Here we are in 2012. Last year, the world congratulated Mark Zuckerberg when he became the world's youngest billionaire ever in history. What did he create that we collectively value so much, that has granted him entrance to this club, of sorts?
a cure for cancer?
a cure for depression?
a cure for boredom?
Though it's a very tall statement, I'll say it anyway (what's new?) because I think that somehow, perhaps he (and others who have contributed to the creation of social media) have provided a possible remedy for what I consider to be society's unspoken epidemic today: loneliness. In an albeit, roundabout and unintentional way.
I'll start back as far as my mind can grasp--to the caveman days. In the earliest records of human behavior, it is found that humans began as tribal people. They knew that by pooling their individual strengths and resources they were more likely to stay alive. Families slept side by side, meals were eaten communally and evenings were most likely spent together, next to a fire, chatting about everything, from the insignificant to major life decisions affecting the entire group or select individuals.
As time went on, perhaps we realized that if we left to gain new skills and searched out new opportunities, we could bring them back to enhance life in our groups. The thing is, we may have to be away for a long time, doing our work. Or, perhaps we forget ever to return. Maybe it's that we've gotten so used to providing for ourselves, and so has everyone else, that we think that we don't need anyone else. Who is to say what got us here exactly but what is important to realize is, in my opinion, the need to sit by the fire; to share, talk, and really know one other. I think that self sufficiency has been so encouraged that now we crave connection, and ultimately, a feeling of belonging.
I think that social media, and in particular perhaps, Facebook, is beginning to fill this need. Now that we are financially able to live where we choose and with whom, often, family and friends (our original tribe members) live too far away to sit at the fire with, per se. But, thanks to the internet we can keep up with one another. Thanks to cameras, we can see what each other sees, and though I myself cringe at the potential zealousness that I proclaim here, I think Facebook has the potential to be the collective 'fire' for resident's of industrialized nations to sit at. Perhaps by checking out our 'news feed' we get the rundown on all of our extended tribes activities, large and small, just as people used to, at the end of the day, fireside.
I make a point to say that residents living in first world countries are probably the greatest beneficiaries of this connection because numbers and data have shown for a very long time, that depression rates are highest are in first world countries, probably due to the monetary ability to be independent. We don't need to live with family or friends, so we don't. Well, perhaps there is a correlation between being independent (not needing others to survive) and feeling alone and depressed, which often leads to health issues, whether from the sadness, or the hoped escape from it, through food, leading to the pandemic of obesity and overuse of alcohol, drugs and other 'tools' used to temporarily withdraw.
It is my hope that social media will help to provide the temperance between being independant and self-willed individuals with a sense of the importance of community and connectivity within it, however large or small.
So, pretty much, while social media has it's flaws, overall, I'm on board.
obviously:)
plus, think of the celebrations we have now. Instead of a dozen family members rejoicing the birth of a new baby.....essentially, the whole world can.
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