Myspace 2.0 AKA Facebook

Before we get into the heat of it with tonight's topic, I'd just like to make a comment on television these days. For the first time in a long time, I'm actually quite content with the lineup for the shows this season of the year; Monday(How I Met Your Mother, House M.D., & 24), Wednesday(Human Target), Thursday(The Office & The Deep End). It might seem like it's only three night's worth but between my busy schedule and coursework, the accumulated time of 5 hours is enough to hold me over. I usually spread them out throughout the week so I don't get bored. As we speak, I'm watching Human Target(online). It's a show about a MacGyver-esque bodyguard who protects/rescues high value targets. All in all, it's an entertaining action series, albeit predictable. Nevertheless, I find it holds my attention enough to keep me coming back. You should give it a try.

(Here's the episode I'm currently streaming:http://www.megavideo.com/?v=MXXPL9TD)

 So as the title says, tonight I'll be delving into the phenomenon of FB. The social networking wormhole of people everywhere. If you're reading my blog, you should probably have a good idea of what Facebook is. Now realizing how multi-faceted and complex it is, whether or not I'll hit all the points I'm planning on making will affect if this becomes a two part blog. At its begininng, Facebook was strictly reserved for college students(betcha' ya' didn't know that). In order to register, you needed to validate your information with a college email(in layman's term it must end with an .edu). The purpose of it was to connect collegiates of the same university to one another for educational and social purposes. If you weren't a collegian and dabbled in the "intrawebz" you had a Myspace. For all those who are unfamilar with Myspace...WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?

But for your consideration, Myspace Definition.

Dissimilar from most people, I am not only a minimalist(prefer things streamlined/simple) but I also greatly despised bulletins that were either informing me how I'd be mauled by a zombie kangaroo who actually my brother's daughter who hung herself and kills those who don't repost her tragic story in 48768 seconds. And if that wasn't the case, it was someone who would be posting this message about twenty times- "NU PIKS GUISE! PLEEZ KOMMENT CUZ I KNEED ATTENSHUN!" I don't know about you, but I can only read a bulletin like that before I want to maim myself in the eyes with plastic sporks. When I encountered such bulletins the first time, I generally shot the guilty party a message asking them to chill a little bit. If this deal was neglected or refused, DELETE!

I continued to put up with the surveys, chain bulletins, and surveys until I caught word of this "Book of Faces."

I transferred over to it just for the sake of keeping in touch with some people who weren't up on that Myspace ish. At first it was an awkward transition, but eventually I got acclimated and...I...<3 IT! It was very straightforward, no flashy backgrounds, no gay(towards heteros, that is) bulletins, and no one asks for picture comments.

CUE MUSIC: HALLELUJAH. HALLELUJAH. HALLELUJAH, HALLELUJAH, HALLELUJAH!

I liked the set-up. I liked the UI(User interface, for all you non-geeks). And I liked the demographic of people who used it.

Unfortunately, it appears that as of late, Facebook has begun its downfall like the Roman empire. Now, all I constantly see, is people adding fan pages or joining groups. Let me make this clear though, groups and fan pages had an intended purpose. That purpose, is to create a way for people with similar interests to meet each other. It is not to comment on and pick at menial things that people might encounter in their daily life. Let's just browse my news feed and see some of the latest fan pages people have been "liking"-

1) "It doesn't matter what time I go to bed, I'll always be tired when I wake up."
2) "Resisting the urge to punch terrible customers in the face."
3) "I Send Texts That Make No Sense When I'm Sleeping."
4) "Nah. We don't go out. We just talk."
5) "Hanging out with the same person everyday and NEVER getting bored of them."

Hopefully you've started to notice the trend with how nonsensical, unnecessary, or pointless these are. Yeah, we might experience some of these things. They're nothing extraordinary. So what purpose does it serve, to acknowledge something blatantly obvious. In the end, they all beg the question, "Really? You're really going to join that group because of the fact you've experienced something as ordinary, mundane, and common as the title states?" Which reminds me, the group's have NO SUBSTANCE aside from their uncreative titles. Nothing constructive comes from these pages. You don't use any of the topics of these pages to start a meaningful conversation or meet people. They're not substantial enough to be a basis for anything. These groups are akin to me creating a group called "I Get Wet When I'm Taking A Shower."

Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if that is already a group for that. AND THAT IS THE PROBLEM. Why? Do you feel satisfied joining these groups? You're only encouraging the creation of more. It's going to result in FB going extinct like Myspace. Fret not, I'm sure another social networking site will rise up only to be corrupted by children and failures who have nothing better to do than create these ridiculous groups. That's all I'm going to say about that now.

I was planning on discussing what makes FB so effective(people's narcissism and need to scrutinize everyone else's life). Why everyone feels the need to be aware of everything, is beyond me. But Facebook's future isn't looking good from where I'm sitting. Maybe I'll get into that in a later post.

Until then, I'm logging out for today.

Lights out, Blogspot.



PS- I think I'm going to try to end on a funny note. Leave you with a laugh or two. Seeing as I was googling some Demotivational posters, here's one for the road...