The Fakebook Generation
by Michael HoffmanSunday, October 7th, 2007
The talk of the nonprofit world — and the world more generally — is about Facebook. Are you on it? What can we do with it? Can we raise money with it?
Are we all taking this too seriously? From Alice Mathias, a recent college graduate and today’s Op Ed contributor in the Times:
Facebook did not become popular because it was a functional tool — after all, most college students live in close quarters with the majority of their Facebook friends and have no need for social networking. Instead, we log into the Web site because it’s entertaining to watch a constantly evolving narrative starring the other people in the library.
And…
It’s all comedy: making one another laugh matters more than providing useful updates about ourselves, which is why entirely phony profiles were all the rage before the grown-ups signed in. One friend announced her status as In a Relationship with Chinese Food, whose profile picture was a carry-out box and whose personal information personified the cuisine of China.
