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I totally agree. While we look for assurance and acceptance in every part of our life, Facebook has made it into a palpable experience in which people can count the number of people who supposedly "Like" their profile pictures and respond to their statuses. After reading this, I was reminded of a conversation I had recently with my 16-year-old sister when she made a snide comment about how her friend had little to no comments on her profile pictures on Facebook. She explained that if people don't immediately "Like" something she puts up, she takes it down. She struggled to acknowledge that rather than standing behind her own choices and preferences, she was ducking away from the quiet scrutiny of her peers before they had the chance to silently mock her by witholding their compliments and praise.
In an environment where acceptance can be counted and calculated, this search for "meaning" has become incredibly complicated. Just as hlehman titled her post above, we are "plagued for a sense of meaning." In a really broad sense, I feel like peer pressure, pop culture, and our own self-hating ways are our modern day plague. While Facebook may not last forever, a new, more innovative idea will emerge. And just like the rats, these fads fade, but return in new forms, ready to strike again.