Nevermind The Posers

By Alexander Castiglione aka Stigz

“That’s sick…I gotta update my status.”
“O man, I gotta harvest my crops before they wither.”
“Dude, this pic is so my new default!”
“Make sure you tag me in that!”
“Stop writing dumb shit on my wall!”

Ten years ago, this wouldn’t have made any sense.  Maybe even five years ago.  However, now, we speak is Facebook-isms.  We update our status religiously.  We search for “people we may know.”  And we even play dumbass games, and in some cases, spend real money to have fake money in said games.  All of this, because of the infamous social networking site which has captivated, and subsequently disembodied, millions upon millions.

I’m as guilty as any other twenty-something, as I update my status.  Send out Facebook events.  Send people virtual sheep.  Tag myself in pictures.  Share witticisms with the world at my heart’s content.  But is this, all of this, really healthy?  Or sane?

Do you find yourself updating your status, and then religiously checking it from your phone or the nearest computer?  When you get a new notification, do you get stoked in the most detached, technological-barrier based way?  My point in all of this –  this isn’t making us any better.  It’s making us worse.   More dependent.  More self-involved.  More egotistical.  More, well…this could go on for hours.

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Zynga, and whatever other social networking distraction I don’t know about yet, turn us all into raging egotists.  Our status is now the funniest shit ever.  Our albums cleverly named for the world to see.  Our profile pictures meticulously planned, taken, and posted.  We even use our posts and status as ways to get back at exes and people we don’t like.  And yet we still bitch about the lack of privacy.   We bitch about the government.  We bitch about GPS in our phones.  Yet you’re creating your own little paper trail, voluntarily.

We create these profiles which try to take a snapshot of who we are.  Now ask yourself, can you: all of you and your quirks, loves, hates, eccentricities, colloquialisms and favorite bands, books, and quotes, sum you up as a person?  Can you be reduced to a few HTML encoded pages?  If you say yes, I feel sorry for you.

And if I’m wrong, and human beings really can boil down to a bunch of lines of text and numbers, then we all have failed miserably as a species.

Why am I bringing up all of this, as I am just as guilty as the next person who takes a “what song are you” quiz, and why am I pointing all of this out?  Because, something, somewhere, doesn’t feel right.  We weren’t meant to create our own little digital world.  We weren’t meant to say shit via FB that most people wouldn’t say in real life (Gladly I am not one of these people, but if you are a “facebook tough-guy” go back to playing Mob Wars and call me when you grow a pair.)

I just wanted to point out, that we as a culture are becoming addicted to a self-obsessed, egocentric, digital analog of our physical selves.  This, I fear, will only get worse.  And it can’t be healthy.  I’m not a shrink, but it seems to me that getting approval and validation from comments and BS games, being “friends” with people who you have never met but who happen to know the same people as you, is a sterile, antiseptic, and socio-psychologically stunted existence.

I just think we should all be a little more wary of our technological dependence and spewing every little detail of our existence.  Do you really need to twitter when you’re going to the mall, or the movies, or on a booty call?  Social networking sites are indispensable for networking and using them for business, promotions, and to stay in touch with old friends or family.  However, I can do without, us – as a culture – spewing our meaningless everyday bullshit on to the dis-information superhighway.  Please step outside the box for a minute and have a look.  I implore you.

I have a status update for you guys.

Stigz says cut the shit, and learn from the lost art of face-to-face conversation, still almost better than a college education.