Blame Facebook

Tonight, I accidentally got into the beginnings of an epic debate of the future of our nation that all stemmed from the recent changes to the look and functionality of the popular social media mogul, Facebook. If you have your own Facebook profile, you know that with each round of changes comes a rash of complaints, cheers, lovers and haters...Okay, so actually it just brings out the whiners and gripers that have nothing better to do than grouse about how awful change is and how ridiculous the new changes are...right up until they get used to them and accept them as the new normal. 

But I digress. 

Tonight, one of my friends posted a little we-hate-Facebook bumper sticker (for lack of a better term) on her wall. For you non-Facebookers, the wall is your space to tack anything you'd like. Everybody has one. Everyone posts status updates about what they're doing, what they like, what they hate, what they think is beautiful, ugly, or cute. Think of it as a public front-of-my-refrigerator but with WAY more insignificant, random, and cluttered stuff all over it. 

Now, where was I? Oh yeah...

So, my friend posted this we-hate-Facebook thing as a reaction to the most recent unveiling of terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad changes. And I simply responded to some of her thoughts on some of the specific changes by saying something to the effect of: I think the most recent changes are in reaction to the sad reality of American youth's current state. The page looks the way it does to satisfy the younger generation's insatiable need for constant and multiple instantaneous inputs of data as their attention spans continue to be programmed into nearly nothing... (I may have gone on to say a little more here.)

And since it was on my friend's wall, one of her friends saw it and responded to me (despite our having absolutely no association with each other whatsoever) with something to the effect of: Sad reality? The only "sad" reality here is that our younger generation has created and organized information at rates never dreamed of by previous generations. And frankly, if the previous generation had spent more time on Facebook, maybe I wouldn't be paying so much in taxes and health care costs today. God bless this new generation for their advances. They will save this world. 

A little dramatic, even for me. 

But, not being able to resist the urge for a good solid debate, I, of course, responded. Well, if you call Facebook content "information"... I won't pretend to not frequent and even enjoy social media innovations such as Facebook and Twitter, but I work with college students for a living, and there are countless studies about the negative effects of technology, social media, etc. on how we function as individuals that are downright terrifying. Students are losing the ability to read, write, effectively verbally communicate, think critically, focus on any one thing for any duration of time, imagine... Sure, we may be creating information at a rapid rate, but what good will it do us if we lose the ability to analyze it?

And then, our poor mutual friend, an innocent bystander in the crossfire of civil discourse on generational implications of social media, took us off of her proverbial fridge. She'd had enough. And she probably regretted ever complaining about Facebook changes to begin with. But neither of the stranger-debaters were quite done. Oh, no. We each needed some sort of final word, a wrap-up justification for our online outbursts. I started it, I would surely finish it. So, I write on her wall asking why she took it down. I ensured her that I was being civil to this stranger that she knew and that there were no hard feelings, just a really good debate. And the stranger responded immediately: It's really too bad. I've got facts to back up my points all night long. Really sir? Now we're maybe losing a little civility. But in the effort to get the last word, I said: The tempting hook! We could battle with reports and data all night long (though I think we're probably actually talking about two different issues altogether), but I'll pass tonight. If we knew each other, it would be ON, but I'll try not to clutter this wall with anything else tonight. ;)

I stand by my points, as I'm sure this stranger also does, but I find it ironic that I was willing to pour so very much energy into such points regarding a few simple rearrangements of items on a social media site. And, not only was I, but so was another person. 

I blame my work, my relationships with students that back up current data with practical experience. 

I blame my passion of student issues.

I blame that random guy for egging me on. 

I blame Facebook.