The Ins and Outs of Facebook Stalking

I have been working on a post concerning how awesome Chloe Sullivan from Smallville is, but as I love her with a dedication that is disturbing to those unused to parasocial relating, I haven't been able to write something that both adequately conveys how important she is to me and doesn't sound like I'm a really, really disturbed person.

So while the perfect ode to Chloe eludes me, I can still say a word or two about Facebook stalking. Because I'm guilty of it. ALOT.

I've actually only had Facebook for a few months. But I've discovered that stalking people on Facebook is very close to parasocial relating. Just for clarity, my definition of Facebook stalking is checking their Wall regularly as opposed to intermittently and exploring their photo albums quite throughly.

People put their lives on their facebook pages. By looking at their pictures you can be dropped into the middle of a party, wedding or ordinary day of their life. I don't know about anyone else, but for me it's actually a little creepy when I pull back and think about it. I have access to the lives of people I would otherewise only see one side of. In the Social Network, the Sean Parker says "We lived on farms, then we lived in cities, and now we're going to live on the internet!" And by golly that was correct. I can find out quite a lot about someone without even asking. It's not a bad thing, but it is a jolt in one's way of life. No one needs to ask me what kind of music I like because they can just look on my Facebook page.

Whatever happened to talking? I sound like a Grandma, but that doesn't invalidate my point. I will meet someone in a lecture or the like, and we get along, so they look me up on Facebook. And I check their page once we're Facebook-friends. I can learn about them before I even see them again. I am, in affect, relating parasocially with the version of themselves they put on Facebook.

So that's what I've been thinking about lately. I'm not giving up Facebook though, it's far too useful. In other news I have gotten stuck in the can't-stop-thinking-about-them stage of liking someone and it's really annoying me. I let myself do this kind of thing in High School because it's the National Pastime of High School but now I am an adult and I should not have to deal with this!!! My patheticness knows no bounds but that's not news to me. If anyone ever comes up with a cure for hopeless romanticism they're going to be a BILLIONAIRE.