The Next Generation of BSers

NYT has an article today ("The Language of Fakebook") on a pair of YA authors supplementing their story, “My Darkling,” with a Facebook page for their fictional character. According to the Times, the fake Facebook page does a good job of replicating real pages by copying the phony, persona-injected postings that mark real teen (and for that matter, adult) pages. Here's an excerpt; as you read it, think of Frankfurt’s definition of BS:

“My Darklyng” offers a brilliant commentary on how fictional teenagers are
on Facebook. Their stylized, mannered projections of self are as invented as any
in a novel. There are regional differences, of course, to the mannerisms but
there are certain common tics: Okayyyyyyyyy. Ahhhhhhh. Everything is extreme:
So-and-so “is obsessed with.” So-and-so “just had the longest day EVERRRRRR.”
They are in a perpetual high pitch of pleasure or a high pitch of crisis or
sometimes just a high pitch of high pitch. Holden Caulfield might have called it
“phoniness.”

A 14-year-old I talked to about this sent me a message that pretty much
sums it up: “I write more enthusiastically on Facebook than I actually am in
real life. Like if I see something remotely funny I might say
‘HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA,’ when really there is no expression on my
face.”