Generation Why Analysis

In “Generation Why?” article from The New York Review of Books, Zade Smith pointed out the software are changing our humanities. Facebook is providing the “weak, superficial connections” (650). On the social networking software, “Gay kids became un-gay, partiers took down their party photos, political firebrands put out their fire” (651), users can hide themselves by editing their information and utilizing the privacy setting. The Generation Facebook is obsessed with “the vision of good life” (648), we add strangers as friends to be “popular” and post pictures to gain the “Like”. The internet where this generation living in is “falsely jolly, fake-friendly, self-promoting, slickly disingenuous” (652). We change ourselves to be like everybody else, mimicking others on
Rather than enhancing well-being…it may undermine it” (729). We constantly refreshing the Facebook feed to see the latest status and events of our friends. When we see there is an event that our friends hanging out with each other, we felt left out and lonely. When we post a picture, we want more like to perceive popularity. As we see friends’ pictures of “the vision of good life” (648), we compared ourselves and felt bad. Although Facebook helps everyone to connect with people and share information (650), the quality of social connection that we needed is undermined. We should have more direct social interaction to fill our life with truly jolly and true-friendly, instead of with “falsely jolly, fake-friendly…” (652) online. The emotions associated with Facebook may be the only way distinguish a “person” and the “database”