Tuesday, October 21, 2008

The Pros and Cons of a Pop Culture Phenomenon

I held out for a long time.

My freshman year, it was all the rage.

Nobody could stop talking about it.

It was so popular and "cool", but still, I held out.

And then I was peer pressured into it.

And I have since made others take the plunge...

I am, of course, talking about Facebook.

Now, I had a lot of reasons for remaining an outsider, but I'm here to write about the few reasons why I have changed my tune.

One: It has connected me to several blood relatives that I never see. Last week I became "Friends" with 3 cousins that I have not seen nor communicated with in the past 6 years. Now, we haven't exactly become amazing buddies yet, but I have seen pictures of their wives and offspring... and that's a big step. Plus, at any moment in time I can look on Facebook and see that this cousin is studying, that cousin is in love, and another is attending "PotFest 2009" next April 20th.

Second: I've been able to learn things about people that I probably would never have known otherwise. I can congratulate people on getting jobs, getting married, passing a chem final, or finishing their court mandated community service. Recently, I was able to hear some great news about one of my cousins on the East coast that I would probably never have gotten to hear (not because they wouldn't want me to know, but because they would tell my mom, and she would completely forget to pass on the news... she's becoming less and less reliable in her older years).

Third: I get to look at pictures of people that I love (and people that I don't love) doing fun things without me. I get to coo over people's cute kids and dogs, laugh at their naked waterfall pictures (OK... that was only on my brother's profile), and judge people for their drunken mistakes (as in "What the hell was she thinking wearing that"... Or "Red wine will never come out of those pants").

Which leads me to the Fourth, and most important, reason why Facebook is useful: the stalking. I get to see what the ex is up to, what that girl that I hate-but-am-actually-incredibly-jealous-of is doing, and I know who is voting for Obama (and therefore deserving of 100 cool points).

I won't join MySpace, though. I'm still convinced that it's just for pedophiles and rock stars.

In other news, I scanned my ass off today at work.

Not literally... that would suck...

So I listened to my IPOD all the live long day.

The new Rachael Yamagata CD is on heavy rotation, especially this song:



I just realized that I heard her sing this song acappella at The Fox a few months ago. After the show I cornered her for an autograph and told her that her CD, Happenstance, is one of the best CDs in the world, and that I would choose it as one of the 5 CDs that I could bring with me on a deserted island (actually, I think I said "Your CD is a CD in the top CDs that I would bring to a dessert island"... I was really nervous).

I think her exact words were: "Oh girl, you are too sweet".

That's right, her and I are bestest friends... and not in the fake Facebook way...

(Well, at least not yet... she has to accept my Friend Request first.)