Facebook and Society

Every now and again I get an urge to write a paper. I know, it’s strange, one should probably out grow this habit upon graduation from college, but that hasn’t happened, so I’m just going to go with it. I should say that this is more of an essay as I am too lazy at the moment to actually do any research, but that doesn’t mean it won’t turn into something. And I’m not saying that I am the first person to think of this by any means, I just felt like writing.

I was thinking the other day – why is facebook so popular? There are a bunch of people on facebook and we are all connected – one giant game of Six Degrees of Separation. How did that happen? Why are people drawn to this social environment?

I joined facebook back when you had to have a .edu email address in order to be part of the club. Social media was growing out of it’s AOL training wheels and just staring to take off. It was a time where AIM was how you could tell where everyone was because we would update our away messages with what we were up to. Some of us had livejournals or xenga sites where we would post our thoughts with hope that someone out there was reading (not much has changed for me in that department). We had cell phones, but not smart phones. There was myspace. You remember myspace, it was a make your own website service – complete with music and sparkles – that started to connect people, but it wasn’t very easy to use. Then “Find Me on Facebook” showed up in email signatures and AIM profiles. And boom, the world was connected.

Ever since facebook lifted the .edu restriction on membership, it has been interesting to see how facebook has grown. It has been responsible for getting Betty White on SNL, raised funds for charities, allowed family members to keep in touch, started fights, got people fired, documented major events, allowed classmates to find out what happened after graduation . . . the list could go on and on. But why has it done all of this?

For me, I see facebook as the new town square. Humans are social by nature. That’s why, throughout history, cities are designed centering around a general place to hang out, get the latest news, buy goods and services, and discuss important issues. Isn’t that the function of facebook in today’s society? People hang out on facebook all day, learn about what’s going on in the world, maybe buy something a friend posted in the marketplace, and sometimes debate issues in status messages or questions. What makes this all possible is the fact that facebook makes it easy. It’s everywhere. On all of your favorite websites and brings you back to the center square.

Now, I am not saying that facebook’s impact on society is 100% awesome. It has forever redefined the word “friend”. Also, facebook gets in trouble from time to time for violating the privacy of the people using the site, but even that is like what would happen in the town square. People were overheard.

Will facebook always been this huge? I don’t know. But for now, it seems like the place to be – right in the middle of the online neighborhood.