Brian and I watched The Social Network one night last week. The same day, I checked my own facebook two or three times, "like"d some things, posted a link on Brian's wall (a little Valentine's gift hint), and was told a story about two old family friends who connected via facebook and then had a (as the story-teller put it) "fairy tale" romance.
I never thought I would hear the words "facebook" and "fairy tale romance" in the same sentence.
Now this week I am essentially giving up facebook (and other internet distractions) for five days in an effort to break my intense time wasting habits. And it is hard.
All this is to say it is absolutely insane that one man and one corporation has so much control and influence over our daily lives. In the communication course I TA'd for last semester I doubt there was a week in which facebook was not mentioned at least once, including the day we discussed a news story in which a man PROPOSED by asking in his status update and his lady accepted by LIKING IT and writing about her excitement in her own status update. Just yesterday we talked in another class about a study asserting that the facebook 'relatonship status' is literally changing the way we as as society go about courtship and casual dating - people are having the "defining the relationship" talk much sooner because they feel pressure to have their relationship 'official' on facebook. Even when Brian and I got engaged (thank you snookums for not doing it on fb!), people were saying to me within a day or two, "Change your relationship status to engaged!!" as if until it was official on facebook, it couldn't possibly be true in real life.
I wonder if we should just skip the marriage license altogether and just change our status to "married" right after saying "I do."
This train of thought leads to some even more absurd pondering. What if, someday, babies are popped out of their mothers and immediately given a name, a social security number and a facebook?
I know The Social Network is of dubious veracity, but there are undoubtably some nuggets of truth in there, and I am just amazed by the story (sidenote: and I think it is a really really good movie). Zuckerberg, this incredibly socially awkward (did you see him on SNL?!) guy stumbled on some innate truth about us as people in this moment and it just exploded.
When I got a facebook I always assumed it wouldn't last past college. Back then, it was only for college students. Now, even with everyone and their grandmothers on it - literally - I can't imagine getting off. Even Brian, who is ardently anti-facebook, keeps his technically active just as a way to reach out to people he might not be able to contact otherwise. It has gotten to the point where if one of my facebook friends fails to upload pictures of some event, I am mad. What do you MEAN, I can't stalk the wedding of this random person from high school that I wasn't invited to anyway?!?! This is utterly irrational behavior, and yet, I challenge most people to admit they haven't felt that way at least once.
I said Zuckerberg found an "innate truth" about us. I think that's true. I don't think we ever realized how much our society feels the need to share, to be heard and seen, before facebook. But I also think the facebook phenomenon is shaping us, changing some innate truths about us. And not just in the way that we look at a picture and say, "OMG, new profile pic!!" In some deep way I really think facebook is affecting our culture and even the world. Only time will tell how much.
Operation Unplug Update: I have been doing pretty well, but not amazing. I watched a little extra TV with Brian on Valentine's and today snuck in some etsy time to send wedding ideas to one of my best friends. I've been missing reading my blogs the most. Unfortunately I discovered the Angry Birds app over the weekend and that has replaced a good bit of the time I would be getting back via this experiment... Must work on that.
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