Tis the season for the Facebook

As exam period looms, the time we are relegated to seats in front of computer screens increases. This bind to machinery, to the indoors, to the internet has become characteristic of my winters. I become simultaneously repulsed and fascinated by the pervasiveness of this new age culture. Luckily, in the summers I am able to remain free of the confines of the internet prison—the warm air, spontaneity and the proverbial open road abound. Now, however, as I sit (mentally, physically) on the cusp of hours of a mix of essays and self-sought-after web-based distractions. As my mind darts (because my minds darts, being a child of a wild city, being children of the Sesame Street skits, of instant message, of instant coffee), it continues to dart back to the Facebook. I hate to admit that I ever go onto it. I hate that I have a profile on it, that I succumb to the weakness of “maintaining an internet existence”. I think that it is pathetic to try to essentialize oneself through ‘Favorite Quotes’ or ‘About Me’s. Do lines from American Psycho about emptiness, desperation and psychotic tendencies really define who you are? Are you really analogous to the drug-addicted prostitute Mimi from RENT? Will we be able to judge just how intellectual or “fun-loving” you are by examining your carefully chosen books and bands? Are you rebellious? Defiant? Sexual? Just how well connected are you? I think it’s amazing that that question is in some degrees quantifiable, although most would maintain, of course that ‘quality’ far outweighs this numeric indicator. We can all track who everyone associates with through wall posts, through photographs. Sitting in front of a screen and thinking about what the next update should be is foolish yet I religiously participate in this reality. (I think I can say safely that the majority of people on campus spend more time thinking about Facebook than faith, no value judgment intended). I am deeply engrained in the process. I check. I update. I cannot say that I don’t often look at photographs or passages from books or poems and consider whether they are “Facebook worthy”. While I do fantasize about one day “deleting” myself from It forever, I have come to realize that doing so would be denying something that has become fundamental in the fabric of our youth society. The Facebook is a defining medium of our generation, and I’ve only begun to consider what the implications are—connection or isolation? It may seem ludicrous to investigate our “obvious” interactions so carefully but this exam period, I hope you too will consider this issue (in my defense… we do have a sociology department!). I also hope you do this instead of spending “too much time” on assigned problem sets and readings, of course.