Why we forgive Facebook
Facebook often acts like a bad friend. We’re never quite sure we stand with them. One day they’re making life awesome, the next day they’re telling our secrets to people we don’t want to know. Telling us to pay attention to our privacy settings is like a friend that tells everyone who you made out with last night because you didn’t expressly tell them not to tell anyone. They win on a technicality.
But that’s not why we forgive Facebook or why we think of it as a friend. Or why Mark Zuckerberg can probably get as much action as that vampire dude from Twilight.
We forgive Facebook because of our biology. Specifically because of a hormone called oxytocin. You can read my buddy Dr. Paul Zak’s site for more information about that. In Marvel comics terms, it’s a chemical our brain releases that makes us trust and like each other. Getting a back massage will release it. Having sex will release it. Thinking about people you love can trigger it. Looking at photos of your friends can trigger it. And there you have it: Every time you go to Facebook your body is flooded with this love hormone. By proxy, we love Facebook.
Don’t blame Facebook, blame your biology. If we weren’t addicted to this hormone we’d be able to face up to Facebook like a clearheaded reptile and tell it to stop, or eat it’s young, or whatever animals that don’t have oxytocin receptors do when they’re upset. Instead, we do what every other primate does, screech a bit, bare our teeth and then hug and make-up.
Andrew Mayne is founder of Blurbtastic.com and publisher of WeirdThings.com. His personal website can be found at AndrewMayne.com.
