dot. e d u

Remember when Facebook was more about being a college student than it was just.... being?

It was that one other thing besides your college acceptance letter that validated your newfound place in the world. It symbolized a new milestone for people in our generation because it meant that we had graduated from high school, had become adults, and were allowed past doors otherwise ordinary people wouldn't be allowed through.

At that time, our new university student email address something@something.edu was the only possible way we could sign up for this strikingly plain-looking blue and white colored webpage we had caught our older siblings and their friends browsing on their laptops or desktops.

Fast forward several years later and here we are... accepting and/or ignoring friend requests from people who are blatantly unaware of the origins of this internet phenomenon: people who are too young to be accessing the internet, and people that really have no business being there e.g., our parents.

The exclusivity is gone... only just a memory for Facebook old timers. Also only a memory? "The facebook guy".

It makes you wonder: how much further is Mark Zuckerberg going to take Facebook? How much longer are we going to be a part of this? Good for him and how widely he'd expanded his company. But the world is so connected via the internet nowadays, that perhaps the only other option now is to disconnect. 

On a surprising turn of events, however, with the release of David Fincher's 'The Social Network' people like myself that have debated deactivating facebook (only to reactivate it again) find themselves reminded of the fact that WE as a people, as THOSE first million college students, contributed to Facebook's success. Success that's warranted expansion, expansion that has spurred competition (Twitter, Tumblr etc) and mergers, works of literature (in praise or scathing), and more recently, a film. An engaging one at that... generating well-deserved Oscar buzz.

It's come full circle now. 

Sitting in that movie theater watching previews roll as movie patrons trickle in finding their seats, think about how these people have at some point accessed Facebook and how big of a deal this all really is.

I almost forgot. At this point, I'm torn between pride and awe AND disappointment and boredom. Well connected as we are, Facebook isn't as special as it used to be. 


Or maybe I'm just being a snob.