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Monday, 14 February 2011

The FACEBOOK Uprising

There needs to be an uprising. We need democracy. We're being oppressed and having our freedoms curtailed; and we don't even realise it. We could be hanging out with great people, or having movie marathons, or staring at the stars. Instead we're on facebook.

Even when we do look up at the stars, the facebook button on our expensive gadgets compel us to interrupt the experience. We've been living this way for so long we don't even realise it. Ask anyone who has lived in an oppressive state. Pretty soon the voice becomes internalized; "my people are worthless," "I am failing God," "I must, must, must, check facebook!" 

It only takes a second to check your facebook, that's what they say, but it doesn't; it takes your freedom and your ability to be independent. You think Shakespeare would have been as good as he was if he was using up his best lines on other prople's profile walls? You think his books would flow as well if he wrote them whilst waiting for Natalie to respond on facebook chat?


I'm not saying you should leave facebook; I just mean it should be used consciously. We need to be able to decide "I will now waste three hours on facebook 'liking' statuses," rather than being under the illusion that you're still working or having a short break.

It'll start with discipline, military rule. You need to set the boundaries. Things are going to change and it won't happen over night. But the goal is democracy-- that you choose how you use your time. And when you're getting on with your life you're not missing your online friends.

Everyone will be protesting against it one day. How it sucked the life out of them and turned everything spontaneous and magical into one big facebook event. But for now, nobody sees it. It's just you and me, and we have work to do, projects to see through to completion. 
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11 comments:

  1. Univarn14 February 2011 at 04:25

    I check Facebook roughly once or twice a week, and post something on there about that often. It just lacks that draw for me. I don't really care what questions my friends may or may not have said about me. Not the biggest fan of faux-farming not named Harvest Moon. Nor do I really care what everyone is saying about everything. I'm fine talking to people outside the confines of Facebook.

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  2. Anonymous14 February 2011 at 06:06

    It's funny because on the top, left-hand side there's a little ad saying "Add KITFR on facebook!" I'm not saying you're promoting the online binge, but it doesn't help either :P Nobody promotes online binge, it's just the features as a collective espouse it. I don't think facebook is the issue. The issue lies with the people who have an obsessive, unconscious need for escapism.

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  3. The Kid In The Front Row14 February 2011 at 06:14

    Leila, I just want to make absolutely clear. At no point did I ever claim to not be a complete hypocrite! I think Facebook is a wonderful thing, a great tool which has helped me immensely socially and professionally.

    "The issue lies with the people who have an obsessive, unconscious need for escapism." - Doesn't everyone? :)

    Univarn - cool, congrats on not being infected!

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  4. James G. Wall14 February 2011 at 06:56

    I think I need to check my facebook...

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  5. Jayne14 February 2011 at 07:10

    Kid- I'll admit I was sucked into the vortex when I first joined. Thankfully, I was able to pull myself out. But I did find it's a good way to shamelessly promote writing/blogs, even if none of my FB friends ever look at my blog (suburbs, ugh).
    So now I've been sucked into the blogging vortex, which holds much more interesting company. Course I must push myself out of that one now and then, too. ;)

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  6. Unknown14 February 2011 at 10:47

    I must not have clicked "send" before. Darn.

    Thank you for this post! It reminds me that I have fallen back into the habit of spending way too much time on facebook--it's as if my facebook detox never happened. :(

    Starting today, I'm going cold-turkey for a week again: NO FACEBOOK! I feel liberated already. :)

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  7. Starlight14 February 2011 at 11:27

    Well written! A year ago I spent way too much time on FB but I don't any more. I rather spend time watching a good film, read a great blog (yours included) or read a good book.

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  8. Martin14 February 2011 at 13:10

    Brilliant once again. Ive not had facebook for almost a year now and thinking about re-activating but limiting myself to one little check every 2 days. The fact that I know it'll be hard to stick to that is ridiculous, breaking it down its just a silly web site but it has such a hold over people its hard to imagine.

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  9. Tonja14 February 2011 at 15:31

    Very true - I am going to post this on Facebook for my friends to read....

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  10. Samyuktha Semi Jayaprakash15 February 2011 at 03:02

    Kid...u look at it from ur perspective , what if this is the new way of life? We adjusted our lives when TV came , when the internet came , when the MOVIES came , we can adjust when fb comes right?
    This is where I can chat with ALL my friends when I log in , at the same time... so that means I am saving time right? ( instead of talking with each one of them!)
    All I am saying is we need to learn to multi task and not feel guilty for logging on fb when we actually ENJOY spending our time on it.
    We must just accept it and take it as a part of our lives....

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  11. The Kid In The Front Row15 February 2011 at 08:12

    semi - Facebook is great, I love it. It IS the new way of life. But I'm talking about creativity, I'm talking about concentration. The invention of TV is great, but sitting in front of it for 9 hours while eating burgers is not good.

    Too many people; and I'm talking mostly about creative people; they lose their energy and discipline because of wasting time on Facebook. That's what I'm talking about.

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