I thought it would be appropriate to write an article on my birthday.  Of course, it will deal with social issues, environmental issues, and political issues that plague our society.  I’ll stay true to connecting the dots between multiple parts of our world to show the root of the problem.  And I’ll keep it to less than two pages.  But what can I write about that also pays homage to the fact that on this day, I entered the world and began to experience the dichotomy of the real world (Nature) and our real world, (Society) expressing themselves on me to create this problem citizen of Earth most of you refer to as Ali.

Today I cancelled my FaceBook account.  I only recently opened it.  I have always been against social networking on the internet.  I consider the internet to be one of the more important creations of humanity.  A network that connects the consciousness of all humans real time.  There is excellent article written by one of my friends Matt describing his theory on the Information Technology and how it will impact our consciousness.  The origins of the internet were for that reason.  Before the days of Google, Yahoo, Netscape or even Internet Explorer, primitive access to an information only network of computers was delivered by project browsers like NCSA Mosaic.  The internet was pure information access.

But as time passed, our illness infested this creation too.  Marketing and commerce found it’s way into the net.  This changed the face of business as we know it.  I can admit that there have been some beneficial things that came to the world and to humanity.  Virtual stores like Nau have reduced their ecological footprint by having only virtual presence eliminating tons of CO2 emissions by removing the retail end of the store.  Packaging is reduced significantly since products sit in a warehouse and are shipped to the customer, rather than being shipped to the retail store first (which requires packaging) and then the customer purchases it at the retail location which requires a new kind of packaging.  Just think of what kind of packaging your clothing is sent to the store from the manufacturer versus what kind of packaging your retailer sells it to you in?

So the internet, despite it being hijacked by commerce, has helped advanced and improve things.  But consistent with the trend in our current societal evolution, individualism, hyper-individualism and lack of community continue to grow.  Once again the internet comes to the rescue.

Enter... The Social Network.  A brilliant idea that allows people to have a virtual presence on the internet.  Giving them the ability to have a custom location in the virtual world of binary code we rely on so heavily today.  This concept has now decayed to an even sadder form of virtualization of reality called Second Life.  If you haven’t seen or heard of this unfortunate monstrosity, consider yourself lucky.

Second Life is a site where you create a virtual self and that “Avatar” has a job, a home, and earns “Linden Dollars” which can be spent in this virtual Second Life world.  The sad part is that the monetary value of this fake world, it tied to real money.  That is you buy Linden Dollars with real dollars on a credit card.  Then you use that money to buy virtual land, virtual houses, or even virtual businesses in this very real virtual world illusion.  So people are giving real money (which is really not real, read my Federal Reserve articles to see why) to buy virtual money.  Now I really have to say... Are you fucking kidding me?

Human beings have become such distant animals from one another that they have created and participate in a fake world and live a fake life which in turn let’s them cope with their real lives?  Where is this going to stop? 

So sites like MySpace and FaceBook blossomed with the new generation of lost and lonely teens.  Individual pages on these sites got more detailed, and colorful.  Profiles with minute by minute status updates, letting everyone know what your are up to in YOUR life.  Pictures galore, tags, instant messaging, virtual hugs, and virtual anything else you can image.  Just to keep you plugged in for the next step...

What next step?  This one.  You see, none of these sites are really trying to be true to their original ideology.  Take FaceBook for instance.  I thought it was cool that this little kid CEO decided to dominate the industry with a mix of humble ideology and aggressive internet business tactics.  If you watch these videos (it has two parts) below, and you will understand what I mean.

But now, the tune has changed.  FaceBook is selling information, advertising and using your face to market a product you bought to your friends.  They call it an endorsement, but really, what is happening is information is being collected about your spending habits and then being used to market to your friends online.  This goes against the very grain of what this site was started for.  A simple location that allowed friends to have a portal to one another when they were far away, or separated because of work etc.  Mark  Zuckerberg even admits to this in the interview.

What’s even more ironic is now there are reports of universities using FaceBook profiles in consideration of applicants for college entrance.  This really cracks me up!  The students who have pictures of their partying habits with their friends, and then “pad” their college entrance applications with grand stories of community work and being a picture perfect student are being called out on their shit!  All because they couldn’t figure out that friendship on the internet is not the same as friendship in real life.

Nothing in the binary world can replace real life.  That is because once you unplug the computer, it’s all gone.  Period.  Life however goes on, until a bigger plug is pulled... the Sun.

What does any of this have to do with my birthday and my “relevant” birthday article?  On the day of my birth, I thought it would be appropriate to eliminate one more useless conditioned and detrimental habit or behavior that I engage in that contributes partly to the slow demise of our world.  Just like when I got rid of my TV, or stopped eating meat, or decided to ride my bike to work whenever possible; I closed my FaceBook account.

I think if we’re spending even 3 seconds to type in a new status on our cellphones to update our FaceBook page on what we are doing right now... we need help!  Although I opened an account to connect with fellow riders in biking groups I ride with, I soon realized that I quickly built a list of friends.  And I had to manage their emails, and IMs and all sorts of other silly software trinkets that weren’t real, but were being sent to my page?  Managing my FaceBook account become one more, little piece of the puzzle taking me away from the actual world we live and interact in. 

And being that I am a person the believes in being resolute, the current position FaceBook is taking is something that conflicts with my ethics.  So I closed it. 

This site is no different.  I write articles to share my thoughts with friends, friends of friends, and strangers who may stumble upon it.  But as my readership grows, and I sold out the concept of this site to make money on you, and the site is about consumerism gone bad... there is a flaw in my philosophy.  So in essence, I can promise you all that this site will never have any ads and never use you to it’s benefit.