the facebook 16-25

Unless you don't have a facebook or have been hiding under a rock, ya'll should know what I'm talkin bout.

All those notes that people stake to your name asking you to tell them no less than 16 and up to 25 random things about yourself. If you haven't caved in yet, you're probably wondering when it will just collapse on itself and die already, or how you can un-tag yourself from friends who peer-pressure each other into making one.

Some may say "Oh, it's just another time for you to talk about yourself" and turn it into a pride thing. But isn't everything we do on social networking sites some sort of pride then? Aren't we just always talking about who we are, what we like to do, and what has happened in our lives? We prettify our pages so it seems like people will be drawn in and interested to what we want to say. We place well-thought out and witty comments on friends pages, hoping to make others curious. The Internet and social networking has transformed once private data into a whole new global realm for all to see.

These notes are just one facet of the vastness of each individual's net presence. And quite frankly, I do enjoy reading other people's notes. They're little tidbits of their lives and experiences. It's just like trying to see how others think; you can see their values, goals, likes and dislikes. It makes us easily connect and recognize commonalities that we may have with one another. Sometimes you're just dying for an audience, someone to listen or respond to understand and this is an instant audience. And when else are you ever going to tell people you know (and some you don't) so many random things about you that they might have not have known before? Like... NEVER. You'll never have this opportunity to tell random things about yourself to your peers or feel peer pressured to do so again. You wouldn't tell serious people this at work and have them not look at you the same after you share information like this. You'd be beyond the "socially proper" age to do that.

I think the big thing I take away from this is not to necessarily make my own post, but to see people as they are or want to be seen as compared to how they present themselves. Some people can have a huge net presence, but be quiet most of the time and vice-versa. Studying people is fun.

In other news, this is my first titled post not starting with the letter "b" since I've started this blog. Hurrah!