Status Quo

So, after much persuasion from my friends, i finally joined facebook last year. This is quite common for me in hindsight, i showed a similar resistance to join friendster, hi5 and orkut when they were the 'in' thing at the time. But eventually, with the appropriate amounts of kicking and screaming thrown in, i signed onto all these sites and became a rather active user if i do say so myself.

Now, after many years of mindless surfing on the net, i can claim to have some form of experience in these so-called 'social networking' sites. It all starts the same way, you resist, you cave, you upload your pic, you tell everyone how wonderful you really are ("and in my spare time i like to swim with dolphins off the coast of Fiji"), you add all your friends, and you start snooping in everyones profile ("aha! so ur her 2nd cousins uncles daughters housemaid's son!"). Its all very fascinating.. for a while. And then, when all the euphoria is gone, you're bored. You dont make new friends fast enough to keep adding them, hence you're stuck.

Not so with facebook, at least not for me. Why? Is it the endless number of applications you can add? The vast array of ridiculous and pointless quizzes you can take? ("How hairy is your soul mates' ass? Take this quiz to find out!")

No

Its the status msg. Yes, this tiny little line is one of the center-pieces of the site, the real heart of the matter, the sole reason some people login everyday. And to some, the status msg has become, if not an addiction, then an art form. There are normal msgs ("so-n-so is at work"), the bizarre ones ("So-n-so is a one-legged man in a 3-legged race"), the cute ones ("so-n-so is absolutely in lovey-dovey with honey-bunny-cutie-pie") and the depressed ones ("so-n-so wants to die.now.pls.") Its almost a competition out there to be 'cooler' or more creative at least. I find myself being sucked in many times, tryin to think o somethin to clever to say. I have since come to the painful conclusion that im jus not clever. Often I'll come across a msg so depressing and stupid i jus wanna write on their wall "look, fine, ur life sucks, u want to die, u got dumped, and ur heart is in a million pieces. now stop tellin everyone,we dnt really care!"

Harsh? Cruel? Perhaps.. i admit im rather impatient at times. but seriously, when the owners of facebook came up with the status msg, they had no idea what they would unleash.