Kids on Facebook

Here's my actual problem with kids on Facebook:

Facebook is full of stupid people. We all know this; we see constant evidence of it. You know, that one person you are still friends with because you get some sort of satisfaction watching them self-immolate? The person that, for one or more consecutive hours, posts constantly about how she's only called "a bitch cuz men dont know how ta handle [her]." Or the guy that just quoted Ecclesiastes while trying to explain how good this sandwich was.

We can agree, on some level, these people function as children. Not exactly sure of their surroundings and on some level trying to aggrandize their persona and using this separate personality to outwardly define who they are. You all know what I mean; the insecure, homosexual, loudmouth-bully. My Ecclesiastical sandwich enjoying hypothetical man is a timid man hiding behind religious zealotry to portray confidence, the "bitch" self-labeling because she doesn't stick up for herself all that often.

This is a base and evolutionary mechanism: appearing as strong as possible to hide weakness. The butterflies have wings that look like owls eyes; the robin puffs its red chest. The moron posts articles of intellectual importance, etc.

The problem with kids on Facebook is that they emulate the adults. The usual middle school pissing contest has now become a quest for "friends" and "comments." Which, bizarrely enough, is the usual contest, only held 24/7 and digitally. The problem is, the adults and children are now engaging in the exact same activities, see below:

From my 10-13yr/old cousin's Facebook profile

The kids, now, see our dumb charts about who our bestie is and who we think is flirty and fall under the impression that this is how adults conduct themselves. Our childish outlet of base creativity and attention seeking is affecting how our children communicate. It's to the point, as shown in the chart, they don't even realize how to spell friend; the crown for "dramatic frand," insinuates at least a basic familiarity with idea of a drama queen.

I think as adults, we could perhaps learn to communicate on a level that exceeds our prepubescent children (or, in my case, relatives). Why don't we try capitalizing? Instead of making charts about who among our friends wins a Disney-themed superlative contest, we spend some time talking with our friends about absurdities of our lives? Why don't we just tell people how we feel instead of posting passive-aggressively about them?

Instead of devolving to the point where we talk and behave as children, why don't we try to operate outside of a level they can understand? Your average child of 10 years old is neither reading this, nor able to comprehend it because I'm an adult who is seeking an audience of adults. I recommend we all attempt it, it's satisfying.