Need for the Feed

I was reading The New York Times Magazine tonight and there was an article talking about facebook and I found it surprisingly interesting to read four pages of someone disecting the phenomenon of digital relationships that make up our generation's social agenda. It's a topic I know because I live in it, but usually in order to truly understand something you have to look on it from the other side of the window. One point in particular that the article spoke of was our obsession with the newsfeed, and how not only are people of our age group inexplicably concerned with celebrity gossip on the web and tabloids, we are also eager to follow the everyday occurances of our best friends, friends-of-friends, aquaintances, and those old friends who we never speak to anymore but still like to keep tabs on. This observation, though not altogether impressive, struck me because it was not used as a call for criticism. Perhaps this need-for-the feed is an expansion of our social capabilities? Of the initial reproach for the lack of privacy in the newsfeed, Clive Thompson says "...Facebook users didn’t think they wanted constant, up-to-the-minute updates on what other people are doing. Yet when they experienced this sort of omnipresent knowledge, they found it intriguing and addictive."
Not only do we want to know what the people around us are doing, thinking, feeling, eating, etc. but we are even more enthusiastic about sharing our own brief and witty updates. Facebook status has adopted the same qualities as an away message, or a text message, and yet we may still find it necessary to use all three to outlet our emotions, thoughts, or insignificant tid-bits of information unconsequential to making the world go round. For someone in a long distance romantic relationship, it is hard for me to imagine being able to stay in touch with my boyfriend without the technological luxuries that I abuse on a daily basis.
Check out the article, it provides some good insight into our digi-culture.
I'M SO TOTALLY DIGITALLY CLOSE TO YOU