Or: Why I'm Glad I Went Through High School without Facebook
So I've gotten to witness, over the past couple of months, some standard high school drama between my little cousin - a sophomore - and her former boyfriend. Thanks to Facebook's practice of showing me what everyone is writing to everyone else, I've seen their embarrassing wall messages and their angsty status updates. It all looks cringingly familiar...
Like most high school girls, I had crushes on boys who didn't know I was alive, felt neglected by girls I thought were friends, proclaimed my undying love for a boyfriend or two, and just had those days where I thought no one understood me, blah blah blah. And like most girls, holding all that craziness inside just wasn't going to work: so my friends and I made up code names for our little crushes and doodled their names on our notebooks. I kept a copious journal and poured my little angsty heart out on paper. I started journal entries with cheesy song lyrics about love, which I thought I understood as a teenager (and about hurt, which I also thought I understood).
In short, I did all the same things as my cousin and her friends - and all high schoolers, probably - but I didn't do them for the whole world to see. It just wasn't that way. If I wanted to (and sometimes I did), I could destroy the mortifying evidence of my immaturity. Notes burn and names can be scratched out on folders. But these public Internet messages are there for all to see and comment upon! Oh, the horror! Thank goodness I was spared...
1 comment:
I saw the title of this post and knew I had to read it. ;) And I agree with your sentiments; not only are these posts more embarrassing than these high schoolers realize, and not only will they come back to haunt them later, but they're a disturbing symptom/enabler of the alleged narcissism of "these kids today."
And yet I wonder... we realize the damaging future potential of these Facebook posts because we're starting our professional careers in a world that still isn't accustomed to them. By the time your cousin hits the work world, will her employers' attitude be more like "So, I see you're good at tough negotiations... you sure didn't cut Justin any slack ten years ago" (wink, nod)?
BTW, I have been reading your other posts; I'm just too lazy to comment. Congratulations on bike-kicking the world's ass.
Ryan
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