Saturday, October 13, 2012

kill.thatdamnpatient.com

kill.thatdamnpatient.com

Facebook

Posted: 13 Oct 2012 10:40 AM PDT

I still remember the first time I logged into Facebook, I really didn’t know what it was. It felt like a cross between a dating site, blogger and an online photo album. I had only heard about it a day earlier when a friend from college figured we ought stay in touch on Facebook (which, at the time I’d assumed was either some sort of chat program or bulletin board or something on yahoo groups)

Now, at the time I really thought the idea was a good one but this isn’t the Facebook we have to day. This was Facebook before you could like and unlike things, I still remember when pokes were something new. Generally speaking this was Facebook when it was a website, before it became more like it is now and looking back not only has Facebook changed but so have I. For the first time in my life, looking back on older posts by me and other friends, I’ve noticed that we have actually started behaving on Facebook i.e. developing tendencies, typical expressions, and certain trends. We’ve all apparently grown more expressive as a result and are able to identify and express our emotions more than ever as a result if you look at some of the latest psych studies. I’ve found that I’ve grown more accepting of my own embarrassing moments as they become documented forever engrained online, talked about or commented on, I’ve also finally started to get to know people from elementary and high school (I tried to avoid humans as a child ….. who knew one could grow less wise with age) who I completely ignored or pee’d on in kindergarten*. It’s also sort of given me a chance to identify with distant family. Back in 2007/8 I would have never thought that Facebook would tell me what my distant cousins kids names were or why person X (every family has one!) was a loner.

Having said that, I’m pretty sure everyone reading this has something they regret on there. I still remember the first time a picture of me with a pint in my hand landed online at first I went crazy, then I realized everyone who mattered to me already knew I was partial to a beer or three every now and then and to the rest well …. fuck’em….. but yeah; it sucks when there’s a picture with your ass in the background floating around online.

But what’s interesting is that your interactions and time spent of Facebook have some kind of medical interpretation; well … more than one …..

For one thing, apparently the more friends you have, the less likely you are to end up with a cold and the more time you spend giving postive re-inforcement of Facebook the less depressed you are (so keep liking people, sending annoying messages etc …. it’s good for you… unless you’re sending them to me in which case you may end up with a coat hanger through your left eye.) Honestly I’d take these with a grain of salt, but Facebook has made it easier for people to notice they’re suffering from depression and actually admitting to it. Apparently the reason is because it makes you notice how antisocial you really are.

But it’s also given was to stalkers, not because they want to but because it’s more anonymous and convenient….. no risk , all reward. Particularly if it’s after  a breakup! Apparentley a survey of couples activity on Facebook has revealed that the longer you keep in touch/stalk/find a good reason to talk about nothing ( nothing=means new restaurant, red velvet cupcake or soft opening of another burger bar) the less likely you are to move on and therefor ever get laid … so maybe you might want to go out more and spend less time trying to figure out who posts on her wall the most.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I take everything that I see in the medical journals with a grain of salt (which is why medical skeptic is one of my favorite twitterfeeds) and I’d be the first to write a 10 page paper against every single thing I’ve linked to. But between how we use twitter and how we use Facebook it’s only a matter of time before out posts, likes and dislikes tell us as much about our health (mental, at the very least) as they do about each other.
*Ironically one of the few people who I really wanted to get back in touch with from high school has pretty much abandoned anything online …. a wee bit unfortunate …..
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