Facebook and Self Esteem

When we talked about Facebook usage in class and its relationship with self-esteem, I actually realized that I noticed somewhat of a pattern with my Facebook friends. I noticed that some of my friends hardly made an appearance online, and while some were constantly on it. I've always wanted to know what caused some people to use Facebook as a crutch, and others just don't care for it at all.

I never really knew that using Facebook more usually means you have a low self-esteem, but it kind of makes sense. Speaking just for myself, I have high confidence and self-esteem, and while I check Facebook often out of boredom, I am very rarely active on it. I've noticed several friends posting just unnecessary things on Facebook all the time, and it's always made me curious what prompts someone to think "You know what, this waffle that I'm eating is so good; I think I want to tell all of my Facebook friends about it."

The only problem I have with this theory is that it doesn't specify age. For example, my mom and all of her cousins now have smartphones, and so because of the ease of access to Facebook, they are all constantly on Facebook. They mostly share others' posts and images, but I don't think it's because they all have low self-esteem; I just think they don't really think about it too much, Communicating in 2014 is much more different that communicating in 1970, and so I think they're all still getting used to the wonders of the internet.

So clearly you can overuse Facebook, but you can also abuse it, like Ashley Johnson and the other examples from the lecture. I once worked in an independent living home as a waitress, and one of our old workers was fired for taking a picture of a resident during dinner (without his knowledge) and posting it publicly on Facebook.

And two questions came to mind - One: do you really not care about your job or the privacy of the resident? And two: why the hell are you taking pictures of old men anyways? Some people generally do not know the difference between things you should keep private, and things you can share publicly.

Like the image from the lecture with the concentric circles, some things are more suited for Facebook friends, while there are some things that literally no one cares about. Well maybe except your mother. (That wasn't a "your mom" joke - there was a section in the circle for things that only your mom would care about). Yes, the internet is a wonderful and magical place that allows you to talk to 50 different people at once from all around the globe, but it also gives you access to all the memes you could ever want, and some just use it trivially.

And that's fine, of course it is, but humans have evolved for thousands of years and we've invented fire, the wheel, electricity, and we've even been to the moon (allegedly, for any conspirators out there).  And here we are in 2014, laughing at cat memes and playing Candy Crush. (I'm using "we" because it's just easier and just to be clear, I haven't personally been to the moon and I hate cat memes).

It all just seems kind of disappointing, to me at least. Yes, we are all still making advances in practically every field, but we've become more of a passive society, and I don't think that's going to turn out so well in a couple hundred years or so.

But I could be wrong. I've always been critical of the internet and what comes out of it, and what people put into it. I guess only time will tell how our collective passivity will affect the future.