>The large problem that I have noticed, and bear in mind I do believe I'm one of the younger members here at the age of 21, is that a great deal of people my age begin to act in the outside world like they would in facebook. Right there. That's the money quote. Somebody on Reddit once described me as "taking things too personally, like someone who grew up before the Internet." It was one of the most inadvertently insightful comments I'd ever seen, because they were absolutely right: those of us who grew up "without the internet" regard each other in a completely different way than people who grew up with the internet. I don't think most people understand that. A high school experience pre-Facebook, pre-text message, pre-smartphone is a very, VERY different experience from one that incorporates the digital ecosystem. It's a bigger divide than before/after rock'n'roll, before/after the fall of the Berlin Wall, before/after the telephone. Social interaction in a multi-screened environment is wholly and completely different from social interaction when the coolest thing a phone could be was "cordless." HOWEVER You're also trying to have a substantive discussion in a format that declares every carriage return to be a new message. C'mon. Facebook is the thunderous essence of triviality. It isn't designed for deep thought, it's designed for "deep thoughts." Discussing the intricacies of battery technology and their impact on transport on Facebook is kind of like listening to Mussorgsky as recorded by one of those roll-your-own talking greeting cards. The results are going to be a tinny, horrific facsimile of beauty no matter how much you work at it. For a lot of people one paragraph is all they need to say their piece. Give them two and they'll be reduced to a digital case of the umms. More than that, the power of conformity will push them into limiting what they have to say to that paragraph - after all, how many people are going to click on the "keep reading" button so that they'll click through to the "like" button? It's like this: McDonald's has terrible burgers. If you go there looking for a good burger you will be disappointed every time. And yes - if all your friends like to go to McDonald's for their burgers, their palate for decent cooking will atrophy. But as someone who isn't 21, allow me to observe that there are a whole bunch of people in the world that will never. fucking. matter. And to be perfectly honest, it terrifies me to belong to their number. So I strive for more. Clearly, so do you. There are likely people amongst your Facebook friends that feel as you do. Facebook, however, remains the most terrible place you could imagine for determining who they are. Lead a life of substance and do not sweat the trivialities. "You can tell the size of a man by the size of the thing that makes him mad." - Adlai Stevenson PS. Assigned reading, whippersnapper: http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Useful-Things-Artifacts-Zipp... http://www.amazon.com/Alone-Together-Expect-Technology-Other...
And you're delusional if you think that you'll ever "fucking matter."