Saving Face(book) in My Space

In the fractured humanity of our everyday modern lives, we are starting to develop split personalities and alter-egos at dizzying speeds. The computer -- once the proud tool of the disenfranchised "geek" class (and yours truly) -- has now turned into the preferred method of social interaction among even the more computer-challenged folks out there. (I cannot help but perceive the irony, when the very same high-school jock who picked on me because I knew how to program a computer is now maintaining a meticulously personalized myspace profile!)

With online profiles, we are also discovering a new form of hypocrisy. For instance: a person will construct a profile, share intimate information about themselves, link with all of their closest friends, and put up pictures of themselves frolicking on a Mexican beach. Say now that this person is your acquaintance at school or work, and you happen to encounter them in passing and strike up a conversation. Can you compliment them on their taste in music, or mention that sweet bikini they wore in Tahiti? Can you tell them that you "totally disagree" with that jerk Bob's comments about their latest blog? Can you offer them advice about the relationship woes which they have published for the world to see?

Perhaps. Unfortunately, many people would label you an "online stalker," or at least think you a bit strange. Just like the attractive woman who wears a v-neck and dares you not to get caught looking, we are now in the age of digital-teasing. Then there are those people who put up profiles in public places and make them "private," either missing the whole point of the WORLD-wide web, or using myspace as a way to further show their exclusive existance to others. The hypocrisy runs deep, but is hardly surprising.

Personally, I love this new aspect of internet socialization -- it certainly beats the days of text-only BBS and telnet chatrooms (though many of you were too "cool" to participate in these.) I've met new friends, made professional contacts, and caught up with people I thought I'd never see again.

Some may find it strange that they now know so many personal things about familiar faces with whom they've never had a personal conversation. Perhaps it is strange, but I will opine that it is really a tool -- once our hypocrisy about it is removed -- to create more open and intimate social settings. In a world where technology is causing us to be fractured and isolated, technology may have also provided a solution to its own dehumanzing dillema.