However there is a relatively new class of people that has engulfed more members than those three combined and it has consumed most of them regardless of their individuality, how they describe themselves or whom they think they are. The chances of anyone reading this post belonging to it are astronomically good, and in fact I would wager high stakes that you are in it but probably never gave it much thought. That is, until I finish here.
I have given this much thought so don't think for a moment that it is just another rant or even an episode of passing observation. There now exist something I have chosen to name the Facebook Class and if you are a regular or even only a semi-regular participant to the largest social networking site in the world you are in it. If you ever posted anything about your life, including something about your family, your occupation, achievements, desires or peeves, congratulations! You have become a part of the largest class of people on the planet and you will be welcomed there every day that you choose to mingle with billions of others like yourself that may have reinvented who you really are or thought they were. But be mindful that the truth is on display because reading between the lines really isn't that difficult for most people. Words and images don't disguise everything as cleverly as one might think. We can appear smarter, doctor-up the photos or simply take our chances when even if all of our self-accolades are true that someone somewhere will be impressed and give us what we want.
People from all walks of life are joining you every day to share with you sometimes the most personal thoughts and circumstances that make up who they are and how they live. Perhaps you do that also; like everyone else in this class that finds it important to pull back the veil of anything previously unseen so everyone can see what you looked like when you were young and if the years have been kind to you or not. New Job? Post it so everyone knows what you will be doing in the foreseeable future; expecting a child or the birth of one? Let's see some pictures! Did someone wrong you in some way? Details! And then there is my personal favorites; what are your religious leanings and where do you stand politically? We all want to know because it's you and how you think might affect everyone else even though you see yourself as different than the rest. You must think that, otherwise why was it so important to educate the rest of us about you?
Today is January 22, 2016 and I have vowed to do my best to bow out of this class of people because other than being identified with a very large group of people I have learned over five or more years that I really don't want to know that much about you or anyone else. I have already revealed more about myself on Facebook than I probably should have and this isn't the first time I have talked about leaving it in my rear view mirror, because like I said, this is not just another passing thought.
I believe there is an air of arrogance in everyone and it is never more on display than it is every day on Facebook. It doesn't matter if you are completely misinformed or clueless about any subject you can still weigh in and think to yourself that someone really cares what you think. It is just as true for the most educated and most successful people you will see today on Facebook. Some need to prove that by writing elegantly worded posts about current events or to show off a vocabulary that leaves no doubt that they have done good and great things. They shelter a need to be admired for something because even if professional mass media isn't talking about them this day everyone should know who they are and if they are attractive or believe they are everyone should be able to see it.
We shelter a need to be discovered because we know who we are and we get tired of waiting for the press to ask us what we think so we pick the time and the place to interview ourselves and explain what we think about everything. We envy those on television that get to be seen and heard and we envy their popularity and here is a way to get in on all of that by doing our own show about us in forums such as Facebook. Maybe it is a comedian that has always been the life of someone's party or a current or former beauty that never tires of being told how we look. Perhaps we have better than average skills at something and since no one else is asking what they are we need to step to the virtual podium and showcase all that we are and all that we can do.
The man with the pretty wife, regardless of what her personality might be needs to show everyone that he has her and she must have been attracted to him also! So they stand together for a photo op; the rest of Facebook needs to see them together because it is yet another success in life and there should be no doubt that man has much going for him. It is a class of people, an entire society that hungers to be noticed for something, anything, and they are just as curious about others. Maybe someone they are in competition with over something or maybe simply to reassure themselves that they have more going for them than most.
Facebook validates who we are. We can appear to be sensitive and socially correct in all matters even if we aren't and we can act out the fantasies of what we want the world to believe about us no matter where we come from, what our economic status really is or who we really know. If we really don't care about something we can pretend that we do and no one is the wiser and if we are against something that is popular we can easily act as if we are for it and anyone who really is will welcome us into their fold just because they think we agree with them.
People that I know well and have known for a very long time do their very best to cast images of the person they hope you believe them to be and too often all they really accomplish is showing everyone that they really aren't that person at all. In all honesty I don't know what people in the Facebook class think of me and I don't care. I might have in the beginning because I too bragged about what I thought was the best of my own circumstances. I thought it was important that everyone who looked in on me saw only the best of me, but I have reached an age or at least an attitude where it no longer matters. I think I got here by realizing that it doesn't matter to anyone else either.
The undeniable truth is that we know way too much about one another in this instant info age where it has become so easy to discover more about one another than any of us really need to know.
Sadly, everyone in the Facebook class has become politicians of one sort or another; I did this, I will do that, I believe this way or that way and this is how I look when I am carefully posing for a picture, whether someone else is holding the camera or if it is a selfie.
So it comes to this; I am no longer eager or even comfortable with revealing too much more about me than I already have so my best chance of being noticed less or spilling too many more beans about me is to make the best effort I am able to fall off of the grid. I have a lot in my head regarding how I hope the rest of my life will play out and I am not seeking approval from anyone, nor am I asking anyone for help to get there. I look older this year than I did last year but no one needs to see that and my politics are changing rapidly by what I see and learn from the Facebook class.
In short, I don't want to be in that class, I don't want anyone to think that I communicate the things that are important to me that way. My feelings and my beliefs only matter to me and suddenly none of that is anyone's business. The politician that seeks your support is doing something I needn't do and the lonely people that rely on the Facebook class are also up to tricks and schemes I can't help them with. The smart people don't need to convince me of their intelligence and worldliness because I am someone that isn't easily impressed by other people's things or experiences.
I am returning to the days of land-line telephones and modest communications because I believe I was a better person then; I looked at the world and at people with a more innocent perspective than I have since everything went on display in the Facebook class. To say that I now see myself more ahead of the curve than I ever was is an understatement. The Facebook class of people has taught me a lot, but nothing more important than that I want something none of them are capable of having regardless of their station in life; lower, middle or upper class. Because in everyone's zeal to stand out in some way, all they are accomplishing is showing everyone that they need something I no longer do. In that regard they are all the same whether they know it or not. I don't want to be the same and I don't remember a time when I did.
You joined that class of people when you started believing that your success or your failures was something you needed to expose to total strangers and believed that any of them could add anything good to your life. You were taken in when you posted that second picture of yourself and when you updated your status. You may even be stuck in this large class of people because arrogance by any other name is a hard habit to break. This essay is arrogant but you read it and somewhere in it you probably saw some truth. It doesn't resolve anything or offer much good but what it does accomplish is identifying some of what is wrong with who we have become; reliant on a need to show as many people as we possibly can, by whatever method we can find who we hope they think we are.
The question I am posing to myself here is, why? At the end of the day and when life comes to an end we are only who we are and what anyone else thinks or believes about us eventually stops being important. I know, because on this day, January 22, 2016 only I can figure out the rest of my life and at age 63 time is of the essence! If I live another 30 years or only one week or just a day I don't need to validate anything else. I needn't leave a legacy and how I finish what began in my mother's womb isn't anything that could possibly matter to anyone but me. So to me that must mean there is at least a 5th class of people; I think I am in that one!
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