Work – People need to be more wary about commenting about their job/employer. I never post comments about my job, unless I have something positive to say. First of all, if it’s that bad, do something about it. But most of all, you are putting information out there that may get you into a lot of trouble so be careful. As well as this, you just never know who might stumble across photos of what you got up to on Saturday night… again, be careful!
Facebook fishing – Yep, it’s a term, and it refers to writing a mysterious or ’woe is me’ status alluding to the fact you may share if someone comments with ‘what’s up hun?’. I can categorically guarantee you that I will never take the bait. “OMG I’m so excited about the news I just heard!”, “Why do people have to be so horrible?”, “ :( ”…. I get just as fired up when I see people fall prey with the likes of “are you ok?”, “what happened?!” and “call me”. I was discussing this recently with a friend and she reminded me of another type of Facebook fishing, fishing for compliments. She is Facebook friends with an old school mate who posted a photo of a letter one of her students gave her saying how amazing she was. I also had a friend who posted an album of her new breasts! And of course the comments followed “OMG you look amazing”. Have we developed a heightened sense of self-worth? Alternatively, is it making us more insecure when we don’t get the notifications we wanted?
Game requests – I'm not going to lie, I do feel a little special when I see that little red icon notifying me that someone has connected in some way. Unfortunately, sometimes that little red icon means that *name wants to send me a goat from Farmville or is inviting me to play Bubble Safari! I don’t care about your virtual farm, café or similar. Play your game and keep me out of it!
Responding to status with a completely unrelated comment – You've just written something profound, entertaining, controversial and someone comments “hey hun, looking forward to seeing you on Saturday?”. Imagine if that conversation happened in person “what do you think about global warming?” “Saturday is going to be well awesome!”. Sorry, what just happened there?
Play-by-play – Facebook shouldn't interrupt life as it happens. Tell me about it later, put your phone away so you can experience the moment thoroughly and enjoy it! What you chose for entrée, main and dessert as you chose it isn't necessary. Also, how do you think your companions feel? You obviously think it’s quality time worth telling about, so why disrespect the people you’re sharing it with by giving your attention to the possibility of that little red icon? Is the icon more important than the activity? Or maybe it’s not quality time, you've just become addicted to your online life and have let it take priority over your real one.
Stop boring everybody! - So you've got nothing interesting to say, you're bored, you're doing something we all regularly do (e.g. heading to bed, going for a shower, “hi ho hi ho, it’s off to work I go”). If you’re bored, why bore the rest of us? This particular one really concerns me because it indicates the addiction thing again.
Right, final topic. The one which fires me up the most. The, without a doubt most irritating thing on Facebook, in my opinion...
Too much information! And it’s one demographic who seems to be the worst offenders. Mothers of babies or young children. You might ponder that I'm just bitter that I'm not part of this demographic. Not true. I love babies and children, how couldn't I with the 2 nephews and 3 nieces I have? What I do have a problem with is the content that is being shared. I'm probably biased but my sister proves that it’s possible to have children and an interesting Facebook page that doesn't push the boundaries of appropriateness. I kid you not the following have appeared on my news feed:
• Photos of yourself in your underwear, displaying your growing tummy
• “Peppermint tea! Who’d have thought it would interfere with my milk supply!”
• “*Name, I know sleeping with my nipple in your mouth must be nice, but it’s not working for me”
• “How cute is boobing *name” including photographic evidence
• “Tired… kid had 21 boobs last night”
• “*Name has woken up with a dry nappy 4 nights in a row and asked me tonight if he can not wear one… I’ll be getting him up for wees before I head to bed…” – this actually continued on a further few sentences
• “What an explosion! Poop up to *name’s arms! Fun!”
• Photographic evidence of a nappy changing accident on a pair of trousers
• “So proud! *Name did his first wee on the big toilet… “ – continued with an essay of exactly what happened
• Photos of a newborn fresh into the world with all the grossness still all over it
And finally…
• “Got sprayed with amniotic fluid” – INCLUDING PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE! I KID YOU NOT!
Just because a young person is involved, it doesn't make it acceptable to share the above, or anything similar! One day I'm going to snap and photograph myself in the bathroom, post it and write “Look, I'm on the loo! Aren't I cute?!” I don’t think my targets would get it. I think this blog has bought me some time before I do eventually snap and stick up for the rest of us Facebook etiquette abiding citizens. To be honest, it’s more than likely I’ll just hide you. My ‘people you've hidden’ list is actually predominantly over-sharing mothers.
Seems we have a problem with filters. I had surgery recently to remove a little benign thing and definitely lost a little dignity. I couldn't tell you how many people have seen me with my shirt off! IN A CLINIC! The key is dropping your dignity off at the door and picking it back up when you leave. Yes, it is possible.
As one of my colleagues says, if you wouldn't say or show it to my face, then think again if it’s actually worth it and more importantly appropriate.
Well, this has been a good therapy session for me. Thanks for lending a listening ear (or eye). I don’t think this is going to make much of a difference though. I really think it’s going to be up to that celebrity team I mentioned in part 1. If anything, I've probably pointed out things you hadn't noticed that will now annoy you. Whoops! :)
Well said Tanni! I agree with you. I hope you feel better now having had a rant.
ReplyDelete