I’ve noticed this trend lately with a few people that I know casually and are linked to my Facebook profile. It’s something I’ll call Social Harvesting since it’s not unique to FB but could also apply to Twitter, Netlog, etc.
The basic idea is that the harvester is so hooked into their social network and the positive mental tingles they get from that feedback loop that they will harvest every possible ounce of their life onto their social network as possible in a given day. For example if a harvester goes to a party their primary activity is not to meet interesting people or engage in conversation as much as it is to harvest pictures and facebook friends from the party that they can then use to feel better about themselves. You can observe this behavior by watching the account of someone you might know in real life. If every activity you observe is followed with an image upload to facebook or a tweet about ‘brushing teeth’ there’s a good chance you’ve met a social harvester.
These people are become extremely annoying to hang out with as they are constantly proposing inappropriate or boring photo-ops and then immediately tagging, broadcasting and posting on these boring events. They will often take pictures of themselves next to fancy cars or in the “coolest” place they can find even if they are just driving by to increase their perceived visibility and coolness among their friends.
I don’t have a lot of conclusions about what this does to these people except that my gut is that it makes their actual life a lot less interesting and probably points to some kind of insecurity or lack of accomplishment in the realm of reality. I think this behavior also cheapens real friendships and removes focus from actually getting real things done.
I love reading about what family and friends are up especially when people are actually doing cool stuff but there’s a line there and I think it’s easy to get carried away. If the number one thought that pops in your head when you’re somewhere is to post about it facebook or twitter I recommend that you take a short break and cherish some time with friends without turning it into a social media post.