Colin Kovacic Professor Jan Rieman English 1103 September 22, 2011 WTE 4: I Hate Facebook

Kovacic 1

I despise the accuracy of this article. I just went on Facebook to look up a post I saw earlier that fit in really well with this topic. 45 minutes later and Im just now getting started on the response. The post well it seems irrelevant now. Ive just made such an irritatingly easy example of myself of how social media is an aggressive distraction that Im not even interested in discussing it anymore. I was going to go into a whole spiel about how Facebook is a waste of time and how Twitter really does degrade true media and reporting but now Im so angry at myself for falling right into a blatantly obvious snare that all I can think to write about is just that. What about those stupid websites is SO distracting? I hardly even post anything on Facebook anymore and the only reason I have a Twitter account is so that I can be notified as soon as HP gets their last shipment of Touchpads in. Ive done my best to disconnect myself from the social networking site vortex, but it seems I keep getting sucked in. I cant get out of it completely, too many of my friends use Facebook to plan too many events, and as long as I maintain a profile itll be all too easy to get distracted. The entire course of my paper has changed due to my obnoxiously uncontrollable attention span and now I cant even focus on writing this paper for more than a few seconds at a time! Again, the accuracy of that stupid article is killing me. Have I lost my attentiveness? Is it really possible that having a Facebook is detrimental regardless of your reason for joining or your level of use? I sincerely doubt it, but that didnt stop

Kovacic 2 me from worrying though, did it? Nor is it untrue that I did allow myself to get distracted for three quarters of an hour when I should have been writing diligently. It is undeniable that Facebook influences everyone who uses it, and to some degree even those who dont. Id be willing to wager that in any well-developed nation the vast majority of the population has at least heard of Facebook and they probably have daily contact with it (again, that includes even those that dont have one). It was this slightly unnerving realization coupled with my frustration vented at the outset of this paper that caused the thought of actually deleting my Facebook to cross my mind. An extreme reaction I know, but nonetheless a reaction I actually gave considerable thought to. One of my very good friends decided that she didnt need Facebook anymore, so she left the site. She survives just fine; I mean we all did in the pre-Facebook era. Unfortunately its become one of those technologies that much too often earns the phrase: I just dont know how I lived without it. Yet I just dont know that I could bring myself to do it, to delete what I have put so much time and effort into, even if it was just wasted time and wasted effort. If I delete my profile that that just confirms that I wasted my time, right? Gah, and the debate rages on. What I am determined not to do is to read back through this paper. Nope, Im not going to change or revise a thing. If it doesnt make a whit of sense then that speaks volumes about how bad Facebook really is for you. If it does make sense, well then I guess that says something too, Im just not sure what at the moment. And finally there is that looming possibility that any incoherence in this paper, no, not paper, its devolved much below that, its a rant. Anyway, any incoherence in this paper could very easily be due to the fact that I was just tired and distracted and without caffeine. Who knows? The point is that Bill Keller obviously got his point across

and if thats the only success that is to be had tonight well then so be it. Thank you for your time, I hope I wasnt too terribly difficult to understand, and goodnight.