Facebook Lab

Lab #12

Social capital, huh? Are friends being catalogued into levels of monetary value now?

Really, though, "social capital" is a disturbing term.

Capital: wealth in the form of money or other assets owned by a person or organization, or available/contributed for a particular purpose such as starting a company or investing.

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but when we start measuring friends like we measure money, I get concerned.

Now I know I could use this opportunity to go on some lovely diatribe about how our generation will make the world explode with the sheer volume of our stupidity and insipidness, but not only would that be the normal, cynical thing to do, that's not really what I feel in this specific situation. When it comes to social networking, I think that many of the stereotypes shoved on us as teenagers and users of all of the Myfaces and Spacebooks are either so true that it really defeats the purpose of thinking about it to... well, think about it, or make so much sense that no one can see that they're not as true as they really should be. That was a convoluted statement, I know, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to say: People think that social networking sites are "Satan" and all that jazz (not really), but they're not all that bad in reality. There's nothing wrong with having a broad friend base, and I actually feel that it's better in a lot of ways, just as long as you maintain the ability to tell who your real friends are when it counts. All of the love and affection transferred through wall posts and comments and emails, photo blurbs, notes and whatnot serve to give warm fuzzies, and I know I'm not alone when I say that it gives me a little squiggle of happiness when I see that little red bubble at the bottom right corner of my Facebook page that informs me that yes, I do exist to someone out there no matter how bad a day I've had. Not to mention the connections you can build or keep up via Facebook. Meet a cool director when auditioning for that one musical? Friend him on Facebook! Need help from an old acquaintance with some obscure volunteer opportunity? Hey, look, you're friends with them on Facebook! No worries, man! It's a new world of peace and love and happiness easy access and blahblahblah.

As far as "social capital" goes, I'm not really sure what I think. People aren't serious in their relationships online, but are they serious about them face-to-face, either? I've seen just as much flagrant abuse of "I-love-you!" "I-miss-you!" "We-need-to-hang-out-more!!11!!!!1" in the school hallway as I have on any number of Walls, and conclusively, I don't think that the decline in social capital (or shift in it, or whatever sociologists and over-protective parents [synonymous?] are griping about these days) is caused by "teh Intarwebz". I think that this specific meme, this wiggy "social networking" business is a new staple in the Social Food Pyramid that can't really be ignored, like text messaging or eHarmony. Just because it makes older, wiser generations uncomfortable doesn't necessarily meant that it's bad (though I'm definitely not going to run around praising the grammar of my peers; good God, kids, learn to speak English, would ya'?) These sites, having five hundred friends, ambling around through cyberspace are how we've raised ourselves to communicate, and yeah, snail-mail is a lot prettier, but it's archaic and (ouch) nearly obsolete. We have to adjust to the appropriate decade, and I think that the fact that colleges and potential employers are starting to look their applicants up on Facebook is a good indicator that the shift is happening fairly smoothly. So calm down, Mommies and Daddies and Not-Medical Doctors in Sociology. It's okay; we promise not to break anything.

Yes, people abuse Facebook and Myspace, sure there are lots of stupid pictures of people getting drunk and being imbeciles floating around, but what about the people who use social networking sites to keep in touch? The ones for which the Internet poses an easier, faster way to remain in contact with people they love when they don't have time to call them on the phone or write them a fully-articulated email. In that situation, these websites are a godsend. And hey, what's life without a little Facebook stalking?