Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Those words above are the final words to George Orwell's classic novel Animal Farm. It's a story about a group of animals, lead by intelligent and corrupt pigs, which take control of a farm, and highlights the flaws of revolution and the greed of people, when in the end the pig's lust for power turns them into the very thing they despised in the first place: the humans. Anyway, what does that have to do with this post? I'll get to that later.
It's funny how in a year of using Facebook how drastically my life has changed. I now use it to guide me through pretty much every portion of life; my friends, my family, my upcomming events. My frustration or sadness or glee is vented in the form of a Facebook status. Facebook changes my mood more than the hormones did in my teenage years. As soon as I log on, it's like an adrenaline rush seeing that lovely shade of dark blue. I automatically look to the bottom right of screen and I am especially ecstatic if I see that tiny red bubble pop-up telling I have large numbers of new notifications. I am disappointed if there a no or very few, and I get frustrated when the new notifications are useless ones asking me to test "how gay are you?" in the latest quiz.
I've also noticed recently that facebook is running my life outside of the cyber world. Whenever I take a photo, I automatically think, "should I post this to Facebook?". Whenever a photo is being taken of me, I think "will this be going to Facebook?" and change my pose accordingly. Not once do I consider putting that photo in a nice frame in my room or putting it on the front of a novelty card and sending it to friends at Christmas.
When I have nothing to do, gone are the days of watching my fish swim happily in my aquarium. Gone are the days of taking a walk to the shop, or going down to the cricket nets and rolling my arm over, or even turning on the TV and lazing back into the couch. Instead I sit on Facebook, hoping, praying for someone to say or do something interesting, so I can pounce like a tiger and make a sly comment, and relinquish some of my boredom.
On the positive side, since joining Facebook, I have been invited to more parties than ever before. Or should I say "events". Afterall, all you have to do is click "create an event" and you can give 250 people the place and time of your "event" in a matter of minutes. The thing is, even when orgainsing a "small gathering", people seem to create and event, even when they would only have to call up five or six people on the phone and tell them what's going on. Errrr, what was a phone again? Actually talk to people in real life? The very thought of it makes me squirm.
So now Facebook tells me where to be, who I can and can't talk to (denpending on whether they are on or offline on Facebook chat), how I feel, what music I should listen to, what my mates have been up to. It saves me from boredom. It changes my mood. It shows me when the next slick party is going to be. It's even given me study tips, pick-up lines, told me about eating noodles with chopsticks, helped me with my assignments, established friendships with people I've never met before, and destroyed friendships which were last-time-I-saw-them, close. I love Facebook, and Facebook loves me. Together we are an unbeatable team, as long as we stick together, we will never feel sad or left out or lonely ever again.
So now comes the part in which the previously mentioned Animal Farm passage begins to make sense.
You see, right at this very moment, I am logging on to Facebook. And no question now, what has happened to my life. As the beautiful dark blue theme of Facebook appears, and I glance down into the bottom right hand corner for my new notifications, I look from real life to computer screen, and from computer screen to real life, and from real life to computer screen again; but already it is impossible to say which is which.
bravo chris!
ReplyDeleteonce again, very well written! :D
ReplyDelete