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By Jacey Gibb

originality right off the bat. Next

to celebrity meltdowns, Facebook is easily the most susceptible target for criticisms and complaints, yet it still remains dominant as the biggest social-networking website in the world. Whether you’re complaining about someone’s non-stop status updates or commenting on profile pictures that have a surprising flesh-to-clothing ratio, the majority of Facebook gossip is harmless. However, I’m curious as how this recent boom in ability to stay connected will affect our ory in the long run.

Facebook obviously isn’t the first platform to allow people to stay in touch but it’s undoubtedly the most efficient one. While I’ve been an avid

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snailmailer for years now and use emails occasionally too, Facebook has allowed me to keep up to date on what countless of people have been up to, without having to put in any actual effort. A daily glance at my newsfeed will tell me who is now friends with who, whose birthday is coming up and most importantly, whose aie status just — from “single” to “it’s complica This wealth of Radeleaie' is outstanding, saving me from the weeks I would have had to wait before reading a letter telling me the exact same things, but at what cost? Before moving to Vancouver, I indulged in a Facebook friend purge, severing ties with hundreds of individuals that I would most likely never see or hear from again. It wasn’t because I loathed these people, but more of an honest acceptance to

myself that I wouldn’t be able to stay in touch with every single person I ever had lunch with throughout high school. It’s not a realistic goal.

For those that remained on my friends list, one might almost think we’ve maintained healthy long- distance friendships, considering I can tell you several things about their lives I wouldn’t know otherwise. But this is solely thanks to Facebook, for creating a sort of faux friendship. It’s provided a false sense of interaction and comradery, leading me to believe I’m catching up with a person simply by looking at their profile. Being ‘Facebook friends’ means absolutely nothing.

I can’t stop thinking about how staying in touch through Facebook will affect things in the future. Relationships that would’ ve been dropped and never revisited in the

past will now refuse to disappear, living on forever in cyber space. I’m not sure humans were meant to maintain so many different connections over such great distances like witnessed today. Social ties aren’t necessarily made with longevity in mind. Exactly how long am I supposed to keep that girl from my Mathematics group project on the same list as some of my oldest friends?

Adding a person as a friend on Facebook creates a whole world of issues. While it allows you to learn helpful information, such as what they like or whether they’d be offended if you made a dead baby joke, it also manifests a fake sense of intimacy with the individual, whether it’s with a new friend or an old one. I think I'll stick to my day-to-day conversations and postage stamps.

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