on interconnectedness

i'm in the midst of writing my roman legacy paper, well past due, and i shouldn't be writing anything except stitching together my sources (especially considering it is 2:25)...but here i am. my mind needs a break from discussing the characterization of janus and how his multiple and evolving iterations can analogously be applied to roman character and even to the christian trinity. my brain may melt out my ears if i go at this too long...or else my paper will sound like absolute rubbish - it is a give and take, i suppose.

i was facebook-surfing/stalking/what have you and i guess my thoughts are fixed into a certain analytical mindset currently. it is really interesting to see how you can boil down the characterization (en! there is that word characterization again. and yes, i just used a latin exclamatory in colloquial "discussion"...so sue me) of an individual or a group of friends by their facebook pages. i was reading a note a certain individual from my past had tagged a mutual friend in (on a creepy note, i am not facebook friends with this person from my past, yet if he tags one of our mutual friends in a note i suddenly have access to all of his notes and all of the ones he has been tagged in) and saw a familiar list of his friends and some of his new ones from school. and what did they all have in common? all of this pictures that appeal to their "spiritual" lifestyle and don't conform to the typical, egocentric composition of the typical default picture. inadvertantly, however, they are conforming by not conforming and you can instantly see why these new individuals are becoming a part of the circle - because they all cherish the same ideals!

it is as easy as that! in a few brief moments i was able to generalize that these individuals will have the exact same underlying philosophical views and lifestyle or perspective as the rest of the individuals in this group - it is their common thread, all unraveled through a simple glance at thumbnails next to a note on facebook that i shouldn't be able to read in the first place. the speed with which technology allows us to further our understanding, overgeneralize individuals or concepts, and even speculate on the interconnectedness of separate entities, whether those entities are individuals or even ideas, is mind-boggling.