My Social Media Identity

Since 2004, Facebook has been an integral part of this ever-changing world we live in. The Social Network, which is a movie based on the infamous creation of “thefacebook,” displays the websites upbringing from the founder, Mark Zuckerburg. The idea for the site began as one solely for Harvard students to connect with each other, which explains the sites original name: TheHarvardConnection. Zuckerburg then ran with the idea and began to think globally rather than simply Harvard. He envisioned a social media website for the world to enjoy; almost as much as he would enjoy his own profit. Once he had the program up and running, the attention never stopped. Everyday millions of people were visiting the site to friend new people, to look at photos, or to simply state what was on their mind for the world to look at. The genius idea has led to over 400 million people flocking to the site a month. Today there more than 500 million active Facebook users, which makes it the most popular social media site to date.

As the illustration above shows, there is no ignoring the impact that Facebook has on today’s society. Zuckerburg is now a billionaire while we, the average citizen, continue to help him rake in the cash by visiting the site multiple times a day. In order to investigate the magnitude of Facebook’s impact, I will examine my personal use of it in my life up to this point. By looking at my addiction to Facebook, I will be able to understand how it “informs and even structures my identity.”

            Because of security reasons, my mother wouldn’t let me get a Facebook account until I was in high school. Even then, I did not know what I was getting myself into. Not a day went by my freshmen year when I wasn’t checking my “wall” and “messages” for any news/updates. I cared more about what my Facebook page looked like than what my room looked like. The pictures were carefully picked to show how cool I was or how much fun I had. Whether it was in hope of gaining popularity, or meeting some classy high school freshmen girls, I simply needed to check it every day. At one point my weekends became successful only if I had no less than five friend requests. It’s pathetic that my goal was to gain cyber friends now that our class has actually sat down and contemplated the concept of a social identity. When checking my friend requests I usually spend about 4 seconds deciding whether I will accept or ignore my request. I am assuming that most people are similar to me, which is why I now feel stupid for putting so much of my time into a request that the other person would simply accept regardless of whether they wanted to be friends with me or not. This is because it’s not really being a friend, it’s simply a mutual agreement to let other people know that you acknowledge your new “friend” and will allow him or her to view your pictures and status’. The fact that the word friend has developed into this meaning is shocking. “Friending “sustains an illusion of closeness in a complex world of continuous partial attention,” said Roger Fransecky, a clinical psychologist and executive coach in New York (2,894 friends). “We get captured by Facebook’s algorithms. Every day 25 new people can march into your living room. I come from a failed Presbyterian youth, and there was a part of me that first thought it was impolite not to respond. Then I realized I couldn’t put them all in a living room — I needed an amphitheater.”’ Fransecky points out that the definition of a “friend” has changed to where we think just because someone has accepted to be our Facebook friend means that we actually know them.

Just because Facebook has changed the definition of a friend does not mean it is being destructive. There are countless reasons why Facebook is a very useful tool in everyday life. Since college has started, it has allowed me to belong to groups, clubs, and numerous other activities that I would have been unaware of had the social website not existed. I joined the Kappa Alpha order and most of our communication comes from the home page of the fraternity. Because of the accessibility of information on Facebook, we need to realize the benefits that it has brought with its skyrocketing popularity. Although the plethora of information is nice to have at the push of a button, our attachment to it can sometimes remain subliminal. We have Facebook on our computers, phones, tablets, which leave anything we want to know only a click away. Some may say that this could have a negative impact on society as a whole because it could lead to dependence on technology or lethargic behavior.  As long as we become aware of the presence that Facebook and other social media websites have on us, then we can use it to our advantage. There is no reason to not use Facebook as a tool to stay in contact with people, to make plans, or to join organizations. It is simply our responsibility to make sure it is used in that manner, and not obsessively.