facebook makes us self-obsessed, but it’s changing the world, too.

there’s always talk of internet phenomenon. internet companies and websites that are changing the world. google, dominating what we see and how we see it online. twitter: there’s a real zeitgeisty one, a phenomenon of our time: the playground of celebs, journos, anyone with something to say who wants an audience. yahoo, the slightly more old-school american internet company; it seems like they have been around since the beginning of the internet revolution.

the one that interests me the most is facebook. i know it’s phenomenally widespread, globally. only today, when my grandmother rang to tell me she couldn’t find my profile, did i believe in zuckerburg’s utopian prophecy that facebook could be used by every single inhabitant of this earth. an amazing claim, but given time, why not? one instant recently where facebook’s social power has been deployed, demonstrating its power to incite action: thanks to a facebook group joined by over 100 000 people, a student in mexico in desperate need of a blood donor, enough awareness was generated that he was able to get the transplant that he needed.

whereas other internet giants may instigate a subliminal, somewhat irksome invasion into our lives in terms of the information on us they harvest, and make billions of dollars through advertising revenues and sheer breadth of use, facebook seems to be the one that transcends our virtual worlds into our day to day socialising, or in the case of the student in mexico, the one that can help us survive. it’s exciting to think about the potency we can all have through uniting for a cause, made easy on facebook.

one interesting trait that i have noticed heavy facebook-users develop though is slightly less wonderful. this constant demand to “share” what i’m thinking, and tell the whole world about it, seems to have made me, and others, slightly self-obsessed. never before have i been able to generate such interest and discussion over the progress of my new year’s resolutions, or how my weekend plans are progressing. it’s really not that interesting, yet facebook seems to be able to lure me into this illusive reality. i have seen so many myopic status updates where someone is craving comment on the most dull truth. i really wonder what the future of facebook will hold, and whether we will ever overcome our sharing obsession…

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