Monday, December 28th, 2009
by Liya Endale
EA4C Guest Blogger

Life has a propensity to mold and transform us. There are more things which change in our lives than constants. Facebook has recently evolved into a new behemoth to me. I admit, its sudden take-over of this globe gives me great apprehension. It’s potentially an unchecked baby monster… like a gremlin before it touches water at midnight, or eats a cupcake in a full moon, or whatever it was they had to do to change into those relentless little devils. I will not delineate the mundane details of the possibilities I conjure up in my head… but just picture- hideous uniforms, bad ID pictures tattooed on foreheads and tomato wars on leap years… I know. Terrifying.

Perhaps I am externalizing an internal phenomenon. It may be that I am the one morphing into a new person and that I am using facebook as an agent of expression. When I first opened my account in 2005, I was still a senior in college. I had my life under tight control and knew exactly where I was going, who I needed, and who my friends were. (hahahahahaah.. .eh hem). Facebook was just a toy, not a tool. I would write my most outrageous thoughts and ideas out for my friendsto see. My friends list consisted of the semi-slackers that made up my social circles; those who were smart enough to succeed but used their wit more for entertainment than to plan and work through life. Today is a different day. First of all, the political and economic state of our country has jolted us Americans into a reality check; this lap of luxury was a much more precarious state than we were led to believe. As I’ve grown more aware of my surroundings, I’ve become more involved in publicly discussed ideas of more substance. But what really put the icing on the cake was when I saw a fan-club for my uncle in Ethiopia. Then, two of my other uncles and 2 aunts sent me friend requests. Whaaaa?! The world really IS on facebook now! I began to wonder who these 1,050 supposed friends of mine really were- and how many of them ‘facebook spy’ like I …eh hem… never do.

I accepted all of these friends but also did a full makeover of my entire account that took days. I had to change the WTF’s to ‘What in the World’s’ and substitute other colorful language with more intelligent speak. I couldn’t leave status updates about lude things such as farts on the elevator anymore. I couldn’t leave what I thought were hilarious comments on my friends’ pages about matters we shall not mention here… essentially- facebook forced me to grown up! I realize facebook is not for you and your friends anymore. It’s for the whole world.

I realize that the maturation of a soul comes with certain sacrifices. I’ll have to find other avenues to truly express my world-views now. In the mean time, I’ll keep editing my profile and refuse to take a picture in public with a martini in my hand.

This blog submission was written by Liya Endale.  The views of guest bloggers are not the views of Ethiopian-Americans for Change.  Guest bloggers represent the broad dissection of views and outlooks within our community.