The Fabricated, Distorting Power of Facebook

Facebook is the world's number one social networking site, and millions of people have succumbed and created their own account. Although, Mark Zuckerburg created this site to facilitate communication between family and friends, Facebook today has altered the lines of public and private according to Danah Boyd, placing more emphasis on the insignificant as Monica Hesse points out. The creation of "The News Feed" in 2006 spiked indignation from many Facebook users since much of their private daily happenings were now made public. Yet, this debate eventually fizzled out and the news feed is now an inherent part of Facebook. People are fascinated with this aspect of Facebook as they can delve into the lives of any of their virtual friends with the click of a button. Although, Facebook was created with the intention of easing communication, according to Boyd, this access to everyone's news feed allows users to obsess over otherwise insignificant aspects, such as who posted on who's wall first, or who changed their profile picture containing you. Everything you post you have to keep in mind how others will react, as something simple may in fact offend another since you cannot convey a sense of tone via the internet. Ironically, more fights ensure over these insignificant issues, as what is insignificant now becomes public and important. For example, it is common belief among most teens that a couple is not official until they are "Facebook Official,"and Facebook being this end all be all site about relationships, really is corrupting connections.
Facebook controls today's relationships, as shown in this powerful image.
Danah Boyd goes on later to say that Facebook creates a "fake intimacy," by allowing a user access to another acquaintance's profile whom they probably do not know very well in person, but know all their personal details due to "Facebook stalking." In other words, it is so much easier to alienate friends in today's society due to the different varieties of media and the unlimited access of one's personal life via Facebook. It comes as no surprise that the average American now has less friends than 20 years ago, because people get angry so much more easily over things that never were an issue or existed before Facebook.
Monica Hesse discusses in her article how many Facebook groups are very insignificant as well, even if they promote a cause. Though hundreds of people are joining certain causes or events, the effect in reality is negligble. This is because there are too many events or causes on Facebook, and a user normally just clicks escape to exit the suggestions quickly or because they agree in their short precursory glance of the group. In my opinion, this "click through activism," is a failure as it generates support in the moment, leading to a cause quickly forgotten, or users do not even know what they are joining, as in the example of the Stork Fountain.
Clearly both of these authors highlight the negative aspects of Facebook. People's lives are completely exposed on Facebook, and friendships are becoming more superficial as they are based on this digital friendship, but can easily fall apart since reactions cannot be controlled.I cannot help but be disgusted that people are judged by what they post on Facebook, or the lack of attention they give when joining a worthy cause, but that is how Facebook operates today: on a primarily insignificant, superficial level.

Here is an entertaining video that discusses in a song how this user is constantly monitoring other people's statues, meeting individuals online, and stalking their profiles. I think this is a fairly good summary of what I discussed.