Facebook Facade

I’ve noticed something. When I am using facebook, it’s easy to build up an image of myself that looks really good. I can personalize the “about me” section of my profile to include all the best and brightest things about myself. I can post inspiring status updates, write pithy notes, upload photo albums of all the amazing things I’ve done, I can “un-tag” all of the photos of myself that I think make me look fat or unattractive… The list goes on. I can add as many friends as I can manage in order to a.) appear popular and b.) let as many people as possible see and comment on my wittiness/humor/wisdom etc…. I can control the information about me that all my facebook friends can see. It feels sort of fake.

This façade is impossible in the real, non-electronic world. My friends that I interact with face to face get to see me at my worst as well as at my best. They hear me say stupid things, since I don’t have time to think of a clever response to a comment, like I do on facebook. They see me when I’m not looking my best, they know about my stuggles and shortcomings. What do you think? In our delight over the wonders of social networking, do we end up creating a glitzy online persona that doesn’t actually portray us as we really are? Does the bulk of communication that we do over facebook lack real meaning?

Don’t get me wrong- I’m not attempting to bash facebook. I have a facebook and think it’s a great communication tool… I’m just thinking out loud about how much harder it is to “keep it real” online. It’s already tough to cultivate real community without the hindrance of social networking on the World Wide Web. Isnt’ it?