I wish my life was as cool as my Facebook page says it is!

I love Facebook...I really do...I think it's one of the most powerful inventions since the internet.

It's changed the face of sales, marketing and how we connect socially on a day to day basis...it's immensely powerful. I had a chat with a friend the other day about it (who is about as anti-facebook as you get) and he went on a tirade about how it was 'the scourge of the 21st century' and that it should be called 'anti-social networking' because it moved people away from actually connecting 'in the flesh'.

He kind of had a point although his argument was completely one sided...I mentioned to him about all the good things that Facebook has to offer from a business perspective and how it can, in fact, help people connect more. I even told him a story how my little cousin used Facebook's photograph tagging system to trace back and locate someone who had attacked him on a night out in Edinburgh (the evidence was used by police and the attacker was subsequently charged). He wasn't budging an inch, though, and was adamant that Facebook is like some 'modern day cyber plague!'

One point we did agree on though was how interesting 'the psychology behind people's Facebook profiles' was...The notion that people like to 'be seen in a particular way ' on Facebook and why so many people appear to use Facebook as some vehicle for living out their personal fantasies of who they think they 'should be'...

Now I am mind reading massively here...There's no way of knowing for sure the motivation behind peoples profiles and posts...However it doesn't take a genius to notice the stark differences between many people's 'Facebook/on-line personalities' and their 'actual personalities'. I've met many people who are ferocious bordering on aggressive when on-line and then consistently sit on the fence when they are around people in person...People who are hugely confident when replying to posts and designing their profile but are shy as a mouse in company.

It's fascinating when you think about it...What is it about social media that gives us permission to be a certain way that we normally wouldn't in the real world? There definitely appears to be a set of 'social norms' for real world interaction and a different set of 'social norms' for cyber interaction.

Facebook's photograph and timeline system is equally if not more interesting. How many times have you jumped to conclusions about how amazing and interesting someone's life is because of their Facebook photos only to find, when you meet them in person, their actually quite dull?! On one hand we probably jump to conclusions too quickly but on the other there is a definite trend towards people projecting a 'snap shot' image of their life that is dramatically different to the reality...

The question I'm curious about though is this: 'What's stops people from being the way they are on-line with real life social situations?'

And also, what stops people from living as cool and interesting a life as their Facebook page suggests? 

If someone is confident on-line but not in the outside world they have, in fact, demonstrated that they already have inside of them what they need...

If someone is projecting a dramatically different representation on-line of how interesting their life is when deep down it has gaping holes of emptiness in it (excuse the dramatic description :-)) then maybe it's nice little signal to start addressing the areas that need addressed.

Facebook is a wonderful concept and I love it...At the same time I have to agree in some part with my friend that it can also often be used as a bit of crutch...to cover up some of the areas that deep down we know probably need addressing.

Have a good one

Steve