How Facebook Has Ruined the House Party

When parents think of 'house party' and Facebook in the same sentence, they automatically picture this: 

Or this:

and they remember those Daily Mail articles where Timmy advertised his party on Facebook and the next thing they knew, they had £300,000 of damage and an arrested son. Well, I want to argue that although the Daily Mail may think Facebook gets a party started, perhaps it’s causing a whole new level of apathy as well. 

With the invention of Facebook Events, it seems that the necessity for a reliable RSVP has diminished. We no longer require a calendar or even a memory; we just pop onto Facebook and see if we fancy the event happening that evening, causing us to plan our social lives far more spontaneously. Clicking ‘yes’ on an event has become more a recognition of it happening rather than an affirmation of attendance. Gone are the personalised text messages or even the more civilised phone call, in fact gone is any direct communication at all. Create event, invite friends, enter.   

Now this is all fine and dandy if you’re relaxed about the outcome of your party, but it seems to me that you have to invite four times as many people as you actually want to turn up. Now that sounds rather different to Timmy and his cheese and crackers evening. Whereas in the past you would invite 10 on Facebook and 100 would show up, arguably now it needs to be the other way around. Although that may be comforting for parents, I would argue that Facebook is ruining the student necessity that is the 'house party'.  

Our Materialistic Must Haves

Image: BestStuff.com

I recently made the typical student blunder of losing my phone in a dingy night club in Bristol. Luckily I had a programme turned on that allowed my computer to find my phone and then make it make a very loud and annoying sound, much to the hungover Reps displeasure the following morning. Although I was only phoneless for less than a day, I genuinely struggled with being out of touch with the world around me, despite the fact that the world survived perfectly happily without my communicating with it. So here are a few of the things that we have become increasingly addicted to that don’t necessarily improve our lives as much as we might think…

All things phones. From checking a quick fact online to forgetting someone’s name and then checking it on Facebook, we can’t get enough of our on-the-go info. Constantly argued by the less technological generation is whether or not this is going to have a profound effect on our memories. Coming from someone with terrible information-retaining skills, it is certainly not helping.

Online TV. One of my friends came up with a very inventive necessity to give up for lent last year: iPlayer. Although we don’t spend every 5 minutes on iPlayer/4oD/SideReel- we do spend a disproportionate amount compared to our parents. The act of lying in bed watching a movie or American sitcom before nodding off is hugely recognisable to our generation. Whereas our parents would spend the hour before blissful sleep reading a mind-enhancing novel, we seem to spend it catching up on Take Me Out or learning the new vocabulary of TOWIE. 

Computers. It would be impossible for a student to do all the studenty things they need to do without some sort of computational device. Essays are ‘handed in’ online, events are organised on Facebook and timetables are only issued electronically. The question therefore has to be put forward as to whether we are being forced to become addicted to our devices, even if we didn’t have a tendency to do so before. Either way, we spend most of our day attached to these things, but I suppose I don’t mind too much considering you’re currently using yours to read my blog.