Being Part of Each Others Reality

I recently de-activated my Facebook account on a whim. And also because my conscience was having a good go at me for procrastinating on FB instead studying into the wee hours of the morning. I only meant to go off for a couple of days over the course of which I'd somehow get bestowed with a superhuman level of self-discipline that would allow me to use FB in a constructive manner. As I am living away from home (New Zealand), FB has become an integral part of my life. This is how I can dip into my friends lives back home because lets face it - FB has become a running narrative of life's unfolding drama, complete with thoughts, pics and if you're lucky a public wall post. All this is unfolding front and center on a cyber stage and you can't keep up unless you click 'update newsfeed'.

I've been dead sober off FB for about 3 weeks now. And WOW does it feel good to not be so connected anymore. It also got me to thinking, how social networks have become a barrier in terms of accessing each others reality. Sure, there are running narratives of latest thought processes, jokes, mood swings, the latest fad, the latest purchase, and the latest check-in but this is only a figment of our reality. I somehow can't help but think that FB has to some extent reduced us to representing our reality within the context of the provided framework. And what's scary is that we seem to be ok with it. Ok with not knowing the expression on someone's face when they say they're ok, the intonation of the spoken word, the reality of a good laugh with a close friend, the feel good feeling of actually receiving letters in the mail. How we are ok with not actually calling each other up anymore because we are up to date with each other's lives thanks to FB. Now, I don't mean to say that we've all turned into zombies who do nothing but sit on our computers all day and hardly have any real catch-ups with friends. But I do believe that we have sacrificed a level of authentic communication through social networking.

I'm so glad I did this. It's good not sharing "what I’m thinking about" anymore. It's good to receive a personalized email or phone call asking me this instead. And it feels even better to do communicate in this way with others. I doubt what I’m saying is on any level ground-breaking. But it is something that I have felt keenly over the past couple of weeks. This could all be just a rant written by someone who was high on the system for a long time and pontificating through a jacked up sober daze. One thing I do know for sure though - Ain't nothing like reality like reality itself!