Going Through A Ph(r)ase

We all use Facebook and yet most of us loath it. It has become the ultimate in procrastination, distraction and self-absorption. For some, it represents everything that is wrong with our society – encouraging you to connect with “friends” by following their lives without any need to actually interact. We can all lead our individual lives and construct our own representations of our reality, for everyone to see.

In short, through its faux friendships, Facebook encourages us to “share” our experiences without any actual interaction. And by appealing to our insatiable need to know everything that is going on, and luring us into its world of status updates, it actually prevents real social interaction. Finding out about other people’s lives via Facebook has replaced conversation. After all, when people describe their days down to the food that they ate for tea, what is there left to talk about?

As if this weren’t enough, Facebook also has the power to affect the mood. People can write what they like in their status updates – their status is their chance to express themselves. But, in my experience, these status updates are increasingly being used to seek sympathy, to gain attention and to express negativity. In the age of the smart phone, many of us begin our days by checking our Facebook news feeds. When these are full of comments about what a terrible day yesterday was, about how stressed people are and blatant attempts to get attention and sympathy, it tends to put a dampener on your day.

This is one of my many issues with Facebook, and it is one of the few that we can address – to help make Facebook a force for good. In order to achieve this, I believe that we need a kind of Moral Code for Facebook.

Now at this point, you may question what morality has to do with Facebook. But I believe that the moral philosophy espoused by Immanuel Kant can shed light on this issue and can help us to make Facebook a positive force, rather than a vehicle for social insularity and negativity.

Immanuel Kant was a moral philosopher, and one of his main theses is that of the categorical imperative. Kant believed that it is possible to use the power of reason alone to determine whether an action is moral or not. Put simply, when considering whether an action is right, we need only to imagine what the consequence would be if everyone did that action: “Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law.” Thus, in short, murder is wrong, because if it were a universal law, we would all die; theft is wrong, because if it were adopted on a mass scale, it would lead to the breakdown of society. This way of thinking is comparable to the so-called Golden Rule: treat others as you yourself would wish to be treated.

One of Facebook’s main problems is that it encourages its users to think from a very egocentric point of view. The emphasis is always on the user – they get to write what they like, without fear of it being taken the wrong way. After all, comments from others can always be deleted; “friends” can always be blocked.

The central point of the Facebook Moral Code, then, is that it should not be about you, the individual. Facebook presents us with a fantastic tool for influencing the mood of others. We can use Facebook to brighten each other’s days, to make each other smile and to spread positivity.

Here let me note that it would obviously be preferable for us to do this by socialising in the physical world, rather than the virtual, but as Facebook has become such as integral part of our lives, establishing its place in our daily routines, that may be a bridge too far at present. Instead, I am calling for a new way of using Facebook – one that will bring some good rather than spreading feelings of misery and stress and the general impression that everything is terrible.

My theory is thus: Just as someone writing how depressed they are feeling can make everyone reading it feel glum themselves – either as a result of realising that they are in the same boat, or as a feeling of guilt for not doing anything to help or, worse, not being bothered – so writing something positive can make the people reading it feel better about themselves.

And so, my plea to you, dear Facebook users, is as follows: No longer see Facebook as a place to list your deficiencies, to complain about your hideous jobs, to list your multitude of woes. When updating your status, think before you press enter: What effect will this have on others? Will my writing this bring any benefit to my “friends”? Will it make them feel better or worse? And, if you find yourself answering the latter, delete it. If you need to express it somewhere, buy a diary. Write only what you feel will have a positive effect on others. Be a good “friend” in the true sense of the word.

Let us use Facebook to make life brighter, to uplift our friends and acquaintances, rather than to drag them down. If Kant were alive today, I like to think that he might have included a Moral Code for Facebook in his dull and overcomplicated, yet ultimately enlightening, Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals. And I believe it would have read as follows: “Write only that which you would wish to read yourself.”

So, next time you are on Facebook, try following the Facebook Moral Code. Facebook is a powerful tool. Instead of using it to satisfy our own egos and seek the sympathy of others, let us use it for the benefit of our “friends”, and do our bit to add just a little bit of sunshine to their lives.