My English Professor, David Wanczyk, said a phrase that struck me the other day: the tragedy of the dad behind the video camera (Or something like that). We were talking about documentaries and the presence of the man behind the camera and this idea came about the father who documents the lives of his children growing up and is, for the most part, entirely absent in the film because he has to hold the camera the whole time. Only seen in glimpses at mirrors or in an intense close-up displaying nose hair when he turns the camera on himself to smile.
With The Social Network in theaters it got me thinking: is Facebook our attempt at turning the camera around on ourselves? Do we all use Facebook for the sole purpose of providing our future-selves documentation of the whole social situation of college? If so, the extent that we attempt to do so is pretty obsessive. We are constantly updating our status's, shifting through dozens of photo albums, and answering questions that ask daily, even moment to moment, Jeffrey Tolman what's on your mind?
There are also other views about Facebook that it isn't merely documentation; it is self-advertisement. It becomes a way to seek attention saying, Hey
look how cool my life is. One of my friends recently deleted his Facebook and he compared his last status to a suicide note that entailed something along the lines of: Hey guys this is going to be my last status. I just haven't put in enough time... He was obviously joking but there is something interesting about the comparison.
I haven't seen The Social Network yet and from what I've heard it does comment on our self-absorbed culture with one reviewer even calling the young generation the Entitlement Generation but I would like to think of Facebook as more innocent than that. It is a way to stay connected with friends, a calendar of upcoming events, a reminder not to forget your friend's birthday, and a way to document your college years. I'm not really a fan of people who have a thousand Facebook friends they never talk to. Facebook, to me, is just a way to avoid the tragedy of the dad behind the video camera.
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Opinion
Jeff Tolman
