I remember when I was a sophomore in college. I was pledging a fraternity and living in a two bedroom apartment with 3 other people. Graduation was a far off dream, and my life was full of free time. What was I to do with all this free time? A solution comes onto the horizon. My friend Chrissy was talking to me in her dorm room on West Campus, and she mentions that Tina has a Facebook account. What was this Facebook?
Turns out Facebook was a different kind of Friendster… yes, I mentioned Friendster – I had a grand total of 4 friends on Friendster. I copied the Friendster profile. I went out on a limb and added a picture – things about me and then all my friends. Back then, Facebook.com was on an elitist track. Created by some dork at Harvard with too much time on his hands, he single-handedly robbed me and millions of other innocent college students of months worth of time. Who knew information thrown onto the vast Internet could be so powerful? I remember having only 14 friends, and I enjoyed seeing the intricate web it would create on the stupid webbing link. It was interesting to find out who knew who. Then, it slowly began to catch on. Everyone was running to their computers to start accounts.
As the Cornell Network grew, so did the Facebook family of colleges. It was then that Bumblefuck Online College was accredited enough to grace its students with facebook accounts. It spread to high schools – followed by companies and now the world (though I think this is not a threat to anyone since this isn’t Myspace). With the addition of the newsfeed, I know exactly what I should look at – who’s profile I should read.
I find myself posting embarrassing pictures of myself and others. I look at them periodically and remember those times. I try and avoid the applications – though I am currently both a vampire and a zombie (zompire, if you will). How did something like this become so popular? How can it be that I allow almost anyone to just look at my provided information – I’m surprised I even got a job with half the crap I’ve thrown on there (from tasteless quotes to a picture of me drunk with a power strip positioned as a penis).
Where can Facebook go from here? It can most likely only decline – right? I hope so, I don’t think I could stomach anymore information about my friends and their interests without de-learning other important information like my address and social security number. I remember the days when I would have to ask how everything was going – and what people were up to. Those days have been gone for four years now. Will I ever see them again? Maybe if the newsfeed breaks down.
JJRC
