Magandang araw, Who Are You on Facebook? With Facebook now part of millions of people’s daily routine, there have emerged two dominant kinds of Facebook users. The first is the Exhibitionist, the second the Voyeur. First, let’s take a look at the Facebook Exhibitionist. The Exhibitionist must think everything about herself important—at least important enough to be shared online. She puts on display her wealth, intelligence, piety, career success, romantic life or family, or all of the above. She is not embarrassed to regularly post solo photos. Often, the Exhibitionist took the photo herself. In the extreme, the photo is of herself in skimpy clothes. Or, the Exhibitionist may eagerly post status updates or photos detailing her latest acquisition, be it car, gadget, or Louis Vuitton bag. Together with material possessions, the Exhibitionist may go on to reveal she has the means to enjoy certain luxuries in life—travel, stays at exclusive resorts, lavish buffet meals, access to expensive shows or exclusive events. The Exhibitionist may also choose to reveal the inner recesses of her emotional life, posting romantic messages that are best declared in private. Now, while the Exhibitionist reveals everything about herself, the Voyeur enjoys knowing them. The word voyeur is a French word which means “one who sees.” Let’s observe some common practices of an online voyeur. A voyeur spends most of his time on Facebook browsing through all the photos of his friends… even photos of his friends’ friends, people he doesn’t really know. He scrutinizes every detail, taking note of the personal qualities the photos reveal. He devours the places his friends visited, what food they ate, what kinds of appliances, furniture and gadgets they possess. On one hand, the voyeurism gives him the pleasure to vicariously possess things and experience events normally out of his reach. On the other, gaining knowledge of all this information gives the voyeur a sense of power to judge the person. “I’ve seen how his house looks like. It’s not much better than mine!”a Voyeur could say. Or he could think, “If she only went to church more often, she wouldn’t have this problem.” Are you a Facebook Exhibitionist or a Facebook Voyeur? Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook aims to connect people. That may be true. But a higher percentage of these connections than we dare admit have to do with the desire to impress others and make ourselves look good. While posting a status, comment or photo, have we not at some time thought, “I want others to see how good I look in this photo”, or “My comment is the wittiest”, or “I’ll share the title of the book I’m reading so my friends will think I’m very intelligent”? On Facebook, we daily face the perils of thinking too highly of ourselves, exposing ourselves to temptation and covetousness, or undervaluing our individual uniqueness. (This editorial was written by Joanna Nicolas-Na, ISACC writer and editor at the OMF Literature Inc. transformnation. ph)
Posted on: Wed, 12 Jun 2013 05:09:20 +0000
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