| Wall-to-Wall Voyeurism |
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| Written by Phillip Bowden | |||||
| Tuesday, 27 May 2008 10:11 PM | |||||
 Facebook is a horse that people might assert has been beaten to death.However, that assertion is problematic for one good reason. It’s not dead yet. While this premise may sound reasonable enough, it’s only coincidental to the annoyance, anger and frustration that I feel when I observe the behaviors that have sprung up around the Web site. Any duty I might be fulfilling in scribing this piece is secondary to my true motivation. I write these words partially for some sort of greater good, but honestly it’s to keep myself in good mental health. An aneurysm at twenty would not be ideal. The aspects of Facebook that I despise may not be the most obvious. While I am certainly annoyed by the ridiculousness of the so-called “applications” that infest Facebook pages, they are a minor problem compared to the absurdity inherent in Facebook’s infrastructure. More specifically, the all-too-public nature of Facebook activity. The crux of the problem is this: Facebook, in the silliest and most inane sort of way, has actually added an unneeded layer of complexity to life. To a guy who has trouble understanding other people in the first place, this is maddening. It feels as if someone moved half of the things I hated about high school to the Internet — incidentally my refuge from such things. I half expect to find myself with my hands on a keyboard and my head firmly in a toilet. It seems the “news feed” — a list of notifications about the activity of friends — has only exacerbated this problem. To illustrate my point, I will relate the most ridiculous Facebook-related behavior that I’ve witnessed. (Hint: It involves boys and it involves girls, and any combination therein. Let’s be inclusive here.) Dating. More specifically the messy business that can come along with it — cheating, infidelity and ambiguous relationship statuses. I have witnessed people try their best to hide, obscure and delete messages that might incriminate them in a way that might suggest they aren’t quite the monogamist they claimed to be. In other cases, two people who are happily entangled in some sort of relationship can become prey to the somewhat voyeuristic tendencies of their friends as they use the omnipotent news feed to monitor their communications for fresh gossip. Facebook really has stretched the definition of “friend,” hasn’t it? One could argue that people who don’t want their activities monitored in such a way should keep their personal life off a site like Facebook. The argument holds some weight. But, despite my criticisms, I think Facebook does a number of things well such as helping people stay connected — if you consider that a good thing — and giving people another avenue for communication. People should be able to use the service in its intended manner without worrying about their personal exploits becoming public spectacle. So, next time you see that flirtatious exchange of messages between that guy you know and that girl you know, just leave it alone. Spying is unflattering. Instead, barrage them with numerous invitations to useless applications — or just turn them into zombies. That’s what a real friend would do. — Phillip Bowden is a computer science junior and online editor for The Shorthorn Views: 1885 | E-mail
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