My thoughts on Facebook

I am about halfway through The Nature of College, and I realized that this blog for the book club still existed. I would have posted earlier on in my reading journey especially since things have been standing out to me, but I've been too lazy to turn on my computer and actually type something. That is, until today when I read about Farrell's thoughts on Facebook. 

First of all, he wrote, "Facebook is good for capital, but not necessarily for social change" (Farrell, p. 143, 2010). I was going to respond by saying, "Granted, this was written a while ago", but 3 years isn't all that long I have found. Especially when I was reminded yesterday that my cousin has a 7-year-old son. Like, REALLY?! I thought that was last week!

Back on topic.

Facebook definitely has helped spread advocacy for social change. Since a lot of people in America and the world are plugged into some form of social media, it seems right for campaigns to spread to the Twitterverse or the world of Facebook. In fact, I have learned a lot about problems and issues from posts on Facebook. I don't read the paper much at college because I've never been a big newspaper reader. Every once and a while I'll browse an online news website, but I have trouble paying attention to screens sometimes (which could expand into an entirely different post). But when I see someone close to me post something on Facebook I pay more attention because all the unimportant news is filtered out. I like showing interest in what my peers are interested in, so I notice when they are feeling especially passionate about an issue. 

For example, when the marriage equality bill was passing through Congress, my brother changed his profile picture to this: 

I didn’t know that there was anything being considered by Congress regarding gay marriage at all, but when I saw everyone change their profile pictures to show support, I started researching, using Google of course. I didn’t participate in the campaign personally, but I became more aware of the ideas of social change happening around me.

I think that Farrell is being ignorant about Facebook if he believes that it doesn’t call for social change. Maybe the website itself doesn’t, but the information being posted and shared does. That’s what really matters.

Second of all, I keep getting annoyed with every topic being related to “nature.” Farrell needs to specify which kind of nature he’s talking about, because there are many different kinds. I believe he has limited himself to the “outdoors-y” nature which is cool, but there is so much else to explored.

He argued that Facebook doesn’t in any way educate us about nature or nonhuman beings. This is true. However, I wish he would address what kind of nature we do learn about from social media: human nature. It’s kind of sad that human nature can be observed through the internet nowadays, but it’s true. Technology, especially information technology, has taken us over! It’s easier for us to observe relationships through the internet than in real life because that is where many of them are started and flourish. I think this is really unfortunate because I love personal contact with people, but it’s just the way that society has grown.

College has actually made it easier for me to communicate with peers in “the real world.” I can just walk a few steps and be at a friend’s door ready to start a conversation about something or other. Sure, I still use social media, texting, etc. to keep in touch with family and friends from back home, but college makes it a heck of a lot easier to contact people without the use of technology.

In conclusion, I agree that Facebook has done a whole lot of bad in regards to connecting with people. However, Facebook has also done a lot of good because of the access to information and such. Also, college is not to blame entirely for the disconnect of relationships, and it certainly hasn’t been the place where my social media usage has increased. In fact, I have a block on my web browser, so on weekdays only 10 minutes of social media websites are allowed. I’m just trying to get my priorities straight early on and avoid distractions. Plus, this helps me “do the social” in real life.