I cannot tell a lie. I am on Facebook. And the twitter. I waste too much time on them catching up on people who no longer matter in my life and following links that end up both boring me and contributing to my ever-shrinking attention span. I started an 800 page novel in May and I'm still not done. You mean it's all here in one place? THIS MAKES NO SENSE TO MY INTERNET ADDLED BRAIN! However, I have also found a lot of things through these mediums to engage my mind, enough so that, for now at least, I carry on. I allow them to pull me down into their void, scrolling down through just a few more tweets, seeing if there is one more link worth clicking on. I read old Paris Review author interviews, check out photo montages of current news events (Egypt, anyone?), and generally faff about looking for interesting tidbits posted by likeminded internet dwellers. Let us not speak of the time spent cackling at photos of grown men dressed as Peter Pan, or the lost moments of clicking on self-serving, poorly disguised commercialized links. BUT I DIGRESS.
Lately I have become more aware and annoyed with all the interconnectedness of what I do on the world wide web of wonder. I can't even get through a moderately short article without being directed to at least five others via hyperlinks. The temptation to click and open that new window and break the flow of reading is so great, I'll end up with 16 open windows and no idea how anything connects back to my original interest anymore. More recently, the integration of twitter and facebook with the internet at large has led to a new, even easier way to share your opinions. Did you enjoy this montage of celebrity plastic surgery gone wrong? SHARE IT! Click the twitter avatar and tweet the link to all your followers! Feeling particularly enamoured of that article on spring's new fashions? TELL YOUR FRIENDS! Look how many other people already like this! Be the first of your friends to LIKE THIS by clicking on the facebook thumbs up "like" icon! Are these things worth "liking"? Is this even relevant?
I do not understand why anyone would care that I "like" something that I wouldn't waste time in a face to face encounter telling them that I like. Please note the lack of quotations in the latter like. So is there some ironic connotation to "liking" something, one that does not exist when we actually like something? I'M CONFUSING MYSELF NOW. More importantly, what does "like" even mean? If I am speaking to a friend and I tell them I like a particular film, for example, we might then engage in a conversation on the film's merits, and I might explain my enjoyment in more detail, juxtaposing it against some small points of detraction, but ultimately confirm my, for lack of a better word, liking of the movie. However, if I said that I sure "liked" --AIR QUOTE ALERT-- a film, we would then no doubt embark on a scathing review of the latest 90 minute misogynistic barrage that Judd Apatow has released upon unsuspecting and unprepared young think-they're-feminists.
But online, when all I am encouraged to do is click a "like" button, the nuance is lost and dialogue is surely discouraged. QUICK! Move on to the next thing you might "like," and tell people all about it by clicking! Sure, we could take the time to compose a more detailed and thought out critique of whatever it is that we "like," but we don't. That is why there is a "like" button, and to eschew its simplicity would be to turn our collective back on the emergence of bigger, better, and easier that internet connectivity offers each and every day.
So what happens when the word "like" shows itself to be comletely inadequate? I'm not even talking about the not so subtle distinction between sincerity and irony. What if, in our haste to show some kind of support for a situation or issue, we click on the "like" without considering what that means? There is no button to click to show our emotional connection to a story, or our dismay. Heaven forbid we should take the time to leave a clear comment, or take the dialogue offline and discuss consequences and potential action. Nope, JUST CLICK "LIKE"! Which I am starting to think may just mean "I have read this, and had some ill-defined reaction to it!"
Take this article, for instance. http://http//www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/man_dies_after_falling_into_tortilla_4kNCqfH3R3Toodk3aYZoYP
Essentially, a 22 year old man died in a work place incident that should have been preventable. I'm not here to judge work safety issues, or comment on his family's grief, both of which the article touches on. What I want to point out is that, so far, 1838 people have "liked" this story. I'm sorry, perhaps you didn't hear me. ONE THOUSAND, EIGHT HUNDRED AND THIRTY-EIGHT PEOPLE HAVE "LIKED" THIS STORY. This story about a young father DYING at work. He fell into an industrial sized dough mixer and his neck was broken. I'm sure his wife, baby, and the family he supports back home in Gautemala will appreciate your ADMIRATION for his death. WTF? How can you "like" this story? What exactly are these "likers" trying to say? What are they trying to convey to their 800 acquaintances on facebook???
Sure, if you are a twelve year old boy, I can see how you might find a modicum of amusement in the fact that someone fell into a big mixer. I'm pretty sure the Road Runner did it at some point. The problem here guys, is that THIS ONE DIDN'T COME OUT. This isn't the Onion. It's a reputable news source reporting on a tragic death with potential ramifications for government workplace safety issues. But by all means, go ahead and share your amusement with all your old high school buddies on facebook!
Or maybe these "likers" are really just trying to convey some kind of deeper connection to the story. Yes, thats clearly conveyed by one commenter, who wrote "As soon as I saw the headline I was like 'Ohhhh boy' and already felt guilty for the fact that I was about to laugh at some of the comments." FANTASTIC. Of course there is no way to know what each of those 1838 people intended when they clicked "like." The law of averages would suggest at least some of them meant something more sincere than an enjoyment akin to kaughing at fart jokes. But there is simply NO WAY to know.
The inadequacy of a "like" button to indicate anything beyond "I have read this and had a reaction to it" is astounding, as is people's inability to refrain from using it in a situation which clearly does not warrant "liking." Why everything needs to be connected is beyond me. Can't I just read my twitter feed, click on links that may or not interest me, and read them while trying to avoid clicking through to other distracting stories? Why must I also know who "liked" what, and be left apalled, wondering at their sense of humour, decency and compassion? Though does it really matter what my "friends" think? Are they even my friends at all? But THAT is, yet again, a subject for another post all together.
Context is dead. Long live context.
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