I saw a meme being liked and shared over the weekend that was one of those "Back in my day we didn't have seat belts or the Internet and we licked lead-based paint and our moms smoked four packs a day while she was pregnant with us and that's why we're awesome an all you kids suck!" things we old people are fond of sharing and liking. And suddenly, mid-chuckle, I realized exactly why my kids and nearly every person under 30 have all but abandoned Facebook.
Facebook used to be a very cool place, full of cool kids who would post cool stuff and get cool comments. It was theirs, created by college kids and maintained by creative, energetic youth. It was like a kick-ass college party.
For the longest time adults didn't get it and didn't want to, except for a few early-adopting adults who the kids let in because they were pretty cool. But then more showed up. And more. And more. Not just adults. PARENTS. And aunts and uncles and, holy shit, even grandparents.
But that wasn't a problem in and of itself. Sure, it made the kids more cautious about what they shared, and with whom. But it was still cool.
Until the adults started lecturing. Your music sucks. Your movies suck. Your fashion sucks. Your friends suck. Your life sucks. Things were so much better back in MY day. I actually had to TALK TO PEOPLE! I actually had to GET OUTSIDE AND PLAY! I didn't have the Internet to make me brain-dead! YOU DAMN KIDS BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!
Meanwhile the adults are furiously liking and sharing and posting and commenting and checking every 10 minutes to see if their posts had likes and comments. And the kids? They're with their friends. Sure, they're using SnapChat or Tinder or GroupMe or any other number of apps you've never heard of to coordinate and communicate, but their coordination and communication all lead to them hanging out. Like kids do, and have since the beginning of time, and will continue to.
In other words, all the lecturing and condemnation of the "these kids these days" is not only without merit, it is completely hypocritical. WE'RE the ones addicted to this thing. Facebook is our all-encompassing glass house and we have an endless supply of stones.
It's too late for Facebook. We not only crashed the party, we moved all our stuff into the house and redecorated as all the kids slipped out the back door.
But I suggest that if we start to notice those kids all hanging out somewhere else, we resist the temptation to follow them. Or if we do, let's vow not to fuck it all up for them once again.
ADDENDUM:
On cue, this just got shared on Facebook.
