Does that mean that I have missed out on knowing about Facebook's relationship with other people? Perhaps I have derided the meaning that Facebook has in many people's lives?
For instance, people on Facebook may be seeking a romantic dalliance without having the annoyance of a dating site.
What's wrong with that, given both parties are consenting?
Clearly, I've never given FB much time or respect.
I do know that people are lonelier than ever even with this social-media approximation of community and connection that is Facebook.
Yet Facebook, when I think about it, has given me some connections I adore.
What, then, is the reason for people being lonelier and more depressed, in spite of FB's existence, as many formal and informal polls suggest.
I think the answer might be that, in the end, virtual contact is toxic and dehumanizing, even as it is reassuring.
Psychoanalytically, it replays an abandonment that re-teaches the untouchability of others and the impossibility of solid love.
There is also no question, in my mind, that robotic emotional development is designed to replace human emotion.
Now that's f****ing disheartening.
And thus, it is clear that, unconsciously or not computer relationships, and communicating through the cold shield of technology, promotes depression, pharmaceuticals, and profound unconscious alarm.
As Michael McDonald sang, "It keeps you running".
Social media, itself, is also a ripe potential route for opportunistic shenanigans that may offer the petty, and not-so-petty, thief , entrance into the private world of faceless strangers.
That's the dark truth, although there are other non-criminal side effects of social media that I consider less-than-wonderful trade-offs, as well, like non- physical togetherness and the deleting of the human voice.
There is nothing more important than the human voice, I find, both for the beauty of real connection and for deciphering the heart and intentions of a person.
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