The Facebook Machine: You're Using it Wrong (Editorial)

Seeing as this is my first editorial for the blog, I would like to put a disclaimer (which I will likely end up putting on all my editorials). This piece of writing is my opinion, not fact, although I may or may not use facts to support it. No one is required to agree with me, but I would appreciate not to be verbally abused via the internet. Or physically abused, although if you manage that I'll be more impressed than anything. Anyways, I am in no way qualified to write this or probably any piece, so if you have a problem with or are offended by what I say, write a *CIVIL* comment explaining your position. That being said, profanity will be allowed and encouraged, however only in correct context and/or if it's funny. That will be all.

The impetus for me to write this editorial and post it on HWT for the world to see (hypothetically) was an experience I had today. I opened up Facebook in my browser and looked at my newsfeed in shock to see a long string of comments on a political video. There were several things that made these comments so notable. First, the length. The comments were long, sometimes multiple paragraphs. Second, the commenters were severely and viciously bashing each other and the poster of the video. And the final thing that caught my eye was the age group of the commenters. With some skillful creeping (read: ten seconds worth) I determined that the commenters were all  roughly middle-aged and that a couple even had children. This led me to our topic of today: "The Facebook Machine: You're Using it Wrong".

Sorta like this.

This editorial is meant to address the proper way to utilize Facebook. Many people seem to think that this website is used as an outlet to trash other people's political views, personal lives, musical tastes, and basically anything else you could think of. Although each age group certainly exhibits such behavior, a surprising main culprit in my eyes is middle-aged people. Keep this in mind: as an 18-year-old "kid", I have very few Facebook friends who are middle-aged. For me to notice their comments as a nuisance takes a high volume of comments coming from a small group of people. I would like to take this time to introduce middle-aged users to the main purpose of Facebook, as most have been using the site for a shorter period of time than their children.

You can imagine how I feel!

First and foremost, Facebook is a social-networking site. It is a means by which people can express themselves and more importantly, stay in touch with their friends and family who may not be nearby. This is the basic purpose of having a Facebook. Now, it is perfectly acceptable to post political, religious, and any other type of material on Facebook. I am not for censorship of any kind. An issue arises, however, when many middle-aged (and other) people choose to use it as a place where a person can make personal attacks on people that they may never even have met in person. This seems like a misuse of the site. In what way does ripping on a person thousands of miles from you for being a pacifist, or a democrat, or a libertarian, or simply for disagreeing with you, help you to network or communicate with friends?

So they can see how angry I am!

Basically, the idea I'm trying to get across here is that Facebook can be a great service, where you get to talk to all your friends in all parts of the world, for free. It can be a forum for ideas and social movements (see: Egypt, Tunisia). These are certainly ways that it could be positively utilized. The other option is that it can sink into the drudgery of seeing people make biting and oftentimes cruel personal attacks on other people, as much of the internet already has (see: Youtube commenters).

I propose this become effective immediately.

In closing, this editorial is not so much a "set of rules" as a plea for common civility. A general rule to follow for Facebook is to not comment anything towards another person that you wouldn't have the balls to say word for word to them in person, and a general rule for life is to refrain from saying things that are unproductive or harmful to others simply for the sake of being harmful.

I would also like to apologize to middle-aged users of Facebook that use it in a productive and lighthearted manner, I only singled out this age group because of personal experience. Now go post some punk rock videos and make up!