Facebook

I was driving the other day, I have no idea where I was going which is completely irrelevant now but not being able to remember is going to bother me a lot. For the sake of giving myself a false sense of peace, I'll say I was heading to Buske's house.

Anyway, a commercial came on over the radio for a new cell phone. The fact that I actually listened to the commercial is shocking in itself, because I'm usually pretty quick on the preset trigger, but regardless of the reason, I heard the ad. A cell phone commercial is usually nothing special, however the focus of this one seemed rather strange to me.

Pretty much the only feature of phone which was highlighted on the commercial was how quickly this phone could get you to your facebook page. That's right, no talk about affordable pricing, or incredible area of service, no dropped calls or unlimited text messaging. Apparently the only thing this phone company wanted you to know about its product was its ability to keep you in close proximity to your favorite social network.

The funny thing about all this though, was that I didn't even think it was a bad ad. I mean, the thing genuinely had my attention. Rather than scoffing, and saying, what has this world come to or blah blah blah, insert your preferred elitist rant here, I was wondering, how much is this wonderful new phone? Now that is a pretty significant accomplishment but whatever marketing company put this commercial together, because I'm not even 100% sure this phone can actually make phone calls and I want it.

I think I know why too. About a year and a half ago, I was flying home from Houston and was sitting next to a rather attractive girl who was about my age. We started talking and spent most of the flight laughing and enjoying each other's company. It was one of the best flights I've ever had in my life because of the company I was in. So naturally, when we landed, I wanted to keep in touch with this girl, but instead of asking her for her phone number, I turned as I grabbed my carry-on and said, "Hey, can I add you on facebook?" The best part was, she didn't even skip a beat, she just agreed eagerly before we went our seperate ways.

Now maybe this is more a commentary on me than it is society in general, but apparently to some people like myself, a phone that can get me to facebook is a lot more useful than a phone that can make phone calls. Who knew?