How Facebook is ruining humanity...or so some believe

   Note to all Facebook users: we are "either totally conceited or serious self-haters."

   Or so says a Sept. 2010 article titled "Facebook users are jerks, another study confirms" from MSNBC's technology blog, Technolog. 

   "Just this week we learned that Facebook use can lower grades by 20 percent," the article read. "That's the latest on a list of studies that includes how Facebook can cause health problems, destroy future job opportunities, whip up jealousy and blah blah blah. And now, here's another one that tells us Facebook users are either totally conceited or serious self-haters."  
   I think you can tell that Helen Popkin, the author, is somewhat sarcastic in her tone. But those are some pretty serious accusations to levy against the world's most popular social networking site, and maybe the most influential communication tool of our generation — except for the cell phone...but you can even get Facebook on a cell phone now.
   I have no idea what health problems are alluded to in the article or studies, but I can definitely see the negative effects the site could have for future employment. 
   People forget when they are uploading pictures of themselves and their friends during last weekend's drunken debauchery, that regardless of how funny — or gross — it is to stick your tongue down someone's throat while a friend snaps a pic of the sweaty mess, those pictures can be seen by pretty much everyone and are out there forever. No employer wants a trashy employee...unless you own a strip club.
   Another article, from the Los Angeles Times, said that girls who use Facebook as a public photo album detailing every moment — significant or not — in the their lives, "assert their self worth via their physical appearance."
   That should come as no surprise to anyone.
   But the thing that really grabbed my attention was a line near the end of the article quoting the lead author of the study, Michael A. Stefanone.
   He said that girls who do this, post thousands of pictures of themselves, do it "as a form of advertisement." 
   Stefanone implies that they are advertising their bodies, rather than themselves, to anyone and everyone who will look, push the "like" button or even post a comment to perpetuate their heightened self-opinion.
   To sum up, I think I've thoroughly proved the narcissism angle, but what about the other half of heavy Facebookers, those self-deprecating users.

  Well, apparently they are one and the same. 

  Popkin's article states other findings from the study: 

• The more extreme the narcissism, the more time spent checking Facebook.
• The more extreme the self-loathing, the more time spent checking Facebook.

   So, Facebook is responsible for not only perpetuating narcissism but also self-loathing. And thus ruining humanity...but we can't help ourselves can we, regardless of how it makes us feel.
  Friend me! 

Articles used in this post:
-http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/09/09/5077830-facebook-users-are-jerks-another-study-confirms
-http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-facebook-vanity-20110310,0,464632.story

Movie Review: Damon's new flick is more romance than sci-fi thriller

   If you are expecting heart-thumping action — along the lines of "Green Zone" or the Bourne trilogy — from Matt Damon's newest flick, "The Adjustment Bureau," then you might want to take your significant other. All you'll find is heart-thumping romance.

   Not one shot is fired.

   In fact, there are no guns at all.

   Actually, there is no violence to speak of...well, Damon does throw two punches. A well-timed right hook levels one guy, while the other jab barely fazes 75-year-old Terence Stamp...but he did have it coming.

   Ill-fated Senate-hopeful David Norris (Damon) finds the love of his life in Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt), a sassy contemporary ballet dancer. But their romance is not part of the "plan," which is micromanaged by a team of omnipresent, fedora-clad adjusters.

   The characters' fateful meeting in the men's room of the Waldorf-Astoria — where they share their first completely random and ill-timed kiss — conflicts with their ability to follow their dreams.

   The adjusters tell Norris that he cannot see her again, although they can’t tell him why — only the “chairman” knows.

   Norris, destined to become President of the United States, and Sellas, one of the world's foremost dancers, are drawn to each other by instances of chance and coincidence, which cannot be foreseen nor adjusted. So they fall deeper into love as the movie continues and try to change their diverging paths.

   The archaic duel between fate and freewill determines the entire angst of the one hour, 39 minute drama.

  The empathizing and compassionate adjuster Harry Mitchell, played by Anthony Mackie, sums up the movie’s message when he tells Damon that only when one challenges fate can he truly have freewill.

  But alas, we know how it ends.

  Love conquers all and freewill trumps the "plan."

  But that can't be it right...Maybe it's the pessimist in me, but they should, at the very least, fall short of their lofty goals. However, the movie doesn't even venture to answer those questions. The characters simply end up happily together.

  Although the movie lacks Damon’s usual he-man vigor, it is suspenseful and surprisingly a sweet love story. Blunt embodies the ballsy ballerina beautifully, and eloquently, and Damon’s hopeless romance is every girls dream. While their on-screen chemistry gels into delightful, witty banter (Damon has always excelled at banter), the couples final kiss is even more awkward than their first.

  Screenwriter and director, George Nolfi, underplays the complexity of the sci-fi thriller advertised and many questions go unexplained.

I give it a C+. I wouldn't buy it, but I wouldn't turn away if it came on cable.

A love story in six words or less

SMITH Magazine challenges people to post six-word memoirs summing up their life in six words or less. This particular topic involves people's love stories.

Here are some of my favorites:

-Love hurts. Choose vodka or Valium.
-You lost me at hello “ma’am.”
-Life’s like chocolates. Picked, processed, pooped.
-Hearts clubbed by diamonds in spades.
-My mom never liked you anyway.
-Make love in garden. Encourage fertility.
-Went for cherries, found my wife.
-In lieu of you, chocolates do.
-Another chapter in her pulp fiction.
-Passion, fireworks, good loving. He's gay.
-The cure: wear red lipstick tomorrow.
-He's a trapdoor I'm falling through.
-He's finally gone. Must update Facebook.
To see more, visit: http://www.smithmag.net/sixword-love/memoirs.php

Some are happily-ever-after kind of loves....some are not...some are funny...and some, like mine I suppose are still in progress....
What is yours?