Quitting Facebook

What would it be like if everyone had a "Burn Book" they kept as a constant reminder that they did indeed make incredibly dumb choices in their lives involving other people? This Burn Book would be a photo album of sorts, kept up to speed with every guy (or girl) ever kissed or fooled around with or dated. There would be photos and notes taken and each page would be devoted to one person (and maybe if that person were in your life for a while, they'd get another page, or something).

These hypothetical Burn Books are getting closer and closer to reality when I go on Facebook and check out someone of interest. I feel almost dirty looking at old photos of people I just became friends with. I don't know this person, and suddenly I can see all the way back to 2006 when they were dressed as a green frog at their university's halloween party, and then two clicks later they look like they might have hooked up with half a dozen freshmen also at the party. Um... gross? That looks like 5 or 6 pages of your burn book, my friend. Here! I'll make it for you! All I need is right here, right down to the link leading me to the page of each one of the people you hooked up with and who they are dating and/or married to right now! Ahhhhh!!

I am in constant debate with myself as to whether I should get the hell off Facebook. Really. Talk about unplugging. It's just, the idea that all these thousands of pictures are available by just clicking a link makes me feel naked. I look at other people's photos and judge them, why shouldn't they do the same to me? Whenever I meet someone who is not on Facebook I feel like I've had a sighting of BigFoot to report. The person not on Facebook is so rare now, that I often wonder what their lives must be like when they didn't get the invitation to that party, or when they can't see all the cool footage from that stupid wedding, etc. It's amazing. There are babies now who have Facebook pages! There will be a whole generation of humans whose entire lives will be documented on this website. Oh my god. The amount of information one could gather on a person in 5 or 10 years is staggering to think about.

Then again, would anyone have predicted LIFE magazine flopping in its heyday? or could anyone have suspected that Woolworth's would have gone under when it was on top? Maybe Facebook will also have it's Roman Empire collapse as well? Nothing is too big to fall. History has taught us that over and over, and I think that very much applies to the virtual world.

Burn Books would be deleted and maybe we'd all have to figure each other out again and take someone's word when they say they've been to Spain (even if we can't go online to see the pictures to prove it). Ugh. I don't know. Facebook is: EveryOneLookAtMyBook and who can argue with that? I am totally that person, too. Until whatever happens, Facebook really is in its full swing of its own version of being the conquerer Alexander the Great. In fact, Facebook has more of a population united under one flag than any other empire in the history of the world, ever... Revolutions are planned using Facebook! Burn Books for countries! Epic. Epic. Epic. How can one walk away from that kind of power and draw? Until I can find the courage to do that, I'll never really know.