Facebook shapes the cyber generations social lifestyle

December 14, 2011
Filed under Opinion

Staff Editorial

So, let’s face it: Facebook has become a way of life. Our generation has one symbol to represent it, and that is technology, the Internet, social networking or pretty much a cyber world, whatever you’d like to call it.

The 1980s had neon leotards and teased hair, the 1970s had bell-bottoms and the 1960s had tie-dye, but what is this generation going to be remembered for? A cyber life, perhaps.

How many “Likes” you have on Facebook determines how popular you are in the real world.

A relationship isn’t officially over or even begun until it’s on the web and if you have a problem with a person, you de-friend and “Block” them instead of confront them in person.

And one of the funniest situations is when a person “Likes” a status or picture in the cyber world, then acts as a complete stranger in the real world. Come on guys, we’re friends on Facebook! Why’re you acting so weird in reality?

A late night was once consumed with popcorn, movies, and prank calls with a phone that has a cord. Those things still exist; they haven’t gone out of style quite as fast as leisure suits or disco. Social Networking tools, or websites like Myspace and Twitter have quickly become, for many, the only past time.

The cyber life has even affected the working world. It’s common for prospective employers, or even college administrative teams and scholarship committees, to background check someone through Facebook. Wake up, people! The dramas that previously would have been as fleeting as your days in high school now have a permanent life on Facebook.

Facebook now directly reflects who you are. Whether or not you realize it, your private life is completely public on the web.

Writing in a good ol’ diary isn’t appealing anymore, but ringing out feelings on Facebook is. If you’re able to say something private and raunchy to your 446 friends on Facebook, then you must also be willing to accept that the Dean of your future college just overheard your conversation.

Facebook consumes and amounts for so much wasted time. Why do we care about what our cousin’s girlfriend’s little sister is doing off in a sorority at the University of Idaho? Or whom you went to a Halloween party dressed as a cat with? Too much time and energy goes into creating albums titled Summer 2011. When will anyone look through 287 pictures of what you did? And most importantly, who will care? We shouldn’t; create a scrapbook if you’d like to save pictures. And besides, that’s what yearbooks are for. Facebook is good for only one thing: staying in touch with the people you can’t see in person every day.

What happened to reading, writing letters and going to the movies? As Mr. Tom Anderson, co-founder of Myspace, posted as his status on September 20, 2011 at 1:04 P.M. near Los Angeles, Calif.: “Facebook has accomplished what I wanted to accomplish when I started MySpace–that ’everyone’ would be online, and ‘everything’ online would get more fun & useful because it’s social. To me, Facebook just keeps getting better & better.”

Everyone and everything is online. And it’s now social to be an electronic signal behind a computer screen.