30 August

An observation from many years of Facebook. (Not being critical here, more genuine curiosity about how things work.) There's not much interaction. People overwhelmingly seem to post about themselves, or their friends and family - updates on what they're doing mostly - or they share some 'cool' thing they've found (funny video, saying, etc.). Often the cool shares are also personal, a way of branding ourselves. The social network is not very social. It's very 'look at me, and I'll look at you'. Like mutual peeping toms. A very weird form of social, where everybody is still just an individual, advertising what they're doing and what they like. Like a dating app where nobody actually dates. Are we vain? Or do we have little to say about anything that isn't ourselves? Or are we reluctant to interact with others, to give a point of view, because we've come to see disagreement or discussion as unpleasant or scary?