Old Skool, or Just Not Obsessed?

This posting started because of a recent event surrounding my best friend. Recently, he quit his band. I knew that he had been unhappy in this situation, and he had shown an interest in leaving for some time, but the news of his departure still came as news to me. This blog isn't about the news, but rather how I received the news.

About four years ago, Facebook came to Gonzaga, and with it, all the stalking, (cough) I mean networking that goes along with it. Facebook started out to be a humble enterprise, allowing friends to see photos and favorites of their friends, or not. What was great about Facebook was also what differentiated it from MySpace. Facebook was exclusively college students. Where MysSpace would be littered with photos of pre-pubescent girls taking pictures of themselves in mirrors, Facebook represented a true networking site for the kids in college who truly appreciated the opportunity to see other academics.

When Facebook opened it's doors to the rest of the cyber world, the floodgates were opened and teens once again cluttered the pages. About this time, Facebook introduced mini-feeds, and applications which were designed to personalize an individual's page with kooky applications and silly additions. The mini-feed was received with odd disdain when it first arrived. By popular user vote, the mini-feed was removed quickly after it had been established. In its' place, a new home screen, outlining any activity, editing, posting, or status updates from anyone on your friends list. This new feed enabled a person to "catch up" on everybody's online life instantly, whereas before, one would have to spend a few minutes browsing selected profiles.

News feeds began the end of a long tradition of communication between friends who, normally would call to get the news, but now, only had to sign in to Facebook to get the updates. Much like CNN.com, despite the page or more of news story, four bullet points at the top of the article summarize the entire story below. In some ways, this culture of brevity has invaded the networking forums as well and we accept the four bullet points about our friends rather than read the entire story at times.

For a Milinial, I would still consider myself to be old school. When a News Feed on Facebook told me online that my best friend had quit the band before he had a chance to do so himself, I knew that best friending had changed in general. I'm not expecting him to call. Maybe he, like so many others, considers the status update to be instantly seen by all, thereby eliminating his need to tell us all in person. He wouldn't be incorrect to assume that within a few hours of posting, a few dozen people have already heard the news, and most don't care enough anyway to follow up.

This also presents the double edged sword of Facebook. Is knowing something before your friend tells you considered stalking? Is Facebook normalizing us to stalk each other? Could this behavior eventually stretch out into the larger social community? Sure the government was a fine model for "legitimate stalking" with the Patriot Act, but how much stalking can a normal American do with an internet connection? The answer would probably and most unequivocally be a lot.

From letters, to telegrams, to telephones, to chat, to cell phones, to texting, and finally online social networks and news feeds, we are becoming more impersonal by the generation. For a generation told to utilize technology from an early age, we evolve as quickly as the technology itself. But while we adapt to a quickly changing cyber-environment, and since most of us don't see the world with a sociological imagination, we fail to see that we are alienating ourselves from each other. It is possible in this day and age to have online friends only, and to create a false identity for ourselves on the internet that others have no choice but to accept. False identities show others what we like to be perceived as in the "real world", but for an individual who finds benefit in the friendships gained by his/her false portrayal, what's the point of having real friends? Time will quickly let us know.