A much needed facelift

“Clean Face” is an initiative of the Youth for a United World (Y4UW) of Sardegna, Italy.

This idea cropped up from the desire of getting ourselves personally committed in building a different world. Hence, we wanted to start off by “cleaning” our Facebook page from all that stuff which does not represent us and is not ours: that kind of stuff that makes us more virtual rather than real.

The goal of this “facelift” is to make sure that our Facebook page may mirror as much as possible who we really are and not a caricature.

Just like all other communication technologies, Facebook makes us feel close to one another and this is its beauty!

The way we use it depends on our choice. In a moment, we can choose who we want to be and how we want to appear in front of others because in the virtual world we can choose how to present ourselves.

However, isn’t this task easier said than done? Do we really need to wear an armour of pixels in order to be able to make friends?

Instead, we can choose not to hide behind a link and make sure that our profile is not just a virtual avatar but a true picture of who we are.

We can aim high, even among virtual relationships, in order to build bridges, quality friendships, without worrying about the number of friends we have.

Therefore, to clean our Facebook page entails personal committing and taking the first step in bringing about a change in our way of being and of relating with the virtual world. In this way, this means of communication may turn into something positive, bringing others the idea that a more beautiful world is not a utopia.

A “cleaner world” starts from ourselves and from the people that surround us.

So let’s start cleaning our face!

These are a few proposals in order to participate in this initiative:

• We are persons, not users. Let’s not become unwitting tools for statistical or publicity data.

• Let’s respect others and above all let’s respect ourselves.

• Vulgarity does not make us any stronger or more beautiful.

• Let’s show who we really are. We do not need to make any publicity in order to please others.

• Let’s build bridges of true friendship with virtual “friends”.

• Have you ever tried to take a coffee with a virtual friend? It feels much better when you really do it.

• For every 10 minutes you spend on Facebook, let’s dedicate as much with persons who live close to us.

• Let’s respect our own privacy and the one of others.

• Let’s avoid links of doubtful origin.

• Let’s keep an eye on the use of internet and social networks by minors.

• To every criticism/sentiment, let’s go against the current by trying to bring out the positive.

As a result, our Facebook pages will be more joyful and beautiful.