Discovering Who I Am

As I have discovered and become immersed in the world of facebook, I have been pleasantly surprised to find identity and authenticity as the foundation on which facebook’s success is built. Facebook is a social-networking site through which individuals stay connected to their family, friends and colleagues. What sets facebook apart from all the other online communities, like MySpace, is that misrepresentation of your real self is a violation of company policy.

Facebook.com’s mastermind, Mark Zuckerberg, identifies authenticity as a critical part of his vision for facebook. Through facebook, I can share as detailed a picture of my identity as I desire, but only with people whom I have given permission to access my profile. Unlike MySpace, facebook only allows individuals in my “friends list” to access my page and interact with me.

With 150,000 new users joining facebook every day, there must be something here that people are looking for. I think people are flocking to facebook because it is a portal through which their true self can be seen by others and through which they can get an authentic view into the lives of those they know. It is also a place where they can share information in a relevant way.

This trend is indicative of a hunger in our culture for realness. There is a desire for something more than prime-time TV sitcoms, airbrushed network news anchors and false realities generated by Hollywood graphic artists. We saw our first clue of this movement in all the “reality TV” programming over the last few years and, I believe, will continue to see this cultural move towards authenticity grow over the next decade.

See you on facebook!