Facebook offers sense of community back

SOCIAL STUDIES - Published Monday December 22nd, 2008

Here is some exciting news from the world of the Internet. For perhaps the first time since the whole World Wide Web thing has caught on; pornography is not the number one use.

This fall, the use of Facebook and other social networking programs surpassed the use of online nudity for entertainment.

For those who have so far managed to avoid it, Facebook is a site where you can create a profile with information about yourself you would like to share. Those profiles are searchable, and also categorized using your history. For example, mine says I went to Kennebecasis Valley High School, that I went to Mount Allison, that I went to McGill and that I belong to the Professional Writers Association.

So if you are searching for Mount A grads, you just enter it and a list of anyone who ever went to that university shows up. It is a great way to find old friends.

And then there are games and quizzes. Imagine finding an old friend and then challenging them to see who remembers the names of more 1970s actors. Or who can identify the most companies by their logo, or even which superhero is better, stronger, and faster.

Or you can collect cards and trade them; send virtual gifts to each other; and even compete in word games.

From my perspective the more interesting application is that whenever you log on you can change your "what are you doing now" line. Sometimes I enter absolutely useless trivia -- as I write this it says "Brett is tired."

So if I look back on my profile, it works out sort of like a journal. I can see what I felt was important enough to share over the last few hours, days, weeks or even months. My friends are free to comment on my status and ask questions -- or make snide remarks -- or even wish me well.

Now, the naysayers of the world will tell you that this self involved navel gazing is the worst sort of waste of time. I had a friend, a senior executive at a company; tell me that she thinks every Type A executive in the world is playing Rat Pack on Facebook. She could be right, but she was laughing as she said it because so was she.

You see, I think that Facebook could be our salvation, not our downfall. There is just something about it that is restoring meaning to life.

First off, by forcing yourself to actually write down what you are doing, and perhaps even what you are feeling, you are engaging in one of the oldest of psychological and spiritual tools -- the self evaluation. By doing it publicly you are becoming more accountable to those around you for who and how you are. You can no longer get away with answering "fine" to people unless you are willing to back it up if they ask.

So there is one benefit; it gives us meaning in a world where meaning is hard to come by. It allows us to take stock of what is important and keep track of it -- all while having a little fun.

Now the second and equally important benefit is that of community. It may sound, I don't know, corny, to believe that an online group of past friends and present colleagues forms a community; but it really does. I know quite a lot about some of the people I have become re-acquainted or further acquainted with. I know when they are happy, sad, what types of books they read, and shows they watch. As they share the trivia of their lives it comes alive in a more complete picture than I have ever known.

Of course, back in the day you would have talked to your neighbour, and communities were formed around geographical location. This was also the day when you could count on having a lot in common with that same neighbour. You probably were about the same income bracket, you probably were both married with 2.5 kids, you probably looked the same, dressed the same, talked the same, bowled in the same league and last but not least, grew up together.

None of that is necessarily true in today's society. In fact, many of my Facebook friends are more like me than the people I live beside. Not to mention the fact that you can choose whether or not to allow them to be friends with you -- unlike your neighbours.

You see, I have moved around a lot. I have lived in a lot of provinces, in cities and small towns, held jobs ranging from manual labour through to professional and everything in between. I know that it is very hard to find community in today's world.

Workplaces have sexual harassment laws and reduced budgets, which is not a bad thing by any means, but it does make it harder to have social events and Christmas parties. Neighbourhoods are made up of double income families working opposite shifts and managing day care and life responsibilities so there really is not much time to get together for pot luck. We need Facebook for the community it is capable of.

A lot of businesses have begun to limit access to social networking sites, I think they are wrong. I say this for two main reasons.

One, back in the day when I took psych courses I discovered that we use very little brain function to do any one activity. Just think about driving a car, listening to the radio and thinking about the business meeting; we multi task well.

Second, it can create corporate community.

If you can't beat em, join em, as the saying goes.

I for one am glad it came into existence.