The Wonderful World Of Facebook

Facebook.
It's an understatement to say that it's part of out culture. We all have our Facebook superiority complexes. We all like to compare our friends, and we've even see employers look at Facebook pages to determine whether you'll be hired or not. South Park looks at Facebook in depth by taking the world of Facebook and making it a separate entity, underlying the physical world we live in. South Park creates this idea that Facebook has developed this idea of a dual reality in the modern world.

Though Facebook, we develop a second personality, one that can be vastly different from your real personality. For example, in reality, someone might be a big partier, but in Facebook he/she appears to be innocent and conservative, because he/she monitors the pictures posted of her, and the comments she makes while online. Sure, all of her friends know who she really is, but through Facebook she might be able to hide her real life from her parents, relatives, employers, etc.

A second type of personality found on Facebook is the person who posts every picture, every party, every event they're attending to make themselves look cooler. These people are searching for popularity and recognition they can't ultimately find in their own lives.

South Park's portrayal of Facebook, and the Facebook culture addresses the idea of "friends" in a way which everyone can relate to. This episode really addresses the idea of friends versus Facebook friends. Should there be a difference? Obviously, yes! The one thing many Facebook users don't realize is just because you're friends with someone on Facebook doesn't mean you can treat them like friends in real life. Sure you can be nice to them, but you can't do things like make fun of each other or have deep conversations with each other like you can with a real friend. Sure you can like someone's status or post something on their wall, but living out a Facebook friendship, in no way involves living out a friendship in real life.

I've been waiting for this issue to be addressed by an outlet like South Park. Many of South Parks viewers are Facebook users, as such I feel as South Park made a strong statement as to how Facebook can get a bit ridiculous and carried away.