The New Voyeurism...

I finally got a Facebook account, after a few invitations from my friends. Then I decided to populate my page, since what's the point of having an empty account. Then I started adding friends... and then I got addicted. 

Good addicted? Bad addicted? That depends. On the good side, I am finding so many people I haven't heard from since I can't remember when. And I am looking for people from my past that I hadn't even thought about finding at this point in my life! Which, I have to admit, is pretty cool...

That said, I've started to wonder if this symbiosis I seem to have found is an exercise in futility. There's the side that makes me post a picture on my page, link flickr for my "friends" to see, post my blog on an RSS feed, and even get a superhuman ability as a "hero" (OK, that one is a lot of fun, and I bet it'll get better when I really learn how to use it). On the other side, there's that part of me that stops by my "friends" sites and looks into their worlds. Pictures, walls, comments, friends, applications, little quirks. 

So what's my point? Here it goes: are we really keeping in touch with each other? Or are we just comfortably keeping tabs on each other without further commitment? Gone are the days when we picked up the phone to see what was going on. Now we just log in and find out for ourselves. In some cases, we'll actually send an email, and in others we'll go as far as chatting online. But for the most part we spend our time "peeking" into the lives of those we know with their authorization. We are the voyeurs looking into the lives of others, and we indulge our need for attention, exhibitionist inclination, or whatever you identify with, for the benefit of those others. 

So granted, this is all with permission. And that's my point! "I'll show you mine, if you show me yours" because it's far more convenient than keeping up an actual relationship. And while we are at it, we maintain the illusion that this is building on our friendships. But is that the case? Or are we just building on a list of "friends" to have a concrete count that assures us we are not, in fact, missing the human element in our relationships?

Probably a bit of both. And I stop sounding critical, because after all this is just a thought, and I do happen to enjoy this Facebook thing. In fact, I'm having a great time finding people, reconnecting with some, and peeking into the lives of others. The peeping-tom of the 21st century.