Our assignment was to join an online community, so I'm going to talk about Facebook. I will admit that I was already a member of Facebook prior to this assignment; I've been desperately trying to keep my life simple and have thus ceased outward expansion. My horizons are wide enough (yes, I'm also gaining weight).
A friend just emailed me, saying: "The whole world is telling me to get back on Facebook. Should I resist?"
I replied to her: "You should get back on. Facebook has stopped being an 'internet community' and started becoming 'the internet.' It's like Wal-Mart." What I mean, of course, is that Facebook has expanded so much -- from its humble origins of trying to connect college students to students they might not know from classes they shared -- that it has started to duplicate the aims of several other sites. Music, games, classified ads, whatever the hell.
I continued: "It's also like internet dating (which you could probably also do on Facebook): the stigma's gone. Ha ha ha." (Please forgive me, this was hastily written and sent.)
Now, let's step back from my judgmental attitude and examine the not-so-hidden truth I not-so-revealed. Online communities like this are stigmatized. I always defend my participation in them with some less geeky sounding aim ("It's how I hear new music!").
It's late. I've not taken a break today. I won't bother trying to write a conclusion. GO A's!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment