If you are reading this it means that you know how to use the internet – which means that it would be impossible for you not to know about Facebook. In fact with over 800 million active Facebook users, it is extremely likely that even if you don’t use the internet you will still have heard of Facebook before.
Facebook has revolutionised the way that people share their photos, their friends, their thoughts and essentially their entire lives. The recent trend on Facebook is to share your awkward moments with your friends and family by starting your status update with ‘the awkward moment when’.
Some popular examples of this craze are:
The awkward moment when you try to use your curser to shoo a fly off your screen
The awkward moment when it's quiet in class and your stomach decides to make that dying whale sound
The awkward moment when vodka robs you of your dignity
So when did it become cool to tell everyone our most embarrassing moments? I would argue that it is because by the time you are old enough to be a committed facebook user, we have reached the point in our lives where our desire to be funny over rules our fears of being laughed at.
I remember moments from my childhood that I thought were so embarrassing at the time that I wanted the ground to swallow me up. And now I have much more embarrassing moments yet for some reason I am happy to share these with my Facebook world because I know that they will make people laugh.
I think that the evolution of Facebook has meant that we are much more comfortable, or at least virtually comfortable, with expressing ourselves and sharing our experiences. In my experience, this is because even though you know the people who are making comments or ‘liking’ your status, you cannot actually see them so there is a sense of detachment to them; and the illusion that the people that you are sharing embarrassing moments with are not actual people.
Facebook has become an essential part in socialisation, particularly amongst younger generations, and I believe that this is because it allows us to socialise without actually interacting with another individual. You don’t have to pretend to look interested; you don’t have to reply instantly and if you forget something about a person of what they have just said you can easily read over past conversations.
I think that adapting to socialising in this way is incredibly dangerous because it makes you more accustomed to communicating virtually, which in turn makes it more difficult to communicate with friends or strangers in reality. I know this to be true because I have found it happen in my own life. I am more than happy to e-mail anyone, anywhere in the world at any time of day if I think they will be able to help me with something. However, I would never make numerous phone calls or visits to speak to the very same people who I happily e-mail. It would be incredibly for me to say that the reason for this is because e-mail is quicker and more easily accessible – but this would be a lie.
The truth is that I am no longer entirely comfortable starting conversations with strangers in reality. I would much rather communicate through a computer screen where I don’t actually have to see the other person, and I know that they cannot see me.
Similarly, it is easy for me to type out what my problem is because I am not imaging who will be reading this – all I have access to are the words on my own screen and my own thoughts about them.
If I were to update my status now it would probably be:
The awkward moment when you realise you will go to extreme lengths to avoid talking to people in reality instead of virtually.
It seems to me that the addition of those four words to a status gives us the confidence to share our embarrassing moments, secrets and fears with the world. Or perhaps sharing our awkward moments simply allow us to make fun of ourselves before others have the opportunity to make fun of us.
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