Wednesday, September 06, 2006

A Facebook Revolution and Revelation

Today there was definitely a buzz; the thing everyone was talking about. All roads of conversation led to the drastic change on facebook. With the addition of the "news feed," everyone can see everything that someone has done on the website. I found out that two of my friends from my first year of college broke up at 4am. I found out that one of my friends quit 2 of his facebook groups. And I found out what it feels like to be monitored. Sure, facebook had all of this information before but it wasn't publicly broadcasted out to everyone else.

So I became one of those outraged facebook users today. Like everyone else, I changed my status to show my displeasure with the networking tool. I joined "Students against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)", what I think is the fastest growing group in the history of facebook with 78,000 members and couting since this morning. I even sent the company emails telling them to change it back. It's an online revolution!

Then, as I watched the group grow larger and larger, it dawned on me: what if people cared as much about the world as they did about facebook. Whereas previous generations channeled their passion and fervor against Vietnam or for Civil Rights, ours is against changes on a website. While I do hold indivduals, including myself, largely responsible for this sad fact, I think it is also a reflection of our political system.

I am a firm believer that the government is capable of positive work and changes. But I think I've also come to realize that it does not do a good job of making people believe that thanks to the media focus on the corruption, bickering, standstills, and caliber of many of our elected officials. Why have people mobilized to change the settings on facebook? Because we think Mark Zuckerberg is accessible (isn't it odd how we know the name of the creator), that he and others at facebook will listen and care, that our emails will actually lead to change, that we can actually do something.

If my generation is ever going to reconnect with any type of action, political or just general causes, someone has to show them that caring about the world around them is applicable to their daily life and that someone will listen. Someone to help restore people's faith that they can make a difference somewhere. I'm starting to feel like that someone should be me and you, I'm just not sure how to do it well yet.

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