Why Facebook is so successful

Facebook, what a revelation!  For someone like me who is at home most of the time with two small children, Facebook has become a huge part of my link to the outside world.  There’s something so nice about this tool, and I’m trying to place my finger on why it is so damn successful.  Apart from the obvious reasons like making contact with people we haven’t seen or spoken to in years, I think there is more to it.

Whenever we as people make new interesting acquaintances, even when we meet old friends, we want to make a good impression.  We try everything to put our best foot forward, but alas, our body language and real-time reactions will always give away more than we consciously want to.  All of us have things about ourselves that we like and dislike.  Ideally, we want people out there to see only the things we like about ourselves.  This is where Facebook comes in.  When “presenting” yourself on Facebook, you are in absolute control of what people see about you.  You upload nice pictures, that time you once went sky-diving, your adorable kids, that formal function where you wore that sexy number, you at Newlands with the Rugby World Cup.  Your status is seldom something like ”was nasty towards my husband”, “endured another 30 minute monolog on the phone with mom-in-law, instead of telling her that she’s wasting my time”, “hates being a mom today”, “didn’t get something that I liked for my birthday”.  Facebook is the ultimate filter.  The input is you, the output is how you want to be seen.  I love it!

I have also found that Facebook becomes a tool for taking stock of ones own life.  You are constantly bombarded by all the interesting things going on in other people’s lives, places they’ve been, movies they’ve seen, books they’ve read, groups they’re joining, etc.  Taking the point made above into account, it is not necessarily a full account of their lives, but you can’t help comparing what you see to your life.  I actually find it quite inspiring at times.  Seeing that a friend has visited 70% of the world (Where I’ve Been Application) compared to my 1% makes me want to travel again.  Seeing someone going on a break-away weekend makes me think, hey, we should do that more often.  Like I said, I love it!