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First there was the iPod. We liked it. Then there was the iPod Nano. We liked it more. Now there is the iPad. And it’s overkill.
The sentiment is similar for social networking Web sites. There was Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and now Formspring.
Formspring.me is set up very simply: Users with an account have a page where anyone can submit a question to them, and answers to those questions are displayed below. However, with the option of anonymity the Web site offers, such is often not the case.
Formspring is used as much to insult, confront and gossip about others as it is to simply ask questions. Being anonymous gives people a sense of power that they automatically feel the need to abuse.
Now they can say absolutely anything and get away with it. Furthermore, people tend to say things they would never say to someone in person. Admittedly, formspring.me has also been used to compliment others, or to confess admiration or a crush, but these messages are the minority.
However, what Formspring really does is make us feel important. People want to know about us. People want to know what kind of makeup we wear, how many people we’ve kissed and what we want to do after college.
These questions not only give us the feeling that people care about the innermost details of our lives, but they also somehow validate the actions themselves. We don’t have to feel guilty about wearing make up or how many people we’ve kissed, because if other people are interested then it must be OK. Formspring is exactly what we crave — confirmation that what we do and what we think matters.
Though the Formspring craze has died down at Ramstein High School, it certainly made a lasting impression. At the peak of the site’s popularity, RHS gossip sites began popping up, with the anonymous creators leaving accusatory and degrading remarks on the sites of other students.
Actually a form of cyber bullying, these Web sites never seemed to last long; however, in Long Island, N.Y., Formspring has been linked to the suicide of 17-year-old Aexis Pilkington, who was severely bullied online through the Web site. Though this care is extreme and stands alone for now, it shows the dangers associated with the veil of anonymity that the Internet provides.
What exactly does this say about our generation, “the millenials?” We are the kids who played learning games on the computer, who had Game Boys, who owned our first CD player at age 10; we’ve always had technology in our lives, and naturally have come to depend on it. We use the computer for our homework, our cell phones to text our parents, instant messaging to chat with our friends — that is simply the way we’ve grown up. Therefore, it shouldn’t be too surprising that one of our main forms of self-expression is through technology.
Whether it’s Twittering or updating our Facebooks about the latest events in our lives, technology is how we’ve been taught to communicate and, consequently, how we feel most comfortable communicating.
As a result, Formspring.me is seen by many as an opportunity to express the good, bad and ugly thoughts and questions they’ve had about others, for there is finally a technology that prevents the possibility of confrontation and allows us to ask people we barely know about the intimate details of their lives. Generations before us most likely would have carried out everything in person, or simply done nothing at all. But for the millenials, where there’s technology, there’s a way.
I won’t lie — I have a Formspring, too. It’s a (very entertaining) guilty pleasure. However, the first step toward recovery is admitting you have a problem, right? So can you admit to yours?
