Champagne For My Real Friends

By
Zeitgeisters,

I must make mention yet again of Crackbook as Facebook is affectionately known.

Facebook is 2007. It's now. It's today! Yesterday, myspace was Facebook and one day soon Facebook will be a ghost town that even the tumbleweed will avoid. Social Networking. Getting worried about how many Facebook friends one has. An acquaintance of mine pointed out that I didn't have very many Facebook friends. I have 90 plus. Some of my actual friends have 200 plus.

I am happy with my modest group ("Sure, Mr Trivia that's what a no-mates loser would say"). I don't have 90 people whom I would call a friend in real life. My job puts me into contact with many people that I am friendly with and most of them are lovely, witty folks who know way too much about popular culture.

But if you define a friend as someone who will share your woes, lend you money in a pinch and can see through your carefully tailored social costume and yet still accept you, then I don't have anywhere near 90 of these.

Some people are popular. This is in not always the same as having a lot of friends. That's part of the trick of Facebook. It conflates the idea of friendship and popularity and treats two things as a single social phenomenon. Facebook (and other social networking sites and applications) take the notion of "friend" and brands it for the purpose of making money.

And that's cool; we're all capitalists since the Berilin Wall came down.

Let me leave you with something I have circulated on Facebook. I'm pretty sure Mr Sebastian hasn't seen it. Maybe we could get it to him somehow; using the power of six degrees of separation.

Elevate the Insignificant,

Mr Trivia


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