MY…space

I thought MySpace was a reflection of you? That facebook was a reflection of your face? Why has it become something for your friends to see? Why do we look at pics of ourselves and like them enough to post online because we know that it will be acceptable to our friends…for what reason do we do these things? I must say, that I was very uninterested with facebook and MySpace in their beginning stages. (I also feel really old, since I've been around and a member since its inception…) I did not enjoy sitting on a computer filling out a million facts about myself for my friends who already knew about these things to read. So I let my friend fill them out for me. Most of that information has been changed, due to the addictive nature of the website, especially in my freshman year. I would really like to know what college would be like without the claws of facebook. It's a new friggin' e-mail like the e-mail wasn't enough to replace our verbal social skills…but that is not the reason for my rant. The reason is a general one that includes all of these social technology tools. The cell phone, internet; all replacements for our mouths. Only thing our mouths do now is talk about what we've read or seen just a few minutes before to our friend who has seen the same exact, senseless thing as well. I realized the replacement mechanism when I explained to a friend to call his significant other if he wanted to patch things up. Let's not focus on the fact that he didn't know her number by heart, but focus on that him texted her instead. A text message is like writing a letter in shorthand. It is the most impersonal way to contact someone. I have seen so many times people get angry about a missed text or an unanswered text. I have missed seventeen million texts, because they are just texts, so therefore I can just return the call. But we are a different breed. We ask questions that are relevant to the now, and therefore if we text a question, it must be answered immediately. I have sent a million texts in the past half hour, if it isn't answered, I take solace in the fact that they might be just like me, and not see it. They will answer later or call, or nothing at all. But it wasn't that important for me to call, so therefore it's not that important for me to get a reply. If it's the coveted text message convo, the back and forth rambling of stuff, then that is when it is time to return a text with a telephone ring. Unless you are unable to, there is no excuse why you are using your thumbs to primarily communicate something to someone you can easily say it to. It used to be how we wait for the voicemail so we can say everything without conversation, but now, it's just a text. And it must be answered with the two letter response of o.k. or np (no prob, I just learned that myself) otherwise the whole world will end if you do not know that they received the text and read it. These technological advances have not advanced anything but how we relate to each other. Honestly, I believe that these 'advances' have ruined relationships as a whole. But then again, I'm not perfect; I use text as a way to reach out every once in awhile. I even use facebook to let people know I'm thinking of them by doing an occasional wall post. I'm not going to lie, a few profile pictures have rubbed me the wrong way, and even a few photo album photos raise questions. But I've improved a great deal. Maybe it's because I used to major in communications and I strongly believe in communicating. I thing we as people should talk about our feelings, say what is on our minds, and stop using facebook and MySpace to do the hard work for us. I know it shall be hard, but it's worth it trust me. I would be reaching if I said read a book, but that's for another time.