My Life: Wired

So here I am sitting and thinking of a few things, especially this whole "social networking" concept where we "socialize" with people on the network... "socialize" right... more like desocialize. Facebook has become a regular routine in my life, to the extent where I have put an annoying little icon on my browser to notify me when I have a status update. If that isn't as bad, I also have a desktop gadget "facebook feed" that is always there, constantly notifying me of my wall updates about shit i couldn't care less about.

As being a person who was born on the internet, and enjoyed socializing on the internet, I have some form or another been involved in "social networking" even before it was called that. I think the term sprang around the whole friendster fad that lasted a little while. I remember when my friend stated I should join friendster, but I didn't see any enjoyable advantages of it. All these social networks are just merely cookie-cutter profile pages. Boring as fuck if you ask me.

I did jump into the whole myspace thing, and I believe deleted/created pages some 8 times or so. Sometimes just to change the name, other times because I found no interest in it anymore. But the truth is, and this pisses me off, there is always one or two people that is "the only way I know how to keep in touch with them, and I don't want to lose connection with them yet".

It actually wasn't until recently I said "fuck it" and dropped Myspace the last time, as I feel that I am getting to that point with Facebook. Now sure, one of the main reasons why I quit Myspace all together was because no one was even on it anymore. At least no one I cared about, everyone moved to Facebook. But with Facebook, I see myself wasting so much pointless time on it.

I gave up television because... well... it wasn't enjoyable anymore. Now that I look at it, I find it as the most pathetic idiotic form of media entertainment, simply because it's based on schedule and not on demand (obviously ignoring anything like Tivo in that statement). I find Facebook just about the same, if not worse.

What I mean is, much like TV, you find yourself being controlled by the medium. Where with TV, when you want to slack off, you turn it on and look for something to dumb your mind to, for hours on end. Facebook is the same, with the constant checking of profiles, your wall, and shit like that. Thank god i'm not involved with Farmville or any of those games anymore.

What I see though, is people get a sense of "connectedness" when they are on Facebook, because they can interact with people, friends, and the like. At the same time though, they lose the social interaction in real life, that meeting of friends and whatnot. Obviously as humans we crave social interaction and Facebook somehow can satisfy it to an extent, though not really healthy.

A part of me is considering leaving Facebook, I guess it is because of how much time I waste on that damn website, and for what? Relationships don't seem to get better with it. I actually tend to piss off a lot of people because of how I act on Facebook, brutally honest or sarcastic.

Who knows what will happen, as Facebook has become so ingrained into our lives... it maybe easier just to drop the cell phone, as I have thought of doing for a long time.

In the coming days though, I think I might try a test.. you know, deactivate my account for a week or a month, and see how my life has changed... for better or worse...