Facebook, The Mean Girls and Me

Citation: Brodesser-Akner, Taffy. "Facebook, The Mean Girl and Me." Dialogues: An Argument Rhetoric and Reader. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.

Summary: In this essay, Taffy Brodeser-Akner tells her own story about how in middle the girls she thought were her friends, turned on her and were horrible to her. Now in her 30's she is finding herself "facebook stalking" these same girls.

Quote: "I cobble together the story of how life has been since we knew each other, deliberately, forcefully forgetting how it was we parted."

Response: This story definitely hit home for me. Taffy's story was so sad to hear but parts of it were very relatable. Although with me it wasn't as drastic and horrible as Taffy's was, but I definitely can relate to her story.

I found myself throughout elementary school through high school in an insperatable clique of friends. This clique was the more I guess "popular" crowd. Once sophomore year of high school came, I began to find myself drifting away from this group. The girls that I once knew everything about and were best friends with, I was on a "hey how have you been" basis.

As Taffy explains about looking through her old friends profile, I found myself from time to time doing the same. I mean, everyone Facebook stalks, it's a known fact. But why was I so curious to see what they were up to? Facebook can honestly be crude and horrid sometimes. I know I can just unfriend these people but I feel as if Facebook has made it so hard to do that. Its so easy to just check in and see how they're doing.

Most of the time the smallest things on Facebook, whether it be a new Facebook album of an event you didn't go to or people commenting on something you weren't invited to, can really upset people. But why? Why are we so obsessed with knowing what is going on in other peoples lives. Why do we feel the need to constantly update people on our every move? Facebook has definitely changed our way of communicating and friendships. Although there are many positives to Facebook, it definitely has it's fair share of negatives as well.