FACEBOOK has single handedly changed the way the world communicates with each other.
It is a technological wonder that has managed to incorporate a wealth of new ways for us to express our thoughts and feelings to each other and the world at large through words, pictures and video.
And for the truly creative, given them an outlet to show sides of their personalities that otherwise would not have ever been known or seen to the outside world.
Some have gone as far as to establish their own fan clubs.
These are individuals who have over 5,000 friends on their friends list and have an outlandish number of subscribers to their channels.
Most are because of their looks or are aspiring artist and musicians, performers, people looking to show case their talents and abilities, but most have actually not achieved any other real notoriety.
They have no real claim to fame.
And the hope is that their Facebook page will give them the exposure they need so that the right person or people will see them and then Viola! They will be a newly discovered talent.
The actual potential for positivity and productivity with Facebook as a tool is simply overwhelming.
Which begs the question: "Why then do we, and by 'we' I mean all of humanity, (or at the very least, the subculture who have embraced this Facebook technology) not share the kind of love and closeness that once existed in the generations before us? Our family ties are weaker.
Our face to face communications have become less frequent.
Interacting on the internet has become an online normalcy, while interacting one on one is becoming a dying art.
Instead of enhancing our humanity and strengthening our connections and relations on a more personable level, it is allowing us to happily alienate ourselves in our own cyber world of manufactured truths and fantasies.
Where we have the ability, at least on our personal pages, to paint the world however we see fit, instead of dealing with the world the way it actually is.
Texting, emails, MySpace, Tagged, YouTube, Facebook, social media.
Very slowly and casually these forms of communication have evolved into a genre that has literally taken on a life of it's own.
And the impact that it is having on the minds, habits and lives of the people who employ them can cause changes in them that are both surprising and unpredictable.
Some for the good, some for the bad.
A lot depends on the maturity and strength of character of the individual.
Someone who has established themselves and is content with their life and the path that they are on is not likely to succumb to the deception of creating an untrue artificial life for themselves in the make believe world of Facebook.
But there are many who do.
Many who if able to choose, would choose Facebook to their own actual real lives.
And as a result, spend more than 75% of their time on their chosen social media platform(s).
It is a form of escapism that allows for the sustaining of the illusion without end.
And that is enough to make it real.
Making it no longer just a form of social media,...
but of real life.
(At least for the person engulfed in the fantasy.
) And what usually happens when their make believe online lives collide with their real life circumstances unfortunately results in embarrassment, shame, the destruction of relationships, old and new,...
and in some extreme situations,...
even death, via suicide or murder.
The internet was created as a tool for the betterment of mankind.
As a new means of communication and education.
A vehicle for people, whole cultures to share their thoughts and ideas.
Some how we've reduced that to nothing more than making porn a multi-billion dollar industry.
Every thing has it's place.
To include porn.
But not at the price of us losing everything else that makes us what we are both individually and as a people.
Just something to think about while you're online creating new profiles and avatars to enter into another new world that will allow you into another new circle of friends that you didn't know before you signed up.
How about before you sign up to be one of them,...
you take a little time out to figure out who you are first.
Once you are secure in that, you may find that instead of you playing their game by their rules on their terms,...
they may well end up playing by yours.
Just a thought.
- Adrian Milan