I love Facebook. I love that the social media website can connect me to my friends and family via messaging, wall posting, and chat whenever I please. As much as I enjoyed receiving invitations to birthday parties through mail as a child, I am grateful for the convenience that Facebook provides me through their event application and even the birthday notifications! This – along with the many other features that Facebook provides is why I have stuck around all these years. However, it has come to my attention recently that social media websites require restrictions. At some point, I came to this conclusion that as much as I loved modern technology, there are some traditional aspects that should not be forgotten.
These days, I am having a difficult time defining the word friendship. I absolutely despise telling someone else that I am “Facebook friends” with someone because that to me, seems inauthentic. What constitutes a friendship? How do we make decisions about who to add on Facebook as a friend? How do we make decisions about who to keep as a friend? Because of social media, these lines are blurred. Since the lines are blurred, we are friends with friends, “friends” with acquaintances, and “friends” with people who are practically strangers. So I’m putting my foot down. I wish I could say that it is a firm foot, but it isn’t quite there yet. Instead it’s a foot that is down, but with slight reservations.
Over the last couple of years, I have recognized that every social media service serves its own purpose. Facebook is personal and with timeline, your entire LIFE is out for the world to see. Designed for friends and family, the website has veered off to become an open network to just about anyone. If I had the time, I’d probably set restrictions for different groups of “friends,” but why would you ever want to torture yourself with such a tedious task? Instead, I’m cleaning up. I’m putting up a wall (the good kind) and at the end of the day – it isn’t personal. We have the opportunity right now to define our own friendships and when we give up that freedom, social media will define it for us.
Take a second to think of your oldest friends – your best friends – and the last friend that you made. Remember when friendships were developed out of interpersonal relationships? Remember when they had meaning attached to them? A friend is not someone that you met 30 minutes ago or someone that you haven’t talked to in four years. Before you click that confirm button to add or accept a new “friend,” all I ask is that you consider what this person means to you. If you are unable to give an answer after asking yourself that, slowly direct your mouse elsewhere.
