The Facebook Generation (and Why Society's Future Might Be Fucked)
212 replies, posted
[QUOTE=ItchyBarracuda;29010950]
I'm sorry you haven't gotten that rusty nail up your ass looked at since I last pointed it out to you but you clearly misinterpreted what I said.[/QUOTE]
yeah sorry it was an even more stupid proposition than i originally thought
You certainly make an interesting point. But you can't forget the 95% user base that uses it purely as a social platform, for organising thing with friends or informing people about things of import, like family events. I think a might be worrying a but much over the effects it has on people.
I have a facebook, and I use it. I also have far too many friends, some of which I don't know. This doesn't mean I'm trying to fill any void. Most of the stuff I and they put on there is very impersonal, and commonly doesn't men anything to me. Anything I put on my own page is something I would say in public. I do understand that you get many people who obsessively update their status and check other's statuses, but what harm are they causing? For the most part their simply doing the normal social thing via online. I don't pretent to understand how someone can make so many status updates, but I suspect no one comments because they are the kinds of things that don't incite comments, meaningless words, not like a conversation when you are usually asking a question or talking about a subject, status updates seem to be something for them to type as opposed to typing nothing.
I like Facebook for the ease of communication you can use. With so many people using it, I can just hit up a friend if they're on and tell them important stuff instead of texting or calling them. Also, it's an amazing way to organize people. I've managed to organize a Humans Vs Zombies game in my High School with the use of word of mouth and through our Facebook group. And the protests in the Middle East that were organized by the use of Facebook is a testament to this.
But I get what you are saying OP. There are people on FB that just post the most dumb statuses. I really can't do anything about that but ignore it. As for friend requests, I just add people just to be nice and not seem like a douche by ignoring their requests. I have 157 friends but most of them I don't even talk to but I just added them because I know them.
Reading this made me go on facebook...
You're taking anecdotes and spreading them as if they were norms. With the types of people you're obsessing over in the OP, they'd obsess over something else or vent their social needs somewhere else if they didn't have facebook. Facebook certainly fosters that kind of behavior, but it isn't doing anything especially detrimental that they wouldn't be inflicting upon themselves anyway.
[editline]6th April 2011[/editline]
Right, lets put this into perspective too, you've been monitoring this thread for at least the last two hours and likely some more when you first posted the thread.
How is that much better than what people do on facebook?
I use it to communicate with people who I have no other way of communicating with. I don't have many peoples phone numbers and it's to expensive to call people all the time, or text them. So I just hop onto Facebook, where most of them will visit eventually and send them a message. I don't use email, as I myself don't check my emails often. I found a few friends who I hadn't talked to in years and I mean almost 10 years and from this were friends again.
You would hope that think that the human brain would compensate eventually for the way our society now is.
[media]http://www.jack-attack.net/img/comic3.png[/media]
I this is why I hate FB.
[QUOTE=LinuX;29012029][media]http://www.jack-attack.net/img/comic3.png[/media]
I this is why I hate FB.[/QUOTE]
You have an arm in your neck?
[QUOTE=CertainDOOM;29012075]You have an arm in your neck?[/QUOTE]
No a massive tongue
I don't really care about what other people of my generation do. It doesn't really affect me.
[QUOTE=Eluveitie;29012088]No a massive tongue[/QUOTE]
In his neck.
[QUOTE=LinuX;29012029][media]http://www.jack-attack.net/img/comic3.png[/media]
I this is why I hate FB.[/QUOTE]
Here is why I hate Facepunch/4Chan:
"Le" before actions in unfunny, ultra-repetitive comics.
Unoriginal reuse of the same 8 faces x10000000
Whine about people who aren't as ~Internet savvy~ and don't know "memes' LLOL N00BS trollface.jpg
I swear, these stupid "comics" are used in almost every thread on here. They are so unoriginal and predictable. LMAO threads are flooded with them, it's like there is no creativity anymore.
Just don't look at them/not give a fuck?
[QUOTE=ItchyBarracuda;29003034]
I'll take my ex for instance. Chances are, you have a Facebook page. And chances are you all know at least one person who is obsessive with the information on their page regarding "Profile Picture", how witty or topical their statuses, and how much attention they crave all the time. Well that describes her to a tee. Now honestly, I've been using Facebook so infrequently that it's almost a non-entity to me anymore, but each time I would ever so much as take a glance, I see "So and so has changed her profile picture". As little as I signed in, I thought it was a strange coincidence to see her changing the picture almost every time I logged in. So just for shits and giggles I started checking every few hours, and then by the hour on the hour for confirmation. This girl CHANGED HER PROFILE PICTURE OVER 50 TIMES IN HALF A DAY. Oh and she's not alone, there's another few dozen or so from my feed who engaged in the same activity. How anyone becomes that concerned with something like that is beyond baffling. In fact, it's borderline (if not full blown) avant-garde narcissism.
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That really is just an absurd example and you can't base much on it. I've got about 350 'friends' on Facebook and not a single one changes their profile picture more than I'd guess twice weekly. That says much more about the person's ingrained narcissism than Facebook's negative effects on our generation.
[QUOTE=ItchyBarracuda;29003034]
Personally, I liked it when I didn't know what my classmate ate for lunch, or how you spent your whole day at the DMV, or how amazing you think you look in the mirror by dutch angling your camera phone and making a fish lips face. And I honestly do blame the media for perpetuating this to the youth as being something worth glamorizing. Remember when your life was private, and the world didn't try to make you feel like an outcast or alienated for not having your life on the world stage for everyone to see and judge?
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In the 80s and 90s friends still talked about the same stuff, it just wasn't there for the rest of their acquaintances to hear. That's the only real difference, I'm sure if you met up with your friend one day and he'd been stuck at the DMV for six hours he'd be inclined to tell you about it. You'd just care more in that case because he's your friend. If you don't want to hear acquaintances' stories then hide them or delete them from your friends list.
I don't even know where you're coming from saying you'd be outcast or alienated for not updating your Facebook. You seem to have friends and you use it infrequently enough. A girl I know is probably one of the most popular girls at her school yet she doesn't go on her Facebook much more than every few days just to check her updates.
[QUOTE=ItchyBarracuda;29003034]
Suddenly, everyone's a celebrity. Everyone now has the delusion that everyone else ACTUALLY CARES about every insignificant minuscule detail of their day and that you should feel obliged to share it with the world. I think the only thing I have ever used Facebook consistently for was posting stupid shit or funny/interesting videos. Since when did everyone need a Twitter feed too? Unless you're some public figure who uses it for promotion (which, that seems like that's all these sites are used for anymore), why on Earth do you need to tell the world you're sitting in traffic, or how bad your day was at work, or how terrible your diarrhea was just now (yes I have seen this type of status before). It's beyond diatribe.
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Because it leads to conversations or at least attention. Most people do like attention and that's a prime reason for the trends of social networking sites. Why do you post stupid shit or funny videos? You want to know what people think, right? That's similar to people who post their day's events.
[QUOTE=ItchyBarracuda;29003034]
Then we have the friend illusion. Oh look at me I have 792 friends! Oh man, she's obviously more popular than me. [b]This has turned into MySpace all over again[/b]. I never understand people with more than 1000 friends, let alone maybe 100 (I'm guilty myself, it says I'm 182, with 6-10 of which I talk to on a regular basis, 5 of whom I actually consider close dear friends). The rest were classmates from college. So what made people insecure about this? How did a superficial number come to prominence to dictate whether or not you have any worth in the eyes of this generation?
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Once you're older than like 15 I don't think anyone cares about the number of friends you have online. In terms of Facebook I've always thought it should say connections rather than friends because I do like to add people I've met a party or uni and get to know them, but I don't necessarily count them as a friend straight away. The thing about having 150 meaningful relationships may well be true, but I don't add people on Facebook because I want to be their close friend. If I want that I'll make an effort to be their close friend, but Facebook is a good place for all those people you have some interest in the affairs of but don't want to necessarily spend all of your time with.
Personally, 15 of my very close friends and I have a group within facebook in which we talk in more private company. This is where Facebook is genuinely useful because we can talk like we used to when we saw each other every day at school, maintaining our group-friendship which is an exciting thing for the world to have I think.
[QUOTE=ItchyBarracuda;29003034]
If you have several hundreds "Facebook friends", I ask you, why? What void are you filling by having however many hundreds of friends to reassure yourself of something? It's something I've never really been able to put my finger on. What gets me is the people with several hundred friends, who post numerous statuses each day and no one ever comments on them. How's that for friends?
[/QUOTE]
I've got dozens, probably in the hundreds of people I've only spoken to on fewer than 10 occasions. I like them being there because A) sometimes they post insightful or funny stuff which gives me a reason to actually check my news feed, and B) because sometimes I learn cool stuff like that they like the same shows as me or are taking a class that I am which means I have some common ground to talk to them about next time I see them.
[QUOTE=ItchyBarracuda;29003034]
Here's where we are; we're all too busy living in this delusional fairytale competition against one another competing for supremacy from afar, behind the safety of our computer screens, what is the incentive to want to achieve anything of worth anymore? If Facebook becomes the single most important entity in one's daily routine, how does one eliminate the dominance and reliance of a website that has essentially created a new sub-genre of addiction, and instead of solving a problem only created a vortex of a new one?
[/QUOTE]
Why would checking on friends and acquaintances lives hinder your prospects for wanting to achieve something in life? I go on Facebook a few times each day when I'm travelling or when I have a lot of spare time, but I still want to achieve well and really that comes down to your personality. If you want to waste time you'll do so whether facebook is there or not. My friend got the highest mark in our high school last year, probably in the to 2% of the state and she went on Facebook daily in between studying. If someone has an addictive and procrastination prone personality they'll always find something to distract them. Video games, computer coding, reading, watching tv, etc.
[QUOTE=ItchyBarracuda;29003034]
In essence, why should today's generation give a shit about achieving when the majority seem to dictate that this is the thing to do?[/QUOTE]
Because most people don't actually follow Facebook religiously, I think you have a warped view of the site and the people you think you know.
[QUOTE=ItchyBarracuda;29003034]God forbid you don't fit in with your friends on Facebook. It just holds people back. Sure, hive mind and herd mentality is nothing new, but this latest form seems to be quickly becoming the most damaging of all it's forms we've seen throughout the course of human advancement.[/QUOTE]
What are you even basing this on? What is more damaging about visiting facebook than, say, joining a gang?
[QUOTE=ItchyBarracuda;29003034]If these generations are all too busy obsessing over everyone at any given time instead of doing something with their lives to actually "brag" about on Facebook (which also occurs quite often and is a main reason of Facebook's popularity), where's the progress going to be when the majority become useless and incapable of functioning in society, with a warped idea of what are priorities in life?[/QUOTE]
Most people straighten themselves out when they realise what they want to do in life. Look at teen movies from the 70s and 80s, they weren't about kids studying 100% of the time, they had their priorities on their social lives as well. Facebook is merely a social tool for the same kinds of people to contact their friends and keep up with acquaintances. Spending time on the site doesn't automatically make people become obsessed with friendship and social cohesion, much like spending time reading LMAO Pics here doesn't make you focus only on comedy in life. I think you're seriously underestimating the power of people to make their own way in life and not be broken by a website. I also think you're overestimating the power of a website to control and manipulate millions of young people around the world into become passive members of society. Surely if something as unintrusive as Facebook were able to ruin an entire generation in one fell swoop, then something like drugs in the 70s and 80s would have left the current generation of 30-40 year olds useless and welfare dependent, or the generation x kids craving MTV.
:golfclap:Thank you ^
Just because someone is a 'friend' on facebook doesn't mean they are that much as a friend in real life. If I were to make groups for my 'friends' on facebook as I do in real life I would need various categories them in groups such as 'people I know', 'friends', 'best friends', ect.
[QUOTE=avergejoe;29012566]Just don't look at them/not give a fuck?[/QUOTE]
Exactly.
[QUOTE=Kab2tract;29012168]Here is why I hate Facepunch/4Chan:
"Le" before actions in unfunny, ultra-repetitive comics.
Unoriginal reuse of the same 8 faces x10000000
Whine about people who aren't as ~Internet savvy~ and don't know "memes' LLOL N00BS trollface.jpg
I swear, these stupid "comics" are used in almost every thread on here. They are so unoriginal and predictable. LMAO threads are flooded with them, it's like there is no creativity anymore.[/QUOTE]
When I made that post, I had a specific goal. I wanted to show you guys something you can do. Ignore them. I do dislike all those things I mentioned, but, I can ignore them. Maybe sometimes I'll mention my detest, but for the most part, I do try to ignore them. It only becomes a big deal when you make it one for yourself. For everyone else, they don't care.
I'd have to say the fall of society started falling after Hip Hop died. Mainly because old school hip hop was all about the problems on the streets and the struggles of peoples lives of trying to make it big. Now it's all about bitches, drugs and money. But facebook does contribute too.
[QUOTE=Freekill;29013329]I'd have to say the fall of society started falling after Hip Hop died. Mainly because old school hip hop was all about the problems on the streets and the struggles of peoples lives of trying to make it big. Now it's all about bitches, drugs and money.[/QUOTE]
hm you've never actually listened to any hip-hop have you?
[QUOTE=Freekill;29013329]I'd have to say the fall of society started falling after Hip Hop died. Mainly because old school hip hop was all about the problems on the streets and the struggles of peoples lives of trying to make it big. Now it's all about bitches, drugs and money. But facebook does contribute too.[/QUOTE]
Try listening to hip hop artists that [b]are not[/b] featured on MTV and BET 24/7 and you'll find good hip hop.
Meet your descendants:
[IMG]http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m13/_koutetsu_/wall-e-axiom-passengers.jpg[/IMG]
Assuming humanity even survives itself long enough to accomplish any other massive achievements, we'll be too busy burying our faces in our holo-laptops to care.
I wouldn't mind that
You gotta realise that facebook is quite literally "a social network". It's not meant to be just your closest friends. It's meant to be acquaintances, friends of friends, colleagues etc. Basically it pretty much is a social organisation tool. It's not meant to be a phone book.
When I go to eat at my school we all eat in the gym, so you can see every class. Everyone below our grade acts completely different; we tip the table, have a seating plan in every room, and are generally hated and not trusted by most of the teachers. So while we are in the gym I look to see the other classes, noticing everyone below our grade is completely different. They sit there and eat, hardly talking to eachother and are praised by everyone around them. I talk to the lower grades from time to time and they are bland as fuck to talk too.
The grade ahead of me who left for highschool last year acted the same way as us, and were awesome to talk to. Another thing I have been noticing is that every grade people are getting shorter; been like that till it hit my class, then anybody below sat at the standard 5'6.
Might just be my school but it seems to be getting worse with every generation.
On the Facebook topic, I only use it to keep track of people I hate; so later on I can see if they failed at life because all they did was shit on there textbook and fail class.
Meh, I do think I might like this generation more if you took away facebook, and people had to try to be someone, and they couldn't just create a facebook profile to hide behind.
I'm so glad I'm not part of this "Facebook generation".
I might be a weirdo for not having a Facebook account as a teenager, but I still have some privacy unlike other people.
I just hate it when my friends say "Hey could we stop for a minute? I need to check my facebook and update my status! :downs:"
I mean, who the hell cares when did you shit or where are you currently?
I think this is a side effect from having a lot of free time, I feel we are so developed there's little I have to do than go out occasionally for food - once I have started my job life will change.
There is loads of potential with such an idle society but there's nothing easier than updating your facebook to say you were taking a poop on a quran then reading all the hate replies a half hour later.
Society isn't fucked it's just got a lot of free time to itself and doesn't do anything too important with that time either.
Good idea, lets blame Facebook for the problems of our society.
[editline]6th April 2011[/editline]
If it wasn't for Facebook I wouldn't have have to pay for going to the dentist !!!
OP is overthinking the use of Facebook too much.
Hive mind and herd mentality also seem to be encouraged by the current version of democracy.
It is very sad that people are no longer motivated to achieve en masse but the people who are and do achieve should be the ones who are in control.
Meritocracy/Technocracy for the win.
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