Scott Brown Essay Analysis

In his essay, “Facebook Friendonomics,” Scott Brown analyzes the “economy of friends” on social media and observes the unnatural condition of friendships found there. He makes the point that the ability to perpetually be “friends” with everyone you meet causes the idea of friendship-and the friends themselves-to lose value as the amount of friends increases, just as money in real-world economics loses value as more dollars are printed. Overall, Brown writes to show his audience the hazardous effects of “Friending” on one’s social interactions, pointing out that Friending on social media violates the natural process of “losing touch” with friends that ordinarily allows people to grow and change during their lifetime.

To illustrate his point, Brown uses parallelism to connect the feeling of dehumanization found in social media friends to the content of his essay. When discussing his Facebook Friend roster, Brown states, “They’re all there: elementary school friends, high school friends, college friends, work friends, friends of friends, friends of ex-girlfriends…” Brown repeats the same general structure between phrases, reflecting the idea that all of these “friends,” despite being unique individuals from different backgrounds and environments, are all lumped together under one category, having no inherent value to the speaker other than the fact that they are “friends.” As a result, Brown’s utilization of parallelism excellently demonstrates how Friending on social media diminishes the value of friends as individual beings.

Personally, I find that Brown’s analysis of the state of social media bears a heavy truth to it. Although I personally do not use social media, I do use a variety of programs that contain the functionality of “friends lists;” therefore, I know exactly what Brown is talking about when he speaks of friends as collectibles or objects that hold little value as individuals. To me, these “friends” are often just names I see on the side of my screen when I log in to a program or service, and I hold little regard for most of them. I also agree with Brown’s statements on the natural process of “losing touch” with friends. As an introvert, I have found that I often lose touch with others if I do not interact with them in the real world on a regular basis; out of all the friends I’ve had over the years, there are hardly a few whom I have not lost touch with as a result of distance or differing interests. To try to hold on to these friends through social media would be unnatural, since I would inevitably grow so distant from them that I would hardly be able to relate with them anymore; how could I call them my “friends” then? Therefore, I agree wholeheartedly with the points made in Brown’s essay; in addition, I believe it is better to focus on friends who have an immediate impact in my life, for it is better to have a few strong friends than a multitude of strangers.