METAPHORS OF CHANGE

Facebook: 400 Million Threads in the Web of Life

Hmmm, what is the psychological driver behind the Facebook phenomenon and just where is this juggernaut taking us?

It seems an appropriate time to pose these questions now that the Facebook movie is about to hit theatres and no doubt rack in truck loads of cash.

Facebook is arguably one of the defining technological developments in our generation. Lest you think that’s an exaggeration, let’s look at a few of the statistics. In only 6-1/2 years since it was launched from a Harvard dorm room in February 2004, it has exploded in usage:

• Over 400 million active users worldwide 70% of which are outside the U.S. In case you’re wondering, Canada ranks 7^th with 13.4 million users.
• 50% of these active users log onto the site in any given day
• 35 million users update their status each day
• 100 million active users access Facebook through their mobile phones

Facebook’s self-professed mission is to “help you connect and share with the people in your life”. There’s no arguing with the fact that it has exponentially increased our ability to connect with those we know and to connect with people we would otherwise never have had the opportunity to meet.

Clearly Facebook’s creators tapped into a deep psychological need that we have to connect and interact. But I often wonder if the Facebook phenomenon isn’t madly spinning us off in a new direction whose impact we don’t comprehend.

Yes, it helps us connect. But at the same time it removes – or undermines – the need to connect in person. In the process, we risk losing all the subtleties of interrelating. All those things that add the layers and richness to the art of “connecting” – tone of voice, body language, the way a smile or a frown can completely change the context, the intimacy and unspoken power of a hug.

It seems to me that, the more we relate through Facebook, the less skilled we become at relating face to face. We talk through the keyboard instead of through our mouths. It’s quite possible that we are radically changing the dynamics of our relationships.

I came across this anonymous quotation:

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”

Web of life… the world wide web… do you see the implications?

Facebook is becoming a metaphor for an entirely new “web of life”. It has the power to fundamentally alter who we are and how we interact. What frightens me is that we may not be in control, or even aware, of the change that is taking place.

All things connect on Facebook. Whatever we do on it, we do to ourselves – and to 400 million other users.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog.

~ Follow Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka Things That Make Me Go Hmmm regularly at this site. Categories: Shifting Winds, Sudden Light, Deep Dive, Songs of Nature, Random Acts of Metaphor. Originating at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2.

Or subscribe to my Twitter site (mdyetmetaphor) to receive tweets when blog postings go up.