Reading Lanham's piece about "stuff and fluff" really got me thinking about my Facebook news feed and what would constitute as legitimate, useful "stuff" and what would be pointless "fluff" which serves as nothing as attention-seeking. What are we focusing on that we really shouldn't (and therefore enabling the posting of fluff) and how much are we ignoring the important stuff in our lives which actually means something significant. I decided to look at an eight hour period (8pm. - 2a.m.) of my Facebook news feed to keep track of the stuff (job postings, event updates, social causes, news stories vital to daily life, etc) versus the fluff (Instagram photos of food and pets, dramatic vague statuses, duck-faced selfshot photos, one word statuses, etc.).


My findings on the fluff (click on photo to enlarge):

My findings on the stuff (click on photo to enlarge):

Keep in mind that this was observed just on a Friday night from 8p.m. - 2a.m. Also note that there are currently no social campaigns being shared by my "friends". It would appear that we're turning into a culture more focused on the material, aesthetic parts of everyday life instead of the things that actually matter and can contribute to society. Our filters seem to have gone off-course with the advent of social media and our attention has diverted from the valuable to the pointless. Now this isn't to say that everyone on Facebook is like this and I admit that this is a small sample size, but it's still important to keep note of how our attitudes and attentions are changing.

Now please share this goat.