Book of Face

Facebook. Book of many faces and a big book it has become. Nowadays it's as commonplace in conversation and everyday life as the word hello and there's no denying either that it is now part of our collective culture. And it is still growing.
I'm a Facebook user, have been for several years now and as such I have found it a great tool for keeping in contact with old friends, co-workers and classmates alike. The curiosity (read: noseyness) I occasionally have over where someone from my past is now stationed in life is generally only a few clicks away before it is sated. Information is freely shared amongst friends and family in a great show of community. Feeling sad over something? Say so in a status update and people flock to give support, light humour or just to find out why. Have some big news to announce? Status update. Have an opinion over a current event? Status update. In the latter case this can open up a forum for debate with points and counterpoints thrown against each other in a battle of wits. The sharing doesn't stop with words either. With the advent of the compact digital camera, photographs are uploaded en masse ranging from artwork to funny sights and special occasions to just days/evenings of fun. New haircuts, new purchases and newborns can be declared to the world with a triumphant "Look at this. Look what I have done."
Of course I am barely scratching the surface of what this social network offers. Games, organisational options for social events to rallying cries for people to make a stance, clubs, sub-networks, private messaging, the list goes on and it is constantly evolving and adapting to fit society. Evident by the fact that Facebook is no longer restricted to home use with many people now using it almost exclusively through their mobile phones and other portable devices. The ability to instantly communicate a photograph or thought just a touch of a button away. It is truly a tool to be marvelled at. But that is what it is when all is said and done; a tool. A fact that is hastily becoming forgotten.

Now some honesty, for I would lay rest the grace in my tongue and speak plainly (bonus points for guessing the movie quote), I am absolutely rubbish at remembering dates for birthdays, anniversaries and special events. Truly awful and it has caused no end of grief. But lo an behold Facebook swoops in to my rescue with a wonderful little use; birthday reminders. When it is the birthday of someone you are connected to on the network, it is displayed on the homepage to spark failing memories such as mine. Brilliant. Better yet you can look ahead into the mists of time and find out what birthdays are coming up. More brilliant. Herein lies a problem though; you can alter your date of birth whenever you want and with that alter when your birthday is (that part's tricky so stay with me). Now you'll think to yourself why in the nine hells would their be any point in that and the answer is simply: for funsies. The lulz. Cheap laughs. Whatever you want to call it. Alter your birthday and see which of your friends/family wish you merriment and good health thus making fools of themselves and showing that they don't really know when your birthday is. This is where all that writing up there is leading to okay so you haven't wasted your time...not completely wasted it anyway.

People are beginning to take the information on Facebook as gospel. The unquestionable truth.

It is so heavily relied upon by some that it is ceasing to be a tool and has begun dictating to some what to think. Just the other day a friend of mine turned 16 years old. Not bad for a man who had 3 birthdays within 3 days last month and has been around for about three decades in the real world. Sure that may be a case for abuse of a tool, but it is the abuse that leads to problems down the road. Don't get me wrong here, I find watching people blindly send good wishes to others quite amusing much in the same way I read excerpts from this website because they are highly amusing. But if we start believing everything that Facebook throws at us then we'd have to believe that some people have over a thousand friends in reality, that someone has ten siblings all of whom have different surnames and are about as related as Angelina Jolie's kids are (zing!) and that people are capable of having several birthdays a year and changing their names and gender every other week.
So next time you read something on the famous social network, try not to take it at face(book?) value, or you might just end up with egg on your face.

(And if you do feel like you've wasted your time then tough. That time is mine now. But you can moan about it in a status update)