A report by Oxygen Media and Light Speed Research earlier this summer explored young women's use of Facebook, suggesting that we're on it too much, we're obsessed with it, that it takes priority over going to the toilet and we'd be injecting it directly into our eyeballs if only we could.
It's not the suggestion that we spend too much time on Facebook that annoys me - we probably do - what gets to me is what we're always assumed to be using it for.
Two interesting points from the report include:
58% use Facebook to keep tabs on “frenemies” and,
49% of women believe it’s fine to keep tabs on a boyfriend by having access to his accounts.
I'm not going to lie and say that I haven’t done both of these things before, but it's not what I go on Facebook to do, and it certainly doesn’t rule my life.
You only have to have a quick Google around to see what the tabloids have to say about how Facebook is making women become addicted to online friendships or turning us into insecure narcissists.
These kinds of reports and the news stories that follow suggest we check Facebook hourly or more in the hope someone somewhere has messaged us, or tagged us in a flattering picture. Or that we're longingly staring at other pretty girls and ‘frenemies’ that we wished we looked like in a rage of hatred and jealousy. Or that we're constantly hitting refresh on our boyfriends' profiles just to make sure that random girl who used to text him hasn't left a comment. GIVE ME A BREAK!
What a bunch of dependent, narcissistic yet desperate losers we are. Why are we always painted out to be neurotic nobodies who are obsessed with what our boyfriends are doing when I'm pretty sure that this really isn't the case.
So, what do we use Facebook for if we're not using it to stalk the opposite sex?
Well I've had a strange realisation that I'm beginning to use it as a bit of a street style blog. Maybe it's due to the unrealistic images we see day in and day out in the media that I just don't have any faith in the miracle product modelled by someone with no substance who has been photoshopped to within an inch of her life.
I like to get inspiration from people who I know and who I know are real – which is why bloggers are perceived as more trusted than the media. And no I'm not a crazy stalker documenting a certain person's outfits or copying my best friend, I just find it much more worthwhile than looking at unachievable and unaffordable styles elsewhere. After all, companies often move into social media because they're told people trust people like themselves and this is the same kind of thing – e.g. I’m more likely to believe a make-up product recommendation from someone I know.
The media often paint a sad and pathetic image of how young women use social networks, when really we're making our own rules and using them how we choose.
I'd love to know what others think of this, do you stalk your boyfriend on Facebook, get style tips or not even use it at all?
Image via Mike Licht, Notion's Capital's Flickr