Facebook = Voyeurism

I am a big fan of Facebook, and a regular user, but there are many people who are convinced social networking is not a good idea.

When asked what super power I would like if I could do anything, my choice used to be a little odd… `To have a perfect memory’. My brother David then pointed me in the direction of an article about a man who allegedly had just such an ability. Unfortunately it turned out to be an affliction rather than a blessing, and he ended his life in an asylum.

It seems the `ability to forget’, in the same way as the `ability to filter’ is one of our best skills. I am sometimes accused of replaying bad experiences of my past over and over again in my head and in story telling. Even ones I have worked through. For many people, once such an experience has been dealt with, they forget it and move on.

I subsequently decided my super power would simply be to remember and know without being told people’s names.

So what has this got to do with Facebook?

Well, with such easy access to finding out what is happening in other people’s lives, especially ones you would have lost contact with… Does this prevent moving on, developing and such? Previously if you were uncomfortable with the group of friends you are with, you make new friends. As you move through life, the type of people who are friends with changes, circumstances change etc. The ones you keep contact with are the ones who really make and effort and who you really make an effort for. Now, it is REALLY easy to keep in contact. Do we have the capacity to maintain so many friendships? Do we want to?

I personally like the idea of not losing contact, but I do think there are risks. And unfortunately I think these risks prevent some of the people I would really like to join facebook from joining.