An accurate description of Facebook? I read an article about 3 weeks ago, about how 22 year old 'paper billionaire' founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, turned down a $1 billion bid to buy the company. Then Facebook popped up again, following the Virgina Tech Tragedy, when survivors chose Facebook as their preferred medium to check on fellow survivors and leave tributes on the homepages of the dead. None of this enough to tweak my curiousity. Then Rob sends me an email link of our "Physios on Tour [1]" pix from Dublin, I enter the world of Facebook and an almost instantaneous cyber-dunking into the world of online social networking. One "friend" quickly becomes 52, and - perhaps most worryingly - the site lets me know about each and every action of each and every one in the network. A mate Steve Tolan and Alexandra Shaw (who?) are now frineds (0624am); Lisa Delidjani (Jo's cousin) and Lisa Dahlstrom (who?) are now friends (0227am); Faye Billingham (from Uni) is sleeping (0002am).
Why do I need to know any of this? I heard that Facebook was initially a utility for college students only (emails with .ac in them) but has since expanded to include the general public. I can see how such attention to the network's detail might work on a campus or high school but how sustainable (or practical) is this magnifying glass focus on a person's social network of loose affiliations in the big bad world is anyone's guess. I feel almost oppressed by the amount of content splurging onto the page and into my inbox (i get notified when someone in my network makes an addition to the 'facebook'). And yet I am curiously addicted ... why does Fliss Bertram's name ring a bell? What has casual acquaintance Sam Sladden (from the physio degree) got to say about herself? When I signed up, it offered to search my email address book and let me know who I know is already connected. Fliss I think was included in a Gresham's related email .. a friend of a friend of an old school friend. Whoever she is, she has almost 400 friends on facebook (kudos to her? a virtual celebrity in a virtual space). It's got me thinking about/ remembering that 1992 movie Lawnmower Man:
"A story about a simple person getting turned into a super-genius ... the visual effects were beyond impressive even for 1992, but they never dominate the movie. We might say that the movie deals with the dangers of people relying too much on technology" (from IMDB.com)
I remember one of the final scenes where the man is so integrated into the technology used (the web), that he no longer needs his physical corpus at all, and it becomes an empty shell .. and then dust. What's my point? Not sure, but as someone points out on Laree's facbook page, "welcome to the internet's latest version of crack"; and Ciara says "the world went mad last weekend .....seems like everyone fell for the book of face charm!!" - it seems that everyone, well no not everyone .. for some reason there are almost 800 email addresses in my yahoo address book - is hooked on the service. Are we all close in the real world? well no, but we could be .. couldn't we? Facebook has brought us all closer together - but for what purpose. For fuck's sake Nick, chill out. Contrary to Jo's opinion that I sit around wasting my life away on the web, I am usually drawn towards services and technologies that I feel have the potential to provide meaningful utility in my physical life - using Geotagging to share my photos with my nearest and dearest - Online, because they live far and wide; Google Calendar, so Jo and I can stop double booking ourselves and spending 2/3 of our lives apart; Remember the Milk because I have the memory of a gnat on a bender; Del.icio.us because I want my bookmarks organised according to the way I think, and not the way my browser software is built.
So how will facebook make my life better? Not sure. I am already in touch with my family and my mates new and old by email (none of whom are registered with facebook anyway .. yet). The email facility has got me wondering whether this has the potential to make my email address redundant. Surely not. The photo album function could easily replace my Flickr subscription I guess (if the damn uploader worked reliably). This blog already feeds into the Notes function, so the three people who give a shit could read it there, at one centralised 'home page' I suppose. But I can't write it from there so still need to use this blogger site. Haven't used the calendar yet. Gosh if I devoted this much grey matter to figuring out my life in the real world I'm sure I'd be deadly!
So it's been a whole month since my last post. Phew .. April was the month that was - absolutely hectic. highlights:
- 'Bedding down' in my new job as a Therapy Rehab Assistant. Great to be back in the world of therapy, and with elderly clients in the community who really need the support and see glorious gains in their independence when it works.
- Winning the Cup Final. My Sunday League team, the Capital Canaries F.C. beat Aberdeen 0-2 after extra time. The club's first trophy in 14 seasons. Also finishing the league in 2nd place - our highest ever finish. The 'Lion' goes from strength to strength!
- Meeting up in Dublin with Rob, Gareth, Eamonn and Elaine - friends from my physio degree.
- Taking Yani and Oscar (Niece & Nephew) to Whipsnade Safari Park, when big brother Miles brought his family down for the May Day Holiday weekend.
- Being absolutely bamboozled by Jo who organised a surprise graduation party for me right under my nose without me knowing anything about it. Walking into my living room to find 30 of my nearest and dearest, from all over the country was an emotional roller-coaster that touched me deeply and is a cherished memory that will stay with me for a long, long time (thank you all of you x).
I have bet myself that I am the only person who has made it this far into this latest post, so I'll sign off now (and besides, I need to get back to Facebook!).
Picard Out.