Facebook Me?

The other day, sitting with housemates in our usual post-supper-girly-gossip stupor at the kitchen table, I uttered the phrase, "sometimes I just want to take my whole Instagram down and start again." I was understandably laughed at, and then my housemate tweeted it. Then, like every other night in, I probably went up to my room and vegged out by scrolling through Facebook, and even after shutting down my computer allowed myself a little scroll through Instagram on my phone before turning my light out, when really I should have been reading one of the three books a week my degree puts upon me. Perhaps my self-conscious admission was sub-consciously post-modern due to the contemporary literature module I'm currently taking, but more likely it was due to the increasing pressure we all feel to make our lives interesting enough for constant social media consumption. In fact, I know that's why I said it. 

Imagine a life without Facebook and all the other various social networks? In my head it doesn't seem so bad, but then how would I remember people's birthdays? How would I get sent invites to things? How would I stalk people when I want to procrastinate? Without Instagram, how could I legitimately take selfies? How could I snoop on celebrities and see catwalk shows as they happen? Would I have to eat my perfect salad without photographing it? How would the world go round?
I think that this social media induced insecurity is a very new, but alarmingly prevalent, side affect of a generation where technology is developing faster than my nails grow. Yes it's great that I can keep in touch with everyone all the time, but I don't always want to keep in touch with everyone all the time. Also, when I'm ensconced in the library 9-7 every day tackling essays, I don't want to see how much fun everyone else is having, or how great they're looking when I'm eating an entire chocolate orange, slumped at my desk as the Asian next to me gives me withering looks. I have begun to realise that Facebook can do a lot more harm than good, and I'm ever so glad I didn't have to grow up with it any earlier than the young enough age of 16, when at the grand old age of 21 it still has the ability to make me fret. I think anyone who says it doesn't make life more of a performance is lying. Social media has even changed the way relationships work. No longer do boys have to pluck up the courage to call you, a seemingly terrible ordeal, first they must add you as a friend, then you might use Facebook chat, then you might start texting, and only when you've learnt to get on through satellite communication might you have a REAL conversation. In some cases, you can sleep with someone and not even have spoken to them on the phone, although obviously you would have had face to face contact (one would hope).
According to Facebook, I have 669 friends. I don't think I could even count more than around 60 true friends and family who's lives I really care about if you pinned me down right here and now. OH and I've just spent about 10 minutes dithering on Facebook instead of writing this post! I'm keenly aware that this is beginning to sound like a rant and not an article, but I am genuinely fascinated by the power Mark Zuckerberg holds over us all, and am curious as to when Facebook will become naff and 'yesterday'. If I still have Facebook in five years, people will only have to press the left arrow key on my photos to see a picture of me that was taken a decade before. Is that not a sobering thought? Perhaps in five years we won't even be talking to each other any more, only iMessaging.
Social media is a hugely successful part of expanding businesses, spreading awareness for pretty much any project, and raising the profiles of charity campaigns. Only the other day it was responsible for bringing to light the travesties of Pussy Riot activities at Sochi. It also (tragically) is what keeps me up to date with most of the news. Since having Twitter I've actually become more informed, as before I never made the proactive decision to buy a paper or subscribe to The Week like my more savvy friends (I'd rather spend the money on shoes). Social media is also going to allow me to share this blog with people, in which case I'll be promoting myself just as much as the next person. It's a slightly scary/hopeful thought (for when I graduate) that people are paid to do social media, it's become that much of an art form. I even listed various social media sites under 'Technical Skills' on my C.V.
I think that is where my issue lies. No longer is social media a 'platform', whatever that phrase has come to mean, for communication. It's a theatre stage, or more appropriately a cinema screen, upon which people can deliberately act out their apparently glittering lives. Even if we do live fairly ordinary lives, and hey most of us do at least some of the time, we still make choices as to what we advertise through Instagram/Facebook/Tumblr....the list is endless. I can't count the number of times I've hovered over deactivating my account in recent weeks, receiving a 'neknomination' almost pushed me over the edge....and yet I come back every time. I'm as addicted to my online alter-ego and the many avenues it takes me down as I am to Coca-Cola. And I have to admit that the internet allows me to indulge endlessly in my 'passion-for-fashion' (cringe). But I wish I had the power to resist, and the self-assurance to not care, and that I could be so alternative I didn't have Facebook and didn't look at my iPhone every 5 minutes. But I am only human, and as the world gets less so, I expect I'll be along for the ride. Now excuse me while I go and tweet myself to sleep.

MØ - Say You'll Be There (Spice Girls Cover)

(Defeat: I would not have heard this fantastic Spice Girls tribute if it weren't for Facebook, and now I have to share it).