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2012.01.18, 13:08
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2011.08.23, 12:34
Rant Topics
2011.05.07, 00:48
It intrigues me to watch the actions of people on Facebook. Not in an "I'm viewing your pictures and silently masturbating to them" context, but in a socially experimental way.
I don't have any real data to back this up because I don't want to expend that much effort, but I have a theory that stems from seeing acquaintances obsess over Facebook.
First and foremost, a disclaimer that will probably go out the window once I state my theory: Not every person I've met follows this pattern, which is why I've carefully selected the word "correlation" rather than the word "causation." I hate blanket statements. I'm sure this premise of my theorem will be summarily ignored by those who wish to take statements out of context, but there it is.
That being said, I think there's a correlation between the number of friends someone has on Facebook and their ability to let go of the past. I think, beyond a certain point, some people become "friend collectors." There's a certain threshold of e-friends below which I feel this idea is irrelevant, but once you start getting into triple digits, it gets questionable. I mean, how well can you REALLY know 250 people? Doesn't the sheer number of friendships necessitate that you can't be all that close with most of them?
Friend collection serves one or both of the following purposes:
1. A sense of belonging that was never experienced in high school or college. Maybe these individuals were shunned or feel they must show off to "one up" everyone that never gave them the time of day.
2. A continued sense of belonging that was overly stressed in high school or college, which contributes to a never-declining level of popularity. Since friends are now globalized, one never has to let any of them go. This disrupts any hopes I have for social humility. When you keep feeding a child candy, it never learns restraint.
Again, I'm not saying everyone follows this pattern, but there's definitely a correlation. I understand human beings are social creatures by nature, but after a certain point, I'm afraid that we will cease being emotionally self-reliant. That might not seem like such a bad thing to you, but it sounds like a horror movie to me.
In the interest of full disclosure, I'm an only child.