Facebook: our portal to a vast and intensely accessible social universe. Like going outside, but without the cold and having to deal with all that complicated “interacting” and “talking” nonsense. Can this really be a good substitute for general social interaction, asks Jacques Tsiantar.

Studies into why people feel the need to decorate the internet with just about anything they can procure out of their lives have shown that a lot of it has to do with self-esteem issues.

Don’t get me wrong, we’re all dependent on Facebook’s ability to organise people and publicise, and it’s a betterway to store photos than some dusty old albums (though nobody actually wants to see that picture of you lying naked in your own vomit) but when it comes to actually socialising I find it to be rather lacklustre and mildly annoying.

If I want to talk to someone I’ll text them. If I want to know about what they’re eating, who they’re eating it with, then I’ll just open my news feed.

Studies in Sweden show a significant relationship between Facebook usage and how content one might feel with one’s own life. Constantly seeing others’ endeavours pasted on the news feed will probably create the need to join in.

I think I’m safe in saying that the only person who really wants to know about all this is the poster. Like a trophy cabinet, Facebook is littered with indicators of how social we are, taking pictures of just about anything on a night out and how opinionated we can be with our posts subtly directed towards other people, and I quote, “ughh hate her”. Yeah, that’s a real status, followed with the whole “long story bbz, don’t even ask”. Inspiring.

These attempts to showcase our personality to the nth degree tie in with the desire of self actualisation so it’s easy to see why we do it, but I also feel like Facebook is turning us into the most narcissistic generation yet.

We create this dynamic and formidable internet self, but in the real world nobody wants to know. So do us all a favour and think before you paste all this self-absorbed rubbish in every nook and cranny you can find, apart from the ears of the person towards which it is intended (U kno who u are).