Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter have become part of modern life. All three are a wonderful way to connect with and communicate with friends and family. Technology has made the world smaller and in some cases brought the past back to us. Not all of this is good however.
I’m on one of these social networks and have found countless old friends whom I have lost touch with. I’ve kept in touch with family. And I’ve have had the creepy older brother of a friend send me a “friend hug” and countless drinks. Ugh. That’s the problem with these social networking sites. Sure, you can find long lost friends and all, but they can also find you. I have people I wouldn’t say Hi to if I bumped into them in a foreign country, and yet they’re want to know my result on the ‘What movie character would you be?’ survey. I have a woman I haven’t spoken to since I was 13 years old sending me flowers, blenders, and farm animals daily.
Then there’s the status updates. I’ll put one up if I actually do something that’s somewhat out of the ordinary or if I think of something funny or original to say, but really do all these people care if I’m frustrated that it rained on my weekend, or what I cooked for dinner, or what my most recent workout consisted of, or what the hell my mood is at 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon? I don’t care about these things about myself, and I’m pretty sure no one else cares about the minutiae of my day. Have we become such an insipid, needy society that we can’t do anything without needing validation from someone? And does no one have any personal boundaries anymore? Just because people spill their guts on Dr. Phil doesn’t mean that I need to know the same things about you just because the anonymity of the internet hides my horrified look and snide comment from you. If you’re getting divorced, have a family member dying, or just found out your best friend is gay and in love with you, does it really help you if “5 people liked this”?
I am not a friend whore. Some people have literally hundreds of “friends” that they’ve never met or even sent an e-mail to. Never heard their voice, and yet these same anonymous friends get to see pictures of their family and know what’s going on virtually every hour of their lives. I guess you can never have too many friends. That being said, I’m on Facebook as Fill Taylor. That’s right, with an F. There are literally hundreds spelled the other way, so the differentiation makes me easier to find. Feel free to “friend” me. I look forward to hearing about your day.
So true. So true. It's just like that new cell phone commercial where the teens are telling their parents they don't need to constantly update twitter and facebook from their new cell phones. Then they show the Dad posting an update, “sitting on the patio”.
Really? Do you really look forward to hearing about my day? Well that does it.
*clicking the Send Friend Request button*
🙂
Yes, Phil, I am that needy. Deal with it.
I have never had a Myspace account. I tried once but it kept rejecting me when I would plug in the word verification! I had a Twitter account where I posted and closed the account all in the same week. Completely pointless.
I enjoy Facebook but I understand what you mean. I know a few people who have 600+ people listed as “friends”. Yeah, right! I guess some people base their self-worth in numbers. I'm not one of them. I am in contact with most of the people on my list. I say 'most' because some of the people, who never liked me or said 'boo' to me years ago, would friend me over and over again until I finally accepted but the truth is that every so often I go through and weed out those I really don't give a crap about. I have some cousins on my friends list but I would never add my sister or parents. I had a friend's mother try to add me once and I rejected that one immediately!! That was high on the creepy scale!!
There is a wonderful 'hide' option for those people who are status-happy, updating their status every other minute. Like you, I try to make my status amusing, if possible. I do not nor will I ever post up to the minute about what TV show I'm watching or what color bra I'm wearing!
I know quite a number of people who update from their cell phones and frankly, if you have that much time on your hands, I think there's a problem!
I don't do myspace, twitter or facebook for exactly these reasons. However, sometimes it's tempting to set up a fake person and a fake account and spy on everyone 😉
I resisted facebook for a long time. I have now joined but I'm still not all that excited about it.
I'm on facebook to pick up men. 17 year olds. Um, yeah. If you look at my friend list, it's all but full of my daughters friends, who think I'm cool.
As for status updates, I like to confuse people. Don't ever believe what you read there, if you visit. Unless its about pop tarts.
LB- Once I told my son to go get on the computer so I could talk to him.
PCB- See you soon.
Sherry- On you that neediness is attractive.
Juan- What color bra are you wearing?
RK- Set up a real acct. to spy on people. You can hide yourself if you want.
Dawn- You have a Facebook and I'm not your friend yet? I'm crushed.
Phil, your post is exactly why I have not joined Facebook, myspace or Twitter! Its enough sharing my art with the world via Flickr and my blog. As always, I really enjoyed reading what you had to say 🙂
Yea, I kind of keep FB and the blog separate.
RE: FB I've had FB since you had to be a college student to have one. I do not friend people I've never met in real life (with two exceptions from years ago) my profile is private, you can't search for me and find me unless we have a friend in common. Myspace is lame, and dangerous. Twitter I mostly use to follow people I think are funny.
You meet all kinds of weird and wonderful people who want to be your 'friends'… by the way would you like to be mine? Sorry couldn't resist that i'm far to shy to go on facebook.
I don't have a facebook account or twitter. I have no interest in telling everyone what I'm doing evey moment of the day or connecting with old school friends.
My blog suits me just fine.
Fill Taylor…that's hilarious!
I know exactly what you mean…and I was actually going to blog about it because it's getting to the point where my real friends aren't calling as much, but texting me and sending messages to my Facebook Inbox or wall. Pretty sad, actually.