Facebook is not a blog

If you were born in the late 80s or early 90s like me, you may remember a time when the internet was a lot less interesting. You know what, I'll just say it: it used to be BORING. How boring was it? There were websites that we used to to basically document our every thought (think about our pal Roman from the Easy A universe who just HAD to share that he'd finished is umpteenth Coke Zero... #notsponsored). What am I talking about? I'm talking about Blogspot; I'm talking about Xanga; I'm talking about MySpace; I'm talking about how many of us turned into expert html coders in order to make the background of our sites match our font, our profile picture, and what we wore to school that day. We were teenagers. We didn't really have the polished, Pulitzer-worthy press to present to the world...

But we did it anyway.

Man, did we share our thoughts anyway. Every thought. Who was going out with who, how our favorite colors changed AGAIN, that one copypasta ("creepypasta"?) that said if we didn't repost by midnight a gremlin would break into our apartments and kidnap our entire family with nothing but a Glad trashbag (again, #notsponsored). We had a top 8. A TOP 8!! Listen, your top 8 friends on MySpace was a big deal. Heavy. That was your crew. It told the world (which was like a dozen people or something) exactly who was THE most important to you. Oh, and it could change at the drop of a hat. Just one click, and your best friend flew back into the obscurity of your general friends list. Should have let me sit with him at lunch that day! ...even if he was just trying to elbow his way into the "cool kids table". But whatever, man - lunch was hella lonely that day, so *CLICK*. Mwahahaha.

...what? None of this makes sense to you? You DIDN'T have a Xanga? You have no idea who my "best friend" was?

Yeah... that's kinda the point of this blog.

See, we were raised during the "everybody gets a trophy" generation. All of us could be anything we wanted to be. All of us were going to be president, firefighting astronauts, secret spies, and NFL superstars. Every single one of us. Because that's how being president works, right? Everyone gets to be president? No? ...yeah. Didn't think so.

But we did.

So we wrote; we posted; we blogged; we talked about dumb things; we shared revelations; we expressed ourselves. And none of it mattered. Nobody was lying in wait taking screenshots. Nobody used our posts to cancel us 20-30 years later. Nobody really cared that much to begin with... and honestly, how refreshing.

I cannot help but feel so very sad for those of you growing up right now, when the opposite of what I described is true. EVERYTHING is forever. If you share a thought that's not absolutely polished, it could completely derail your future. Man, look - that's absolutely no way for people to live, much less kids who need the space and tools to develop their identity and vehicles of expression. Which brings us to the title of this blog. Facebook. See, we hopped onto Facebook in the mid 2000s like we did everything else. We posted about the soda we drank. We posted our schedules to see who had classes with us. ...I know, I know. Seems foolish, right? But it kinda... wasn't? I mean Facebook was just another blog website! Well... nope. It was this new thing called "social media". Which, okay, that's the same thing - right? Not exactly. See, nobody cares about your journal. Except prying little brothers or something. But when you post something on your *news feed*, EVERYONE cares. You suddenly are not only talking to the people you know, you're talking to everybody. You've bypassed what it takes to publish news articles, papers, professional journals, and the like. It's as if you've gone onto the New York Times and said "OMG THIS PEPSI IS AMAZING!!" ...you know how I keep saying #notsponsored with everything? That's because we've learned that a social media presence is far more wide-reaching than just blogs. And now, by extension, our very digital footprint is wider than we had ever anticipated it becoming. See, nobody in your friends circle really cares that much about your 12th sip of soda - but naming the specific soda brand to someone who doesn't know you, thousands of miles away from you, might think "well, why THAT soda? What are they trying to get me to believe? I like the OTHER one! They're trying to CONVERT ME! They're manipulating the masses! HOW DARE THEY??"

See how big that got? And that's not an unreasonable progression of thought, either. We're all skeptics now because we're so used to this - now, anyways. So what's my point?

Yeah... Facebook is not a blog. Facebook is news. Instagram is not a blog. It's news. TikTok? News. Dating apps? News. All of it, news. Straight to news, right away. You say something in person to someone you know, but someone else overheard you? Believe it or not, news.

So whether you're an old fart like me, or just taking your first steps on the digital sidewalk, before you post a thought on the socials... just ask yourself: "how would people I don't know react if they saw this in the _____? (fill in the blank with your news outlet of choice... NYT, CNN, Fox, ABC, 123, blah blah blah.) I've realized this the hard way, and while I've become a better me because of it... it was a rough time.

This is why I started a blog. You likely were searching for me specifically, as opposed to just scrolling an endless feed of content. Here on my website, I can talk about things that make sense to share with those who know me - both socially and parasocially! Don't get me wrong, I will be smart about what I share. ...but I've decided to share again. Oh, and by the way: I had a delicious generic zero-sugar cola today. It was delicious.