Sherman Alexie's Critical Writing Style
As a contemporary America writer, Sherman Alexie has been famous for his critical writing style especially for the use of humor. A majority of his works evoke contemplations and sadness regarding the issues affecting the modern life. This trend is replicated in one of his poems "The Facebook Sonnet" where he points out at the satire and irony even in the title, particularly because it comes out as a stricture rather than the Facebook's ode. In fourteen line, of this modern sonnet, Alexie bluntly and perfectly explains Facebook. He employees a real and sarcastic tone to highlight the most awkward, worst, and best parts of the social networking. He describes Facebook as "the endless high-school reunion," then invites the readers to "undervalue and un-mend the present" (Alexie 1). He goes on to remind the addressees that through Facebook, they are busy "extending our childhood playing the games that preoccupy the young" (Alexie 1). The poem describes the culture of the 21st century in its most negative light by painting a picture of how Facebook takes so much away from the real world.
The Role of Facebook in Communication
To begin with, the poem mirrors Facebook as a technological development that opens up new ways to communicate, thus playing a critical role in the lives of people. The same sentiments are also shared by Christakis who states that through the social media "we are connected to everyone else by six degrees, and we can influence them up to three degrees... each of us can reach about halfway to everyone else on the planet" (Christakis 44). However, Alexie has a different perception over this phenomenon; he sees Facebook in the limelight of bringing back the past, "Welcome to past friends and lovers, however kind or cruel" (Alexie 1). He terms it as an "endless high-school reunion," and he is particularly correct because, on Facebook, even the forbidden schoolmates could add each other as a friend. Everyone from the past is brought on board the virtual friends, former friends and lovers, regardless of the nature of the relationship; one's life does not matter, what matters is just accepting everyone even the strangers. This negativity is also aired by Christakis who describes the social network as an appreciation of everyone for the reasons that it is very easy to change a person's reality through the screen hypocrisy whereby instead of long explanations, a person needs only to tap the 'accept' icon (Christakis 54). Whereas Alexie poem seems to question the value of false friends in real life, Christakis argues that it may have an effect on the lifestyle of one another, "because of our tendency to want what others want, and because of our inclination to see the choices of others as an efficient way to understand the world, our social networks can magnify what starts as an essentially random variation" (Christakis 64).
The Childish Nature of Facebook
The poem also claims that a lot of people utilize Facebook for childish things. For instance, actual or mental games through forward, or passive, violent remarks and statuses. Sherman claims that Facebook motivates individuals to be primitive by preoccupying the young and memorable activities, "Let's exhume, resume, and extend Childhood. Let's all play the games" (Alexie 1). Seemingly, Facebook serves as a platform used to re-attach oneself to the inner child. Adults escape everyday routine by playing original games online which makes them accomplish no advancement but retreat in their development by supporting their lives beginnings. Through the research Christakis, found out that this tendency is unknowingly transferred to other individuals within the network, "We discovered that if your friend's friend's friend gained weight, you gained weight. We discovered that if your friend's friend's friend stopped smoking, you stopped smoking. And we discovered that if your friend's friend's friend became happy, you became happy" (Christakis 78). The author affirms these findings by supposing that, "we rarely consider that everything we think, feel, do, or say can spread far beyond the people we know... In a kind of social chain reaction, we can be deeply affected by events we do not witness that happen to people we do not know. It is as if we can feel the pulse of the social world around us and respond to its persistent rhythms" (Christakis 78).
Fame, Shame, and Privacy on Facebook
Furthermore, Facebook is a way of sharing the most shameful and prideful moments, "Let fame and shame intertwine" (Alexie 1). Every thought or action a person has is open for all his or her "friends," it may be something of worth as what is for lunch or a less severe thing like religious and political beliefs of a person. People search for fame by posting photos and disgrace doing non-significant things in their lives through screen watching and according to Manago, et al., this has had a negative effect on the heightened experience of the self, "which has consequences for body image and sexual agency among women as well as men in body shame and sexual assertiveness" (Manago et al. 10). People expose their thoughts, intimacy, privacy and essential events for public scrutiny or assessment. Nothing is sacred even the worshiping place replaced by the computer-generated one, "Let one's search for God become public domain. Let church.com become our church" (Alexie 1). This tendency of sharing regrettable and risky items and experiences on Facebook has detrimental repercussions, "such pleasures, which are increasingly mediated by social networking sites, confound the notion that young women are haunted by inevitable regret and remorse" (Brown, and Melissa 360). The poet seemingly blames this tendency on the individuals being lonely, idle, no place to go, and no actual people to care about so they mug themselves by the creation of the impression of friendship in the fictitious world, "Let's sign up, sign in, and confess Here at the altar of loneliness" (Alexie 1).
The Negative Effects of Social Media
In summary, the poet brings out the negativity of social media through satire by showcasing how it drifts people from the real world to falsehood. After reading the poem, one will reevaluate his or her life, and he might be motivated by showing compassion to his family with no less self -forgoing than the computer. The poem leaves a sad feeling of the significant problem of the current life awareness that is coming from the poet analysis of innocent modern entertainment as a public network and reminds that everything in this life has its measures.
Works Cited
Alexie, Sherman. "The Facebook Sonnet." The New Yorker, 19 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/16/the-facebook-sonnet.
Brown, Rebecca, and Melissa Gregg. "The pedagogy of regret: Facebook, binge drinking and young women." Continuum 26.3 (2012): 357-369.
Christakis, Nicholas A. Connected: the amazing power of social networks and how they shape our lives., UK, 2010. Print.
Manago, Adriana M., et al. "Facebook involvement, objectified body consciousness, body shame, and sexual assertiveness in college women and men." Sex roles 72.1-2 (2015): 1-14.
