There’s Facebookery Afoot!

    I am a member of the Millennial Generation (you may know us as Generation Y, but I really can't stand that label because it implies some nonspecific connection to Generation X and you won't catch me using it). We, the Millennials, seem to be defined by social networking. I mean, The New York Times has a Facebook page and cable news channels read people's opinions off of Twitter for crying out loud. I personally have a Facebook, a Twitter and a MySpace page (which I haven't laid eyes on in quite a while. I wonder, does it miss me?) and most of my friends do likewise.

    Recently I have been joking that I don't know what I ever did before Facebook. My Twitter page is of little significance to me although I check it pretty often, but I like to joke that I live on Facebook. Yet it was not always this way. I have not always had a Facebook profile, so what, exactly, did I do before?

    I know I must have filled my time with something, but what? It wasn't until I gave this question real thought that I began to reconsider the amount of time I allocate to Facebookery. Before Facebook, I spent large amounts of time on the following:

• I read a lot. My friends used to tease that I had a different book every time they saw me.
  
• I wrote a hell of a lot more, and considering that writing is my passion, discovering that I have been Facebooking more than writing annoys me greatly.
  
• I drew, painted (a little…I don't quite have enough patience for painting) and collaged; all activities that I rarely engage in these days.
  

Part of the reason I spend less time doing these things is because I am a full time student and a member of an honors fraternity and a certain chunk of my time is inevitably allocated there, but I would be lying if I said Facebook had nothing to do with it. The realization that I have been spending the time I used to spend on these things on social networking sites irks me terribly. I'm not saying I'm going to delete my Facebook page. I just think maybe I should use it less. It's so easy to plop down in front of the computer and dick around on Ponzi or Pieces of Flare, but it might just be turning my brain to mush.

So, I have a couple of questions for my fellow Millennials. What did you do with your time before Facebook? Is it just me, or are we all spending entirely too much time online? Feel free to tell me in the form of a comment below, or keep it to yourself if you'd rather. I know you have a Facebook, because most of you will have seen this through the link I'm going to post there. There's no point denying it!