in and post it, you’re not just posting a message to your friends, you’re inviting the entire world to read your comments, your likes, your dislikes. And it knows no bounds. When we post something on Facebook, we are aware that everyone is watching. There is a danger in that. If you are offended by something someone said to you, you must retaliate. You are sharing a conversation with an audience and if reality TV shows or the news itself is any indicator, we change who we are when all eyes are on us. Facebook and social networking may be the way we communicate in the future, but it is a damn spectacle and something that will prove to annihilate honest conversation. At least via the internet.
Just the other day, my cousin Rui passed away. I love you and miss you. I met her years ago when I was a child, but we reconnected this summer at a family reunion. I received a call from my mother the other night and she informed me that Rui, my cousin, had passed away. That was tough to hear and I was surprised at how my mother had found out. She was on her Facebook page and instead of getting a phone call from family to break the news, she found out on Rui’s brother’s Facebook page which announced the passing of his sister. This was the fault of any body, this is just an example of the speed at which information travels these days.
This speed in information also had me wondering: Has this generation finally found a way to turn ourselves into our own version of celebrity? When I say this, I don’t mean it in the sense that the paparazzo follows us wherever we go, but in essence that is also true. We have heard stories of celebrity family members finding out about deaths through the news media rather than from a loved one themselves. Facebook and social networking makes this same scenario probable for all people, not just those in the limelight. The question of whether it is right or wrong is irrelevant because this is the nature of things. When human beings who are always striving for more find something that makes their lives seemingly easier we do not revert from this discovery, no, we immerse ourselves and sometimes overindulge ourselves in our findings. Soon, to find information about any thing going on in the world or centrally in your own lives you will look no further than your own Facebook page. It seems to me, finding out about the death of a loved one in something as passé as a post on a website is something that will take some getting used to. But this is how it will always be, from here on out. We post our doctor visits, our despairs, our triumphs, our hates, anything that we feel— we post. People comment on these things, we check our pages frequently to see if any one commented on our own comments, and yes they usually do. We use our Facebook’s to humiliate others, to test one’s feelings, the bounds of this online community is limitless.
As I stated earlier, in our own personal celebrity, we even have the paparazzi to look out for. Let’s say Angela goes to a party at Debra’s. Angela has a bit too much to drink and starts shotgunning beers and shaking her ass in front of a camera. Uh oh. Tomorrow morning Debra’s posted her pictures, without Angela’s consent and there for all to see is Angela’s big fat ass dropping it like it’s hot right in front of the lens. And what’s more, you run your cursor over Angela’s badunk and a little tag pops up calling her out: Angela Bottom. Yikes. In essence we are as much in danger of the paparazzi as any actress or debutante, but those behind the camera are our friends, our acquaintances and those we know by name.
This information is everything we already know. Everyone is fully aware that whatever they put on Facebook is not and will forever not be private (and if this is your first realization then I’m glad I could be of service). Every bit of information you put on the internet has the capability to be hacked and read to the world. We know this, but we don’t care. And I have a feeling we don’t care because Facebook, Twitter, social-networking and the world wide web have become home. By nature human beings are social creatures and each new technology that brings us to a new way to communicate we will descend upon it like a fat kid and cake. Or whatever better metaphor you can think of.
And just because social-networking has become the norm, this doesn’t mean that we can’t be smart about what we post and how we do it. I was watching V for Vendetta just the other day and a quote from Natalie Portman’s character Evey got me thinking: “Artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up.”
I believe that all human beings are artists. Most of us want the truth no matter how ugly it may be. Social-networking has clouded truth in a very clever way, in that we are publishing the lies to our own public to cover our own truth. We are slipping slowly into a politician’s suit. Don’t believe everything you read. Don’t believe every post you see on Facebook. Don’t believe every word that comes out of a broadcast journalist’s mouth. I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I do know that if one ordinary person can publish lies to their own friends, what makes you think that CNN, MSNBC or FOXnews has any qualms about twisting their words around to make the news more palatable.
We are stumbling upon a new age of communication and interaction, and while many believe that this is the dawn of a new era for secrets to be revealed and no dirty secrets to lie hidden, I see social networking and our reliance on its power as a way for us to become even more tangled between the presence of truth and lies. It is a new technology that makes us become ever more aware of ourselves and egotism. This is the “Me” generation, and the more comments and “likes” you get on your page, the more the audience wants, the more the audience gets. Our increasing concern on how we are perceived by others is overwhelming.
On another note, let us also be aware of what the internet is doing to information in general. About ten years ago, the internet wasn’t trusted as a go to source for research purposes and for finding answers to our history, science or other academic questions. Wikipedia was banned from all bibliography’s and work’s cited pages. These days, our reliance on sites like Wikipedia have become more and more tolerable. We must all remember that Wikipedia is a site where anyone who may think they have the real information can post it. This is a dangerous medium. Who do you know these days who actually goes to the library to find information from tangible books? How many times have you wanted to find information on somebody so you go directly to Wikipedia to get the rundown? I know you do it, because I do it all the time. It’s a fast and easy way to get information on virtually any topic. But here is my concern.
Let’s use the grass as an example. Everyone knows that the grass is green. Let’s say one day Wikipedia decides to post that grass is actually blue. This information stays on the site for years. People don’t pay much attention, pass it off as a joke, whatever. Regardless of why, the information stays on the site. Over the years, tangible books become condensed into your Ipads, Nooks, and Kindles and before you know it, libraries no longer house real books, just computers. Kids go on to Wikipedia over the many years and read the grass is blue. New books start to publish stories in which the grass is blue. And one day, it becomes a truth that the grass is blue.
I know this is an over-the-top example, but I believe in less general areas, information can morph into something completely different. And distorting information has never been easier, especially at such a transitional time in our country’s history.
We are in an era where a large portion of our wars are fought in the air, without any men in the cockpit. This is a great advance, putting less of our soldiers in danger. But what of the psychological effects on its participants, and their understanding of what it actually means to press that button and release that missile. Twenty years from now our entire view of war will change. We will pull almost all of our soldiers out of the battlefield and we will all fight from our own soil. On the surface this seems a perfect solution to the war tactics we presently use: Our young men dying in the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan, Thousands of men coming home in body bags every day. And, oh what a solution! Bring them all back home and let them fight with a remote control. Let’s dehumanize the fight. Let technology do the fighting for us. Great. In theory. I don’t want innocent men dying. I will never want that. But once you take the real men out of the fight. What do you have? You have a video game. War is all a game, yes. But does any one see the sheer lunacy of a war without men. The effects of the war will not be the same. Killing will become routine. It will be as easy as pressing the ‘On’ button on your TV and flipping the switch on your game console. Press ‘X’ for a shotgun. Press ‘Y’ for a grenade. Press ‘A’ for the atom bomb.
Men have always wanted to advance, with both speed and precision. There is no turning back, but I believe through thought and awareness of what our future could hold is important. This generation of youths will determine how this technology is used in the future. Will we be able to use this ‘power’ to our benefit and keep ourselves human? I think movies like Terminator and iRobot got it all wrong. Man-made robots will not become self-aware and try to take over, but WE, the human beings will become the automations and we may turn ourselves into the very thing we fear.
So, enjoy social media, technology, lightning sped information and all the wonders it brings, but I hope we can all stay at an inquisitive distance from its powers so we don’t lose sight of its dangers.
