Does Anybody Care?

  Friday evening, Jason King & I were driving down Hwy 63 on a short business trip. Somewhere north of Columbia Mo., I got my phone out and stated that I should probably update my facebook status, since I hadn’t done so for a very long time. I began to mention different things that I could write as a status update, but as different ideas popped into my head and I started saying them out loud, I kept asking, “but does anybody care?” Like… “I’m in Missouri. … Does anybody care?” or “I’m really, really tired. … Does anybody care?

  We started talking about how so many of the status updates that get put on facebook are just mindless things that nobody cares about. After all: if someone is posting every event of their daily lives, thinking that their facebook friends care, shouldn’t someone point out that nobody really does care?

  It was kind of a silly conversation that was probably induced by a lack of sleep, boredom, and reaching the end of a couple of high stress weeks. We were getting a lot of laughs out of the idea, and then Jason said “I think I’ll post an update and put the question with it… Does anybody care?” The idea caught hold and we agreed to put a bunch of worthless information, that nobody cares about, on our facebook statuses over the next couple of days and end them all with, “does anybody care?”

  That night and the next day, we had a lot of fun thinking of stuff to use and then cracking up at the whole idea all over again. Jason commented that “it probably isn’t half as funny to anyone else as it is to us; but … who cares?” Some people actually commented on the stuff that we assumed that nobody cared about, but more commented about the question, “Does anybody care?”

  It got me to thinking about the facebook phenomenon. It’s probably safe to say that everything that gets posted on facebook is something that the person posting it cares about. But I would venture a guess that over half of it is stuff that nobody really does care about. Most of the time, we’re too busy to care about what article you’re reading, what song you’re listening to, what you’re eating, what game you’re playing, or getting a detailed log of your day or even your vacation. It’s not that we don’t care about you or your life; it’s just that you are overwhelming us with more than we need to know. The sheer volume of mindless drivel has almost drowned out anything substantive that people care about.

  I went back and found the first facebook post that I ever put up. It was on December 23 2008 and it is as follows, “At the risk of offending all facebookers.... I am officially here because of making derogatory comments about how silly facebook is and how there is no substance worth reading here. It (facebook) is a phase that will go away when the adults get involved. Being an adult I actually know how to use punctuation and capital letters even if I don't know how to spell or type.

 Whew! Now that I have that off my chest. Who knows what this could turn into (probably nothing at all)
Anyway my niece took it upon herself to set me up w/ facebook - Thanks Felisha (I think) “

Turns that I was wrong about it going away soon when the adults get involved, but I was right about there not being much substance worth reading.

  So 3 ½ years later, I’m actually still enjoying facebook and have no intentions of leaving. (although I might start hiding some people from my news feed page) and I feel better again with having vented my thoughts about facebook. Have we advanced from those “early days”? Should people use more discretion in how often and what all they post? Is facebook here to stay? Should I get out of the “never post a status update” ditch and start updating a little more often? And the real question….. DOES ANYBODY CARE?