Facebook in a Crowd

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Anonymous Professor Gaboune English 1000 7 October, 14 Facebook in a Crowd: Why is it impossible to establish a human connection online? Why is it impossible to establish human connections online? In the short story, “Facebook in a Crowd”, Hal Niedsvieck learn the hard way. Only one person showed up for his “Facebook Party”. Only one person was willing to meet him face-to-face. Hal, at that moment, realized that you can’t establish human connections online because Facebook is impersonal. You aren’t really talking to a human, you are typing on a keyboard. One thing that is missing from online social media is personal information. People do not generally post things that are important. People post what they had for lunch, what their kids wore to school, or how bad their commute was. None of these things matter. None of these things are important or personal. Facebook or online media is an easy way to stay in touch, or to see what’s going on but a poor substitute for actual conversations. People become lazy about “real” communications. We tell ourselves that the watered down version of communication that we get from online media is enough. Emotion is also missing from online social media. Niedsvieck planned his party and was excited about it and he thought others were too. Did his message get construed because the emotion wasn’t there? Of course we think there is emotion attached to our text. There was a smiley face and emoticons, but is this really enough? Does that replace emotions? A person might text something meant to be funny but not have it received as such. Another element is body language. When a person speaks we can tell alto about the way they think or feel by the way they hold their body. Texting and social media does not allow for that. Convenience has changed the way we communicate. No longer do we write letters or talk to someone on the
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