Probably against my best interests, I have a Facebook.

Since the beginning of Facebook time, there has been a common theme I’ve noticed with Facebook that has become painstakingly recurrent.  And that theme is:

People using Facebook purely to seek attention.

What exactly does that sentence mean?  Well, for your convenience, I shall outline precisely (very loosely) the sorts of behaviour I’m referring to.

First off, Facebook is, or, was supposed to be, I think – I would never want to put words into the Markus’s mouth (we’re old friends.  No we’re not) – a place where people could a) make new friends, b) stay in touch with old friends.  It’s a social networking site, which means, by strict definition, it is a network, for socialising, or, a social arena, for networking.  Either way, the point seems to centre in on communication, generally.

And here’s a funny little thing about communication, at least from a vague and limited angle:  It takes two to tango, or, to communicate, as it were, in this instance.

Shock.  Fucking.  Surprise.

I'm not meaning to be mean, just trying to draw attention to how ridiculous this pose is.

I’m not meaning to be mean, just trying to draw attention to how ridiculous this pose is.  It’s simply not flattering; look at how flared your nostrils become!

Yes, I know, I know.  It’s a strange thing to hear.  But yeah, apparently communication is a concept that typically infers one form of life communicating with another form of life.

You wouldn’t guess that with Facebook, though.

Sitting at the very top of your own personal Facebook homepage, reads the question; “what’s going on, “said name’s account”?”  And framing that question is a little speech bubble like entity, encouraging you to indeed share, what’s going on.

I don’t know about you guys, but if I’ve got something on my mind, it’s inclined to not fit into a little box, which is limited with a 200-word capacity.  And, if I’ve something on my mind that would, given the nature of words, fit into and play by this little boxes rules, it’s, by most units of measure, I’d assume, not usually something very enlightening or important.

For instance, the other day I was driving, and the car in front of me, God bless ‘em, decided to drive like a slovenly sloth, not indicate, and generally sway.  As this was happening, I thought to myself, “fucking.  You asshole. Ass.  Indicate, or something, Jesus.”  But you know; I’ll be damned if just because this fits into the rules governing Facebook’s parley, I should share it with all my friends.  Right?

WRONG!

This is exactly the sort of stuff that people share on Facebook.  This, and, from what I’ve noticed, here are some other popular shares on Facebook: “mmm, delicious” followed by a picture of a breakfast meal someone’s ever so recently devoured; or a picture of someone’s holiday/overnight holiday destination; or how much someone is going to miss someone/generally everyone else, after they retreat back to their natural habitats; or, and as is my own personal favourite and most likely to be employed by my own person (Remember: I never said I was above this folks!), how terrific my morning poo has been.

By my calculation, these sorts statements, or questions, aren’t demonstrative of people communicating with one another, but rather, and quite simply, ways for people to accumulate the infamously famous “likes” or, for people to “comment” and validate, or reprove, this person’s grievances, or joys.

But it’s not just Facebook that’s like this, no, no, no.  Most, dare I say all social media networking sites, function in this way.  I mean, Twitter was invented solely for this purpose.

shocked_face

Wherever the community of Internet you are to peruse, you’ll be struck to find a platform that is supposedly there to incorporate “interaction” that isn’t overshadowed with the same sort of attention whoring tomfoolery as aforementioned.  It’s everywhere, like a pernicious plague swarming through our cyber spheres, polluting our minds, our hearts, and our fanny packs. Symbolic of …

Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?  What is this proposition – the all-pervasive self-serving, attention-whoring behaviour – symbolic of?

From what I’ve heard from others, some people seem to think that it’s simply symbolic of the human species, rather ironic, declining intellect.  Some seem to think that it’s symbolic of generation-Y’s idiocy and downfalls.

I, however, and to the contrary, think that it’s symbolic of something far deeper, and fare more disturbing.  To put it simply:

It’s symbolic of how isolated we have become, not only from each other, but also from ourselves.

All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

All the lonely people, where do they all come from? All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

The reason, one of them, I think, that people so rampantly seek this sort of external validation from their compeers – without regard for the impending opprobrium that will undoubtedly haunt them later in their sleep, or worse yet, somewhere deep within their hidden unconscious – is because we’re so fucking lonely.  And we just want to know, feel, see, hear, taste existence, and be reminded from others that this entire game isn’t all in our heads, and that we do actually have life to others.

And to think that this is possibly (very probably, in my mind) the fuel driving such petty cyber-social interactions between our species is quite alarming, indeed.

I think that I might continue this post tomorrow.

Oh, and, from the top of my riddled, and jaded heart. Happy new year!

Humans-are-lonely-lonely-lonely-creatures.  And I, frankly, and to quote the Beatles, am tired of looking at all the lonely people.

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