The more I think about it, Facebook is making us even more socially retarded than ever.
It started a while ago – before my time – when TV was invented. Apparently before that, according to my parents (they know because TV arrived in South Africa later than anywhere else) people used to sit around and talk, play games and even read books.
I don’t believe it for a second, but I’m not arguing.
Time went on, leaving by teenagers with their own telephones and even the popularity of the interwebs and instant messaging.
The real revolution (OMG IMHO) started with text messages. The second that very first 160 character message was sent, we became idiots.
The 2 trillion in number a year was just the start, though. While it was all fun and games sending plain messages to each other all day (or in the case of a California girl, 14,000 in one month) we needed more.
So along came Tom and created MySpace with all it’s networking abilities. It wasn’t a new idea and still badly designed in my opinion, but millions connected very quickly. Put it this way, the day your company becomes a verb, you know you have done well.
The latest incarnation is of course Facebook, where you probably were just before clicking a link to this article. It’s something that has moved beyond social networking.
A few years ago, the IT students of the world were discussing data mining, profiling and privacy. We lost that fight a lot sooner than we thought, in fact we embraced it.
Have you ever wondered why the ads on Facebook just seem perfect for you? That’s because everything you do everyday is now known to someone. Third party applications, your friends and friends of friends.
I find it disconcerting that since adding pictures of my new puppy a week ago I have had pet training, pet food and pet relocation services on my left sidebar every time I log in. But what can you do.
And there’s an even darker side – a man killed his wife recently because she changed her status to single from married. I suppose he should have sent her more gifts, or pokes.
But as I said, we have embraced it. If you don’t update your status at least once a day, comment on a few friends pictures and participate in at least one argument discussion ever few days you’re just not with it.
Not being online means your are an outsider, the ultimate laggard – imagine being 20 in the early 70’s and not having a mustache.
And just ask Prince Harry, he even just found out about his girlfriends plans to finally never get back together with him “Relationship: None”. If it’s good enough for the third in line to the throne it’s good enough for me.
Alex has finished writing.