With the advent of sites like MySpace, Facebook, Blogger, and the general "openness" of the Internet as evidenced by Web 2.0, there seems to be an increase in the midset of "it's all about me, and I'm worth telling you about."
A few minutes of mindless poking through Facebook pages for friends of friends of friends, will undoubtably yield links to personalized wedding websites, band sites, all-about-my-dog-Fluffy sites, and enough combinations and permutations to make the mind reel. And really, all these sites only ever prompt one question in my mind: Who cares?
(Do note: I see the irony of posting a question like this on a personal blog. But I hope that one can excuse my apparent hypocrisy in light of the fact that I find the benefit of this blog of mine to be in its writing, of airing out my thoughts and letting off some steam, rather than actually hoping people will read this and give a damn. But I digress.)
Every one of these sites with its brightly colored pixels beams like a search light into the night, pulsing out its morse code message of "READ ME. CARE ABOUT ME. THIS IS IMPORTANT."
This picture of you, sloppy drunk, smiling like a baboon with your arm around some "friend" you've never seen before and will never see again. This terrible poem you wrote, every word pouring out of you as if you were channelling some Great Unknown Force. Year old posts you and your boyfriend wrote back and forth to each other full of sappy and passionate love that would eventually fizzle out when you found your boyfriend making out with your best friend. Or was it you who was making out with the boyfriend's best friend? Undoubtably, there's picture proof of that somewhere too. Or, on the off-chance that the relationship didn't die out, there's this website telling your engagement story in excruciating detail, as if this was a memoir of a movie star who had been proposed to on the beaches of Waikiki by the heir-to-billions investment banker. Which it's not, you, the heir-to-two-gerbils-and-a-tomcat proposed to your future wife in an IHOP by burying the ring between layers of her Strawberry-Shortcake French Toast.
I guess people write these stories, post these pictures, and use up gigabytes because they think they are fascinating. That they matter. That by virtually posting a story about their life, they make it that much more important. The power of published association. "Hey! Paris Hilton published a book and talks about her troubled teenage years! I wrote about that on my Facebook page too! I'm just like Paris Hilton!"
With Web 2.0 bring the allure and promise (no matter how small) of famousness and purpose to Average Joe, people seem to have lost sight of the fact that 99% of people's lives are painfully, dreadfully boring. No, I don't think the fact that your daughter just learned to use the potty is worth "Liking." I don't want to comment on this picture of you standing on top of Smokey Hill Crest. If you were standing on top of Mount Everest, now that would be something worth talking about. But as it is, the hike took you half and hour and didn't even warrant bringing a water bottle, so why on earth did you feel compelled to bring your camera? Take a picture of yourself tossing up a peace sign? And then put it up on the great World Wide Web?
Reading people's mundane lives colored in the neon shades that used to be reserved for really important stuff makes me sad. It makes me sad that the highlight of your wedding, which you compare to "The gold-threaded linen of royalty," is going to be the BeDazzled napkins. That you aren't going to make it to the top of Mount Everest, won't even make it to the right continent to do that, that you might never leave the state. That seeing a touring show of "Disney on Ice" is the closest you will ever get to a real vacation within a 50 mile radius of DisneyWorld.
Life can kind of suck. And I guess I wouldn't mind so much if people didn't make it seem like their mundane existence was somehow more than it is. Not that I want people to wander around in a depressed funk, but making the absolutely boring seem exciting makes the truly exciting less so. If I get famous, I want it to be legitimate. I want to do something awesome. I don't want to fool myself into thinking that that's true when it's not by making my trip to the grocery store seem like some impossible trek. Are people no longer happy living their lives as what they are? Lots of people dream of being a movie star, but realize it's not going to happen. Has Web 2.0 simply allowed us to hold on to this dream without letting go and coming to terms with our comparatively small existence? Can we no longer grow up? Do we honestly believe that we truly can be famous? That everyone has some talent worth global celebration?
Welcome to the future, where everyone is a star, and not for any good reason.
1 comment:
i agree that people are boring, and that a majority of attention-seeking posts hardly warrant a nod of acknowledgment- I don't care that a sheep wandered onto your farm. at the same time, two points strike me that i have to argue.
i use the internet mostly for communication. If i am writing about something it's either for self expression or if i tihnk someone i know will get something out of it. I am not virtual friends with anyone that i am not real life friends with. Because of that I hope that the same communication would occur regardless of the internet. I would still show my friend a stupid picture of my cat on my head, and they would still laugh.
some people find different things exciting. I respect that. I am someone who gets my hopes up way too easily because if i am excited in something it makes life that much more enjoyable. what makes me different from the people i believe you are referring to, is that in NO way do i expect the rest of the world to share that excitement.
i like this post though, and i can definitely agree with a lot of it. My biggest issue is how some technology has hindered communication rather than enhanced it. such as dinner with friends who won't stop texting or tweeting. give me some good ol conversation.
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