A Sea of Flames

I have chosen to do an analysis on social networking sites. Now, many may not consider this a technology in the same vein as television or Internet. However I believe it’s influence has the same effect, although admittedly not on the same scale, but they both change or, perhaps more accurately, created a culture. Social networking site such as Myspace, and, more so Facebook, have taken over the Internet. Facebook has more than 100 million people using it around the world. It has also taken over many Teenagers social lives and, in my experience, consumes double-digit hours a week. Clicking on friends and strangers pages and feeling connected but really being more alone than ever. The problem is not the technology itself; it is how it is misused. Many people on Facebook (mostly teenagers and college students) use it as the focus of their relationships with some people. They post on their walls and send messages instead of spending time with them and feel close, but they are not. What Facebook and other social networking site like it are for is relationship boosters and acquaintance counting. What I mean by this is that Facebook is good medium for people who already know each other well to keep in touch and co-ordinate plans; that is all it is, a medium. However, many people us it as much more, make friends online that they don’t really know in real life and building a relationship with that through the technology. The fact is nothing compares to real life face to face contact when it comes to getting to know people and having someone really know you. Everyone wants to have 1000 friends, but that is impossible and if you aspire to this you will find yourself more alone than ever. Think about this, they have population caps on high schools so teens can feel like they have some identity; that cap is a few thousand. Facebook has more than 100 million users. Being afloat on the sea of social networking can drown you.

Work Cited
“Our first 100 million”, The Facebook Blog, 26 August 2008. 28 September 2008

The First Spark

Why is this new? Why is it that I never thought of doing this before? It makes so much sense to me now: blogging. What a good way to get out my frustrations, what a good way to practice my writing without the constraints of the high school establishment and what a safe way to do it. I think back on all the times that I created an uncomfortable situation or burdened someone with my problems and how I wanted to shoot myself for not having the proper outlet. Now I find that it has been here all along, its accessibility and ease of use taunting me. Well no longer, I am poised to strike with all that I have concealed in my mind for all this time. These ideas have been pent up too long and now they have a way to spring forth into existence. I tremble with the anticipation of these words, for none can know their full impact, not even me. But in that uncertainty is fear. What if this is all simply whispering to the shadows? What if these words are not good enough? Maybe this was the wrong time to discover this, now when the chips are down. These words mean more to me then themselves: they carry with them my dreams and all the work of the past 18 years. What if these words become the echo of effort to failure? However, perhaps all I ever needed was an echo to talk to. All I know is I am pent up and I am ready to be set ablaze.