Facebook is like fishing

  So summers here in the CCCV if you haven't noticed. its hot, it rains like always, sometimes it even hails(thats when the rain turns to ice and falls and dents your Honda Civic) and it reminded me of when i first fell in love, in love with the internet. Miami becomes a hell hole during this time of year, transforming it into a land of heat and epic rain on the daily for 7 months. While still very young I took this evil truth and decided to fight the elements and just stay inside and helped discover the power of the internet.

This rapid growth of the interweb in the past few years has left my mind spinning. Growing up in the age of technology and being super into computers at a really young age social networking is in my blood.I can remember where i was when i got my first user name to AOL probably a beta or 1.0.My dad went" Hey lets sign you up for your own account, what do you want your user name to be?".I was in such shock that i would have my own key to the fantastical universe of awesomeness that i did not really understand what he was asking. So he just went ahead and using my name " Matt" he clicked the first one in the list of random usernames and to this day it is my AOL/AIM username.

                        

The years went on, my exploration of the internet continued with no end in sight. I used to rush home from The Falls on friday nights to run to the "Computer Room" to sign back on to chat with my friends that i just left 10 minutes earlier. As technology got better, i got older, as the internet became more accessible i was joined by what seemed like every person i knew.

When i was in my mid teens(13-17ish) the growth of the internet as a new tool had started to bloom into a beautiful flower made of cat5 cables. Creating website for my non-existant bands(thanks .CJB.net) to creating my own legitimate corner in the web(mattyrocks.com(please don't go)) it kept growing. All of a sudden these new sites started popping up, with profiles,and pictures and information. The first incarnation of social networking in hind sight really sucked. Sites like LiveJournal, Facethejury, Freindster(im not going to name them all, youll have to trust me that there were a ton) created this world of connectivity and a ever present digital pat on the back via comments and page views.

Here i am 15 years later,and a month away from being a college graduate i find that that internet thing fell in love with at age 9, is stronger than ever. Like natural selection the worst of the social networking sites have fallen by the wayside leaving only a relatively small handful left. Current champ Facebook, has been beating up MySpace like that kid that used to pick on me when i slicked my hair back with gel and tucked my shirt in my jeans daily. 

This seemly overnight trend has brought countless new members to Facebook, like your Mom,Dad, Uncle, Grandparents, Siblings and that weird cousin that you only met like that one time. Its so powerful that you do things like invite people to events or create groups and it works as a easy way to communicate to all these people. Lets be real, its not like you really know all your friends on your face book anyway. I can almost guarantee that if you have 500 friends on Facebook, and i were to look at your phone you would not have 500 contacts(Skrew you new Palm Pre and Blackberry owners, i know it syncs them, thats not my point).

Its created a world of people with Hundreds and in some cases thousands of " Friends", like that girl you think went to your elementary school, but your not 100% sure, but shes looking good so you added her.i personally try to add only those i know or have a legitimate connection to me. As my own personal friend count goes up so does the number posts i see.

Status updates, Invitations, Parties, Groups, Fan Pages,Causes, Applications, Oregon trail requests it mind-boggling the kind of trail 400 people on facebook leave.No one posts a status update just for themselves, its like the new fishing, but with water replaced by killabytes and cat5 cables as the new string and bait, and i get to watch 400 people screaming for attention every single day. A Facebook status or an update to your twitter Its like fishing 24 hours a day. Don't lie, you check your facebook to see who wrote on your wall, or commented on your new pic where you are standing next to a DeLorean with mad fog coming out of it, just like in Back to the Future. You and i both know know your not going on to see what the smelly kid from 6th grade at Palmer Trinity School( It was me, Guilty... i wish that was a joke) is up to these days. If you are you are for sure hoping that when you see him you hope that you are doing way better than him so you feel supiror in the art of living

Im as guilty as the next person, i sent out 128 invites, a few photo comments and soon to be a link to this blog story. What am i trying to say to those people, my so called friends? Am i subliminally saying " Look at me!! Listen to what i think!!!Look what Im doing!! Im better than you!! You should have never broken up with me just because i wanted to see the Matrix and you wanted to rent that movie Nine Months with that douchebag Hugh Grant, just because your friend Ashley said it was super cute". 

                                 

As my hero Laz from the band The Toners once said " thats heavy", and boy is he right. Facebook has become the equivelent to epic Middle Earth like minefield of "Stuff","Garbage","Spam" or whatever you want to call it. As annoying as it is and and much as i am putting it down, i personally understand Facebooks and the social networking boom growth more than probably anyone i know. For business it has become a intergral tool with a way of keeping communication flow constant while not actually calling or really annoying people in their personal bubble. The annoyances have been delegated and quaranted( AKA my Inbox) to a thing that for better or for worse, guess what, you signed up for. I cant say Facebok its the future because it really is the present and it could die tomorrow or just become uncool like that band you liked last year, but not anymore cuz they sold out to do an iPod commercial.

In closing i am sorry, you live in miami and no matter what you do you will get a invite to go to the next " hot party" with "Dj Douchebaggery" at Mansion from that kid that you think you 

went to summer camp with. I guess in the end the price you pay for living in paradise. 

"If you cant take the heat, Get out of the CCCV"