There’s been a shift… it’s been gradual, very quiet, but it’s happened. Over time people on Facebook stopped writing status updates, and started re-posting content they find on the internet or that someone else has posted on Facebook by clicking the “Share” button.
For those of you that are or were Tumblr users, this is going to sound very familiar. Someone share’s something you like, and rather than create a brand new post for it you simply click the tumble button and it’s posted on your blog with very little effort.
So why the shift on Facebook? I feel like there’s a couple reasons.
First is the obvious ease of sharing content that’s already well written/designed/produced. Why create a scrappy version of it from scratch when you can use something already well made? It’s also an opportunity to tell our friends and family what we like/dislike and find some common ground.
I too enjoy cat’s dancing on rainbows eating pizza, we should hang out more!
Second is to avoid the judgement of others about our own lives. It’s like a distraction tactic. Pay no attention to the boring man behind the curtain, just look at the flashy lights and sounds over there! We don’t want to bore people with our mediocre updates about going for a walk, cleaning our homes, or managing avoid overcooking our steaks.
Sadly we’re loosing one of the core reasons for being on and going to facebook. Discovering how our co-humans and friends are living and getting updates on their lives. As mundane as we think we are, there’s comfort in seeing others living their mundane lives as well. Are our lives really that mundane? Or are we really living great lives but because they’re compared to extreme fame, tricks, and accidents we think decent is bad now. Who wants to compare their hike in the mountains with Miley Cyrus shaking her ass to fireworks and glitter covered drag queens swimming in a pool of money?
I guess what I’d like to see is a little more posting about our lives again. As boring as we think that might be, it creates deeper connection I think than finding out we both like the same cat video.
Ok, I’m off to post about something that happened to me today no matter how boring it might be.
