Sitting and surfing through internet yesterday, I was stuck on face book as always; while scrolling through news feed & updating and reading posts & looking at pictures and videos, (usual stuff), I soon began to wonder to myself how we are glued to such social networking sites. It has become an essential part of our daily lives. People no more ask for your phone number or address, they simply ask ’ are you on facebook?’ The truth is that the successful development of virtual communities took the world by storm. The power of websites such as Facebook is so huge that it can topple governments like it did in Egypt or build one like it did for Barack Obama.
Facebook homepage reads:
“Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.”
Facebook helps us to connect with friends, colleagues, family members and in some cases strangers. The benefits of it have proven fruitful to any and all of us; people often say that ‘if you’re not on a social networking site, you’re not on the internet’. I agree that face book brings people together, but in doing so, it is perhaps one of the most dramatic catalysts of social rivalry.
“I don’t want a big house; all I want is a bigger house than my neighbor”. We are in a constant battle to distinguish ourselves from others. We throw our money and waste time at things that allow us to differentiate ourselves and make us appear special or superior.
Our opinions, feelings, experiences, relationships, and possessions are all cashed in for social tokens. Whenever I enter Facebook, I witness a 24-hour competitive battle ground of the social community; how many friends people have, political views, who hangs out with who, what clothes people are wearing, the music they listen to, the places they’ve been, what and how they’re doing, and how many likes and comments their pictures and statuses gather.
In reality, Facebook paints a distorted, romanticized representation of the state of things, leaving many of us to overestimate how much socially richer everyone else is and how much catching up we have to do. Most profiles are representations of idealized versions of ourselves or who we’d like to be. Our profile pictures are carefully selected to ensure the right image is projected, our photo albums go through rigorous screening processes and our experiences are well documented and publicized. Bizarrely, everyone seems to be a whole lot more interesting on Facebook; well cultured, better traveled, more popular, better looking, more desirable and all in all, and socially prosperous...!!
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