The other day, I found out about a new function on Facebook that fixes you up with people that you might, or should know. I found this out, whilst standing at a bar (drunk), from a person who I apparently might have, or should have known- conversation starter or what?
A week later, and I’m sitting in his house, however many miles away from home, having a really good time! Facebook is opening up a world of possibilities. Bosses, or potential bosses can make assumptions about how suited you are for a job, teachers can feel reassured of their popularity (although they’d probably swear they don’t check!), or as was the case in Reading, get you removed from your university for what you think and share about them.
Probably little more than two weeks ago some bright spark had this idea- super networking really- and thanks to them, I got talking to someone I would smile at, out of polite recognition more than anything, and now here I am.
As a serial singleton- out of choice I hasten to add- I am wary of what this new way of forming relationships, but so far I’m surprisingly happy, and he seems happy too. A powerful tool in the realm of work has moved its remit into the field of love. Scared?
So is this what people from the future will call a Facebookationship? People no longer have to settle for the people they come directly into contact with; you can initiate conversations with people you might never have gotten talking to; you can recommend a friend to a friend and have a poke around inside their book? Would it be?
To show them just how compatible they’d be if only they’d meet; you can meet someone on a night out and make sure they have friends, and they weren’t just some loner praying on the drunk and suggestible! The possibilities, it would appear, are endless.
The days of post-university marriages because it’s ‘the done thing’, and the obligatory messy divorce and battle for the kids afterwards, it would appear, may be numbered. Thank god! Because, you can pretty much find, anyone!
I wouldn’t have predicted this, and yet it is quite an obvious technological progression. But a natural process it is not. I’m not complaining in this instance (not yet anyway, friends are however on standby for me running back screaming 'you were right, he is a mad man' but will this become a frequent occurrence?
Are people finding people they really should know? A noble goal on the part of our friendly social networking buddies, but not without its pitfalls.
The flipside, the mysterious and unknown flipside of this fluid networking process, this unprecedented social experiment, is that people might be finding people who don’t want to be found by them. Anyone with a grudge could make your life secretly difficult via Facebook; secret rumours could be easily spread before you can say: 'get me a lawyer!'
Is this an open invitation to stalkers? Enough information is available on some people’s pages for anyone, whether you know them or not, to take a serious leap into psychopathic behaviour. Will the availability of this information create mental health problems that may not have manifested themselves in such a way without Facebook? An extreme and yet sobering thought!
And even the most ‘normal’ of users would probably admit to having a nosey around someone’s Facebook, someone whose house they wouldn’t even go looking around let alone be invited to. Nosey, or too nosey??
Conversely, users make a conscious decision to join Facebook, and adjust their privacy settings accordingly. We put up the information that we don’t mind people knowing or thinking about us. An element of unusual behaviour could easily be attached to this side of the coin; do people tell the truth? Do people stress about what kind of image they’re putting out to the world? A nice helping of Facebook paranoia to add to all your non-virtual problems!
Should people be more paranoid? The mere mention of I.D cards has the liberals amongst us scorning the police state our pleasant land appears to be turning in to. But what’s to stop Gordon Brown or a terrorist having a peek? A flick through your pictures to make sure you aren’t doing anything illegal.
Ok, so maybe that’s a little extreme, but it is a pretty much bottomless consetina file of people all over the world, full of information you probably wouldn’t tell the passport office without a fight.
There is no doubt that Facebook can be destructive. Many a drunken argument since the company was founded in 2004 will have started 'Why has she been messaging you on Facebook?' or 'I didn’t know you knew him.'
So whilst the new function can make a relationship, the whole thing could be responsible for breaking relationships. Although you’d think twice about cheating if what you said was plastered on a virtual wall for all to see. In which case, messaging would be your choice of communication!
Whilst watching Forrest Gump I start to feel saddened that relationships no longer need to begin with an innocent childhood meeting on a school bus. The building of something so valuable and precious reduced to a type and a click.
The magic of mystery has almost finally been erased from our hectic media-filled lives as we profess to all who will read it I’m a bit mad I like music etc.
Networking may make the initiation of relationships easier, and maybe making relationships should be easier- we’re all here for the long haul- if a little cheaper.
Kirsty Styles