Face REALITY Book

Unbelievably, today I am going to write about a topic that is inspired by something I heard while watching Glee! It was an observation about how "when students are bored they update their Facebook status." This stuck with me because it is completely relevant to my own life. I am not ashamed to admit that when I am bored with nothing better to do, Facebook is the first thing I turn to.

I, like many others am hooked, but why is Facebook so popular? Is it because it gives people a chance to post their lives online? Or is it because it gives people the chance to look at the lives of others?

I would argue that Facebook is not really about being able to speak you mind and tell your stories to other people, I think Facebook has become so popular because it gives you the chance to portray your life the way you want to, regardless of what your life is like in reality.

I highly doubt that anyone ever updates their status by honestly answering the question "what is on your mind?" , instead they create a status that answers "what would you like people to think is on you mind?"

The same is true with images, events and groups. They are all centered around what you want people to know your doing, where you've been, where you're going, and what you want people to think you look like.

So where has this obsession with creating our "realities" come from? It is human nature to try and impress others, or to try and hide what your reality is. Hiding your reality can cover anything from lying about yourself to the extremes of plastic surgery; but nothing has ever been as easy, cheap and successful as hiding your reality on Facebook.

Jeremy Bentham believed that people should only do acts which will result in the greatest happiness for the greatness number of people, and I think that the majority of Facebook users act in this way. We create status updates that we hope will amuse other people, we post pictures because we want others to look at them and have a reaction, thousands of groups are created purely with the intention of causing amusement and happiness in other people. I would challenge anyone to say that they don't consider the reaction of others when updating their Facebook in any way.

It is, after all, impossible to be part of something that millions of people around the world are part of, and still try to use it as a completely individual programme.