Cutting Our Losses

It was the end of my freshman year of high school. This marked around the time I set up my personal Facebook account. Fast-forward six and a half years later to now and I still have no idea how to use Facebook. Status updates, likes, friend requests, what do they actually symbolize? I have no clue, yet I randomly throw out a status update just to see what will happen. I guess part of the reason I never really became addicted to the social media giant is because I more so than not grew up enjoying the actual physical presence and company of others.  I also didn't place that much value in staying in contact with people over the internet. After all, I lived with my family in a house growing up. These were and are some of my most valued relationships. Hence, the reason I failed to develop a desire to place a high value on connecting with people on Facebook. I also saw no need to get this "instant gratification" from someone sending me a post or friend request.

While it would be false to say I didn't experience these feelings at times, I would say that after high school I just did not care to try and establish this "Fakebook" on Facebook. Checking Facebook every day and reading through my Newsfeed is time I could be spending with the actual people in my surroundings or meeting more "real" friends. The main feature I like is the ability to see photos and go through close friends pictures and see pictures of places they have been or I have been to. Last time I checked I had around 650 "friends". After college I plan on using Facebook similar to the way my mother does. She has around 30 friends, who actually are her friends. It provides as a way to stay connected to friends who live in different states or who she would't get to keep up with otherwise. This may sound harsh, but I see no point in staying connected to people I hardly ever see or am even actual friends with.  It is hard to maintain this mentality, I will admit, because of the society we live in today. In a way, this sort of eliminates the "clutter" of information about people that aren't close to me. In effect, I believe that with the more recent growth of Twitter, Facebook has been getting revealed as ancient in some sense and is slowly losing the power it once had.