http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/business/10ping.html?scp=7&sq=social%20media&st=cse
Your Facebook wall can truly make you feel like a wall flower especially when you are sitting at home, minding your business, just trying to keep up with your everyday chores and assignments then all of a sudden…an URGE or desire hits you..the need to see what exciting venture your friends, ‘frienimies’ (friend+enemies) and family are completing without you.
The need becomes all consuming, and before you see it for what it really is, you have tuned into the web. There are your friends!… all having a great time…they say a picture is worth a 1,000 words, and these are speaking for themselves. FUN!!!!
Yet here you are, missing out on what you might be thinking is one of the greatest moments of your life. To make matters worse,you’re notified and a text rings through, again you are invited in as an observer to the many pleasures and scents of the moment.What do you do? Mostly, all you can do is post a response on your friend’s wall as you remain a virtual wall flower.
According to the article, “Feel Like a Wallflower? Maybe It’s Your Facebook Wall”, Behavioral Psychologist, having studied the behavior of the techno geeks found their actions to be addictive in some instances, while Professor Ariely said, …”You can imagine how things could have been different, and that really motivates us to behave in strange ways.”
I can surely relate to feeling like a “virtual wallflower” several times on Facebook. It seems like a competition sometimes whoever updates their profile picture in a new “exciting” place is cool and has such an interesting life, so dare I argue my face hasn’t changed that drastically from last week til present day..I am a loser!!! Woe is me. -_-
I agree that there are times I’m sitting at home watching TV and I decide to randomly check my Facebook and all I see are status updates every 5 minutes or new pic uploads every hour from friends who are painting the town red. Then again I also have friends who are addicted to Facebook who go out and they are on their Facebook for almost the entire night, which I find annoying. Facebook has become this addiction that slowly has taken over all our lives, even if we try to resist, we still have this urge to check what our friends are doing. One can be on vacation in the Caribbean and still want to sign no their Facebook accounts just to check and be connected with those back home. People can no longer enjoy a vacation without being glued to their social world and gadgets. I constantly see people post statuses and pictures while on vacation, instead of enjoying the beach and the many activities offered while on vacation people choose to be on Facebook. Is a vacation not worthwhile if one is not on Facebook? Have we let our world become consumed Facebook and all sources of social media?
Then again there are those who are not social butterflies and find it difficult to interact with the people around them. While some choose to not go out one weekend, others choose to always stay home and avoid large crowds of people. So Facebook equates to a source of happiness, an indulgence of the ‘good life.’