'Boom Shakka Lakka'
How to waste 8 billion minutes in one day
Loren Kelly
Issue date: 10/26/09 Section: Entertainment
Excuse the cynicism, but I just can't buy that Facebook is a means of "keeping in touch with friends." Every time the subject surfaces in conversation, I get the aforementioned response quicker than Rush Limbaugh goes through scripts.
But I just don't see it.
What I do see on any social networking webpage is a personal billboard built on boredom, narcissism and an underlying lust for fame--pretty much the same reason anyone goes to a bar, that and the endless pursuit of...companionship.
As it turns out, this same timeless struggle (chasing tail) was how social-networking giant Facebook was born. In his book "Accidental Billionaires," Ben Mezrich portrays Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as an inventive, but desperate geek who, like most in college, just wants to get laid.
While in Harvard, Zuckerberg hacked on to several female students' webpages and used their photos to create a site in which votes determined how attractive someone is--a premise eerily similar to Hotornot.com.
I remember that site.
In fact, I was introduced to the Hotornot.com by former friend of mine who can best be described as...a pud. At the time, he was ecstatic in learning that he had an average rating of 8 out of 10. I would actually agree--if that rating was based on the likelihood that he would develop a raging opiate addiction and the need for a lifelong Valtrex prescription.
While I don't see a direct correlation between herpes and Facebook (or its retarded cousin Myspace), I seriously doubt that any virtual meat market could lead to a reduction in STDs.
This hypothesis does not ignore the fact that the Internet, and all of its fixtures, is a tool. But in fairness, so are the majority of the people-ish entities that collectively spend eight billion minutes on the website daily and upload two billion photos each month.
And, in my estimation, at least one-third of those are drunken self-portraits taken in a frat house bathroom.
But I just don't see it.
What I do see on any social networking webpage is a personal billboard built on boredom, narcissism and an underlying lust for fame--pretty much the same reason anyone goes to a bar, that and the endless pursuit of...companionship.
As it turns out, this same timeless struggle (chasing tail) was how social-networking giant Facebook was born. In his book "Accidental Billionaires," Ben Mezrich portrays Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as an inventive, but desperate geek who, like most in college, just wants to get laid.
While in Harvard, Zuckerberg hacked on to several female students' webpages and used their photos to create a site in which votes determined how attractive someone is--a premise eerily similar to Hotornot.com.
I remember that site.
In fact, I was introduced to the Hotornot.com by former friend of mine who can best be described as...a pud. At the time, he was ecstatic in learning that he had an average rating of 8 out of 10. I would actually agree--if that rating was based on the likelihood that he would develop a raging opiate addiction and the need for a lifelong Valtrex prescription.
While I don't see a direct correlation between herpes and Facebook (or its retarded cousin Myspace), I seriously doubt that any virtual meat market could lead to a reduction in STDs.
This hypothesis does not ignore the fact that the Internet, and all of its fixtures, is a tool. But in fairness, so are the majority of the people-ish entities that collectively spend eight billion minutes on the website daily and upload two billion photos each month.
And, in my estimation, at least one-third of those are drunken self-portraits taken in a frat house bathroom.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Holly
posted 10/26/09 @ 12:58 PM PST
I respectfully disagree. While I can certainly see how some people take it too far (by adding hundreds of "friends" who they don't even know just to feel cool), there are some amazing uses for these websites. (Continued…)
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