The Facebook Phenomenon

I'd like to take a few moments to discuss here the phenomenon which is Facebook. 

We all (or most of us) have a Facebook page. It is way to communicate with your friends, share your experiences, and lose entire block of time to staring at your computer screen. After seeing the Facebook movie a few years ago, I actually gained a little bit of patience with the constant updates, the changes to the formatting, and the incessant need to keep updating my privacy settings. Those are the things we all complain about all the time, the ways we are all mutually inconvenienced by Mark Zuckerberg every 6 weeks or so when he and his team of social networkers come up with something new and different for us all to learn and navigate through. 

But that is not the point of this post. The point of this post is to talk about things that exist because of Facebook. Allow me to explain. 

The Facebook Generation

I am not sure if this is a real thing or not, but it should be. I am just a little bit too (gasp) old to be a member of the Facebook generation because when I was joining Facebook it was still in its stages of exclusivity when you had to have a college email address in order to join and MySpace was still all the rage for high school students and members of the working class. But as Facebook evolved and became less stringent in its membership requirements, younger and younger Facebookers began making their way into the world. 

Thus, the Facebook generation was born. These are the people who have spent their entire adolescence and time there after with access to Facebook. These individuals never lived in a world where there wasn't a status you could update every time you went to the gym or ate a sandwich. You know the mark of a person from the Facebook Generation because they update their status more than others who had to say... text their friends in order to let them know that Channing Tatum has a new movie coming out. This is not to say one way of Facebooking is better than another, but that there is in fact a difference between Facebookers from different generations. 

Terminology

There are new words in my vocabulary which did not exist before Facebook. Words that I just used freely in my last rant. Words like Facebooking, Facebookers and my next point... Facebook Stalking. 

Facebook Stalking

You can admit it here. You've done it. We all have. It is SUPER easy to do. And sometimes it opens up a black hole that just keeps leading you from person to person to person and then the next thing you know, it's 2 o'clock in the morning and you've been looking at the Facebook for that one girl from your sophomore history class' cousin's brother's friends mom.... and you really aren't sure how you got into this predicament. 

Just today I had to admit to Michelle that I was looking at the Facebook page for the mother of a person that I barely know, who's Facebook page I found through a twisty path of Facebook Stalking shame and dishonor. 

Over-Shares

We all know one or two over sharers. And these people probably don't realize they do it. But they do. There are some things I do not need to know about you, I promise. So please stop telling them to me ad nauseam. (Note: Over sharers are not just limited to statuses. They might also over share with e-cards, LOL cats, internet memes or pictures.) 

*Please note that there is a time and a place for sharing a lot on Facebook. And that is when you are the member of groups which encourage sharing about a topic or event. Not just you, posting inappropriate statuses. There are chat rooms for that. 

High School Reunions

While I am sure Facebook is helpful in facilitating high school reunions, that is not actually what I am referring to at the present moment. Facebook enables us to stay in touch with people we otherwise might never see or hear from again, unless we happen to run into them when both home for Christmas and picking up a last minute can of mixed nuts at Walgreens so Grandma can finish the Chex-Mix before serving the pre-appetizer snacks. And while it is nice that Facebook keeps you in touch with people you may want to still have in your lives, there is still that pesky little fact that Facebook keeps you in touch with those that you'd rather forget. 

And there you have a non-comprehensive review of the Facebook Phenomenon. Or at least what The Couch Potato Princesses believe the Facebook Phenomenon to be. 

Hey Pinterest- Don't get cocky, I'm coming for you next!