Bragbook

I know that I am not alone when I think that Facebook nowadays has stopped being a social networking device. Rather than being used to arrange events or communicate with old friends it has, over the past few months, nay, over the past year, become a bragging ground for those in relationships or for those with buns in the oven. Never, in my many years of being signed up to the website have I noticed such an influx of ‘relationship statues’ or the nauseating newsfeed clutter of ‘my baby’s progress’. Yes, I realise I sound bitter and yes this is probably because I have no such status changes coming up in the near future. However, in a society that is so fixated on modern technology and keeping in contact with people, it now feels like a race to share such life events online. The moment somebody feels a baby kick or the moment somebody says: ‘Will you be my girlfriend’ it HAS to be shared on Facebook to then await numerous ‘likes’ and congratulatory comments. Even negative news has to be put on Facebook to await sympathy remarks and pity textual hugs. (At this point I confess I ring the bell for a pity party; it’s too hard to resist when you’re sick and feeling, quite frankly, miserable) Nonetheless, the main point I am trying to get to, behind all of my cynical ranting is this. If these life events are so important, if they are so momentous, surely you only want to share them with the people who are closest to you, who know everything there is to know about you? Surely, not all of your 500+ friends want to know how big your bump is getting or how many roses your boyfriend shoved through the letter box.

The art of privacy is slowly fading and what is left is a bunch of depersonalised life moments, flaunted for the world to see that blend so intrinsically with everybody else’s moments that they no longer seem unique. Instead it seems to be a competition that we are all silently playing; a competition to be the best, have the best life and get the most positive looking ‘timeline’ there is on Facebook. Yet, ultimately, all that the timeline shows are relationships and holidays. A timeline does not reflect the bad moments in life or the minor moments that can change a person to their core. Whilst one person may look like they’ve lived because they’ve seen the world or they’ve had a child or they’ve got engaged, there is somebody else silently living a different existence. An existence that could potentially be more momentous, more significant and more life altering than anything that Facebook can think to make an app for or post on a timeline.

I realise I am up there with the rest of them. Posting my holiday pictures, throwing a status out there claiming how shit my dissertation is or how happy I am that exams are over. Indeed, in my first years of using the website I continuously made comments on such personal moments I’m ashamed I put them anywhere near the internet. But now, at the end of the day, no matter how many ‘likes’ I get, no matter how many event invites I receive, nothing cheers me up more than an unexpected phone call, a quick catch up coffee or a friend bringing me Ribena when I’m sick just because she felt like it. And I assure you I don’t feel the need to brag about all of those moments on Facebook because they are usually what mean most to me.