For all its ease and intent for providing a means of keeping people connected, and joining people together, Facebook couldn't have imagined that its conception would spawn one of the biggest worldwide phenomenons that has ever been seen. There's a lot to be said in support of this, but there are some sad truths involved too, which are largely seeing people losing touch with reality as we know it.

I am sitting on facebook right now, yet again sacrificing some of my time to whatever end it seems to be providing. I'm chatting with a friend, randomly scrolling up and down the page and seeing what people have to say for themselves. Although, i don't take this stuff too seriously. Yet to some people its almost gospel, blurring the line between how we learn about other people, and how we are fooled by other people.

Everything that we see on Facebook, lingers in the blurred area (shrouded in internet ether) where reality tv could be said to lurk. Fact of the matter is though, reality tv simply isn't "reality".

Yes, its participants might be in "real-world" situations, but the knowledge that there are thousands - and more often - millions of people tuning in to see the results and reactions, simply doesn't yield "real world" results.

I use inverted commas, because thats what reality tv shows claim to represent. While Facebook doesn't purport to this, its millions of users are surely losing touch with the fact that what you see on Facebook can simply not always be what you get.

Vacuous status updates, photos full of innuendo and purposeful posing surely create an impression of a user that is only skewed by the disreality of it all. But people believe if, people conform to it, and people check and check back to see just how people's lives are evolving.

What's more, is the fact that people's perceptions of how to use Facebook as an actual user posting "information" about themselves (the term "nformation" can only be loosely used) creates a self-aggrandising, self-important and nihilistic attitude towards life, the people around them, the people with access to what they say and see, and most disturbingly with reality itself.

Technology is clearly advancing humankind, curing sickness, taking us closer to space, improving our standards of living. - But it is also at the same time, deteriorating some aspects of all of this, and too much of reality is at risk of disappearing unless we can detach ourselves from technology more often, and get back to the more authentic aspects of our increasingly digital lives.

Learn more about this author, Carlos Hurworth.
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