Facebook, schmacebook...

In the midst of all this hype over Facebook privacy controls and what not...I have an opinion on social networking. And it has nothing to do with how much Big Brother is watching. It doesn't have anything to do with its addictive nature, though it may be a cause. I have come to the conclusion that we can begin to live vicariously through one other on the Internet.

Facebook started out innocently enough; it was a tool to connect with people far away or new friends at school. Even then, be honest, how much time did you waste flipping through pictures? Enter the stalkerfeed. No longer did you have to search for what Johnny was doing on Saturday night, whether Ken and Barbie were still dating, or what Joe and Bob's wall-to-wall was. No, newsfeed brought it to your immediate attention. So, in case of boredom...login to facebook and find out what everyone else was doing while you stayed home and watched reruns. Now, my problem is not the sharing of life via facebook. My problem is the incomplete sharing of life via facebook that parades itself as sharing of LIFE.

Seriously, who posts pictures of himself folding laundry? Who updates her status while paying bills? Who writes about running errands? Who wants to broadcast to the world the mundane boring details of his life? Not of my friends. This is a problem, not because they should, but because if I'm not careful, I can start to believe my life is dull and uninteresting in comparison to my friends who are clearly living a constant string of deep thoughts, parties, crazy photo shoots, bonfires, vacations on the beach, and outdoor concerts. Obviously, this is not the case...because they had to be staring at their computer just as I am, to even share these details. Yet, the irony is that life is not all lived in the Kodak moments or "like"-able events. It's happening, here as we speak, and if we're too busy trying to update our status, we might just miss it.