It took me a long time to join Facebook, because literally every single aspect of it sounded unappealing. Connecting with people? Finding friends from college, or even high school? Who would want that?
But I joined, and quickly discovered something that appeals to an antisocial person like myself: I can be antisocial while pretending to be social. Facebook connections can act as a sociability stand-in: I'm keeping up with your life circumstances and the things you care about, but I don't have to actively interact with you to do so. It's completely passive, unless I want to give a thumbs-up or leave a comment. It doesn't necessarily need to be a stand-in; I can also have a social relationship with you in real life. But the passive nature of it and the lack of direct social contact allows a person like myself, who doesn't enjoy a ton of social interaction, to maintain some form of sociability without actually being sociable. #sociology |