I spent yesterday’s ten minutes reflecting and having a pointedly emotional reaction to the way some people feel about and react to Facebook posts. It was a fair reaction, given the blog I responded to claimed that the majority of what I post on Facebook is useless and self-aggrandizing. Even though the post wasn’t about me, I made it about me (read: self-aggrandizing). I took offense to the recognition of something I saw myself doing. Then I thought about it more. I considered it in light of the media’s portrayal and non-stop coverage of the Navy Yards shooting and I realized that Facebook is absolutely about making you seem important. Moreover, it is about making what you say and do as important to those who ‘follow’ you as it is to you.
What we do and post on Facebook is the kind of thing we used to say and do in person. When we talk to each other in casual conversation we ask, ‘How are you?’ and ‘What have you been up to?’ Is it any surprise that the majority of FB posts and pictures read like responses to this unspoken query?
The rest of it is interesting still. The article suggested that folks leave cryptoids in order to gauge others interest in their personal lives or play out inside jokes in a public forum—the kind of thing you see in a high school lunch room. No argument there. Such statements recreate the insider/outsider dynamic and reinforce personal position as an insider stakeholder. It is a bit repetitive, as you have control mechanisms in place within FB to establish insider/outsider groups and determine who sees what information. Still, those posts serve as a check and balance or even a psychological reassurance that there is a cadre of people who care about you enough and are observing you enough to ask what happened. Those same people are the ones you are trying to reach when you preach; when you offer ‘unsolicited nuggets of wisdom’ that, as the blogger suggests, is all about you.
There is a case for dropping wisdom. In every group there is the advice friend. This person tends to dominate the conversation when others need either inspiration, redirection, or purpose within their daily routine. That sort of suggestive power goes to you head, and before long you wind up believing you have the right information, eloquence, and responsibility to drop these wisdom bombs. I do that crap all the time. It wanders into my head and I squirt it back out on the internet. I don’t feel like a wise man when I do it, but just another guy who had a thought that might help someone somewhere down the line who is experiencing the phenomenon I am discussing. In other words, it is about inspiring, which if you follow me on Facebook you know is about the most important thing I think a person can do.
Hopefully my response inspires someone else to consider why Facebook is the way it is and discern the value in that without openly dismissing it through snark and little substance.