dys·func·tion /dɪsˈfʌŋkʃən/ [dis-fuhngk-shuhn]–noun
1. Medicine/Medical . malfunctioning, as of an organ or structure of the body. 2. any malfunctioning part or element: the dysfunctions of the country's economy. 3. Sociology . a consequence of a social practice or behavior pattern that undermines the stability of a social system.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

FacePalm...I mean Book...

I use Facebook.

And by 'use' I mean occassionally update my status, read through the home page, comment on friends' updates, and post pictures of my children.

Because everyone wants to see pictures of my children.

Now, I have 'friends' on my facebook who use it more often than I, but what I really find interesting is the next generation. The younger facebook users. People who update several times a day, from their phone or watch or God-knows-what-they're-using-now.

The people who, as mentioned here (by a very talented writer-friend of mine), have dozens of fake siblings, pretend parents, and are afianced or married to their friends.



This is an interesting social situation. No longer are emails considered the 'norm'. No longer are phone calls just for talking, for lasting more than 2 hours of unimportant bonding. Now, emails are for business or school, the phone for immediate plans...or even better, for telling someone to access their facebook.

*ring ring*

"Dude. Go on Facebook right now and check out _____ status."

It is a very interesting age for me. My cell phone barely functions, and yet 12 year olds have cell phones (O_o) that can access the internet whensoever they choose.

Status updates about the personal details of your life, (Yeah, we broke up, and here are the intimate details of how and why) the uneventful details of your life, (Just made pb&j sandwich! Woo! Food!) and the worst of all: the spelling.

Now, I do not claim to be some genius at the English language. My grammar is quite foul, and I will occassionally make deadly mistakes like spelling a lot "alot", putting the 'a' in definitely, or, overuse, of, the, comma,. BUT! I pride myself in spelling most words correctly, and not having my friends fix my mistakes as a comment on my status.


EXAMPLES:
If this is you, then I'm sorry. No offense...

dieing = dying

"i should of video taped to show you its how he did and it and your reation" = I should have video taped it to show you it's(?) how he did and it and your reaction

"making, crosants, pizza, progese, & bacon," = making (no comma) croissants, pizza, perogies, & bacon (no comma)

deffiently = definitely

ment = meant

nuthing = nothing

"just to get threw the day" = just to get through the day

dumpt = dumped



NOW it is quite possible that this is just how people talk to each other now. A sort of 'familiar' slang, as if to say "I am so comfortable being your friend that I can forgo spelling and grammar in our conversations because I know that you will know *exactly* what I am saying to you." It is quite possible that I am not in on this newest fad, as it is something that only applies to the generation after me.

Like backwards smiley faces...                       :( :) :D :S   = ): (: D: S:
                                                                                       weirdos



For allll yur saks,, i reely hop so.

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

I hate the backwards smileys! They are so confusing, as soon as I see ( I assume sad, and just think the eyes are in the wrong spot heh.

Also I am a bit of a hypocrite... I've been facebook-engaged since December haha.

dys·func·tion said...

Maybe it is hypocritical. I'd still much rather see someone from our generation (since we were really the generation facebook was meant to target) play around with something like a false-engagement at the end, or post-highschool because at that point it's silly and very obvious to our friends that it is fake.
Perhaps one of our dear friends got engaged for real in the past year and it has made our relationship status very obvious... :P
Either way, I know *I* don't have a million people listed as my siblings...in fact, I don't even think I have the real one listed.