STAFF EDITORIAL

The Voice of California High School

High schoolers, as highly sensitive to peer pressure as they are, are constantly trying to protect their image and seem popular.  Because of this perpetual pressure, many used to see home as they place where they could be themselves, free of all the problems and drama  of high school life.

But because today’s popularization of social networking sites liike Facebook, it doesn’t seem possible to escape this popularity contest anywhere.

Birthdays, photos, videos, relationship status, events attending, anything one person might want to know about another can now be found with just a click of a button thanks to Facebook.

When the website was founded, only college students were allowed to use it with the purpose for students on campus to connect with each other. Today, anyone can join, which has led to almost every preteen and teenager having a Facebook account.

With so many people, and the vast amount of things that can be seen and posted, it is not hard to see why the original intent of the site has transformed into something not so positive.

From being a forum for users to reconnect with friends who they couldn’t meet on an everyday basis, the site has become nothing but an extended version of teenagers trying to improve their images to their fellow peers that happens on a daily basis at school.

The site has been reduced to but a medium where users compete to see who has the prettier profile picture, whose status can get the most likes,  who gets the most birthday wishes, and who has the most friends. It’s an online popularity contest.

In recent times where statuses such as “Like my status and I’ll tell you what I think of you,” have become the norm, and people have 874 “friends” (200 of whom they’ve met only once and will probably never see again) it is not hard to see why Facebook can spur seemingly endless drama.

And in a world where “Facebook” has become part of the dictionary, it seems that if you are not involved in this social networking frenzy, you might as well be a social outcast.