Free from Facebook

Everybody needs friends. But do we need 1,000+ friends? Does that even count as being friends? Facebook/social media has nearly transformed the definition of friend from "a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations" to "add someone to a list of contacts associated with a social networking website". Technology has basically given us the illusion of friendship without being in direct contact with one another. Most of us can remember when we had to call each others' houses to see if one another were home, which meant talking to each others' parents or possibly getting an answering machine on the receiving end of a phone call. Now, that contact is just a couple of clicks away and requires no real human interaction (except for an untimely response). That is why I have detached myself from Facebook. Personally, I have found that not being on Facebook has allowed me to catch up with friends on a more personal level. I have to call or text my friends that have graduated and are now spread throughout the country if I want to know what is going on in their lives. I don't feel that social media really increases loneliness, but I also don't think it is very beneficial in maintaining relationships either. Social media allows us to be noticed without having to interact with one another on a personal level. However, our bonds are created not on Facebook, but in person. One cannot truly know another person through Facebook. Sure, I can see that you like the show "True Blood" and that you're into rock climbing, but I can never know the type of person you are through a website. We can't see how one another actually treat individuals because everyone is so connected digitally, not personally. After reading the articles on Facebook and loneliness, it made me realize what Facebook is; an exaggerated depiction of what our lives really are and what we want our lives to be. Before you know it, family photos will be taken on an iPhone with every member of the nuclear family sporting a classic "duck face" pose. Technology and social media is a blessing and a curse. It would be nice for all of us to find that balance so we can all go back to being interconnected on a more intimate level, and that will never happen of we keep relying on technology to do our bidding.