I have a Myspace, a Facebook, a Twitter, and a blog. If I want to, I can keep everyone up to date on all of my activities throughout the entire day. Thanks to the power of technology, you can find out everything you ever needed to know about shaolinjesus. Did you know I had a frozen burrito and a crappy granola bar for breakfast today? Well, thanks to the ubiquitous nature of our social networks, you can find out.

The scary thing is just how addicting it can be to check on your friends status and update your own status. Does anyone care that I just had a bunch of sushi? Probably not, but I let you all know anyway. There are some people that are consumed with letting everyone know about the minutia that make up their lives. Oh you got some new socks, please share it with everyone. I mean it. Those little glimpses into your little personal world are fascinating. Who would have guessed that 140 characters were enough to transform the mundane into something so interesting.

There has been nothing like this in the history of the world. There is no account from a medieval peasant detailing his breakfast, lunch, and how he’s heading out to get some wenches. When historians look back and try to piece together a picture of life at the beginning of the 21st century, they will have unprecedented tools at their disposal. Some 25th century historian will have to sift through the tweets of some famous playwright or General and try to decipher what “@BUCKETFACE we gonna get sum grub at da club 2nite!” actually means.

Slowly, but surely, social networks will penetrate into all aspects of our lives. There is no escaping it. They have already infiltrated cell phones and now they are working on getting into your Xbox 360. As if I don’t check my friends’ Gamerscore enough, now I can get updates on their score and whether or not Spambot enjoyed the new Star Trek movie. There is nothing you can do. You cannot stop this progression. Pretty soon, there will be a screen on your toaster and your refrigerator and all of your friends tweets and status updates will pop up on the breadmaker in the kitchen. Your toilet will beep to let you know you received an invite to play Mafia Wars on Facebook.

As this continues to take over the various parts of our lives, we will continue to drift further and further apart from the people that are standing right next to us. How many times have you been in a group and everyone is talking or texting to someone else that is somewhere else? Instead of talking with the people in the car, everyone is Tweeting or sending messages to others about what they are up to. It is surreal and yet it is becoming our reality.

I already get most of the news about my friends’ lives without ever having to talk to them. I can just check into their twitter feed or Facebook posts. It’s like actual human contact is becoming unnecessary. Our technology has never allowed us to be this interconnected and yet we are drifting apart. That is why the news that Facebook is coming to Xbox Live is so terrifying and yet so intriguing at the same time. I fear this step not because I hate Twitter, Facebook, and Myspace, but because I understand their potent power to consume us. When the aliens strike, we will be so busy updating our status and tweeting that we’ll forget to send Will Smith out to destroy them.

Tags: bucketface, Facebook, gamerscore, MySpace, social networking, twitter, Will Smith, Xbox 360

This entry was posted on Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.