so I am an avid facebook stalker…if those apps work that tell you who has been viewing your profile then I guess I can consider myself busted. see my mind rarely takes time out – I seem to be always in need of something to pique my interest and the telly doesn’t do it for me. those that dislike facebook and any of the other forms of social media will probably see me as a bit of a twit really and that’s fine because everyone is entitled to their own opinion. and this is what bought me to talking about facebook while visiting my besty and her little monkey’s today. people can have their view and there is a good chance that it will differ with yours. now in real life – that’s face to face communication – if the person you are talking to does not agree with your take on the subject they may choose to debate the point with you and, after some back and forth – or argey bargey – you may choose to agree to disagree. I welcome this kind of interaction because I have the opportunity to learn something from it and if I hadn’t succumbed to peer pressure in my first year of high school and thrown my A grades away to hang out with the “cool” kids I would have been on the school debate team so having healthy discussions with others is my therapy for making bad choices at 13. anyhoo so now you can “share” other people’s posts on facebook and one of my friends shared a post on the bait lines put down by the WA Fisheries Dept in their attempt to catch and kill the Great White Shark hunting the very rich down at Ego (Eagle) Bay. my my didnt that bring out some of the most colourful comments. some people were putting forth their argument for and against but the majority of posts were just abuse. and it made me wonder about the power that facebook gives people. it can be like a faceless bully which is really disturbing. I am probably fairly conservative – see “old” – in what I post on facebook and while these posts automatically upload to my personal facebook page unless one of my friends shared it then it is likely that only my friends will see it. I try not to swear on fb – sorry I got sick of typing it – or on barrybadger.com unlike in my real life when I let it fly. my old boss once taunted me by saying that swearing was a sign of lower intellect as you couldn’t find another word to use so chose an expletive. I argued that it had nothing to do with intellect and more to do with frustration and stress, or a heightened emotional state when thinking of a different word seems redundant as the f word is so readily available and already front of mind. so back to fb…I was discussing with my besty if the people who write these really average comments on post threads would actually say it to the person in “real” life – that’s face to face with the opportunity for that person to retort. I think in some rare cases there are people who would just crack it out and not care for the consequence or welcome whatever came their way, however I believe in the majority of these posts the anonymity of “social” media allows people to behave quite badly and get away with it, and, it would seem, feel pretty chuffed about it. this happened to a friend of mine recently when she posted her support during the US Presidential Elections. most of the comments she received were either in support of or against but with no malice – but there was one guy who just took it to wrong town and made it personal. now the only thing here up for debate was the election and the two candidates – nothing else. and everyone has a right to their opinion, it’s yours and it’s the only one you have so you can defend it or change it, keep it a secret or shout it from the rooftops. in the end I congratulated my friend on how she handled his comments as some of them were quite nasty and personal and it ended up not even being about Romney or Obama. I do wonder though that if they had been sitting opposite each other would the outcome have been different? or was it easier for this man to say his piece under the cover of fb? similarly when I see posts that some of my more youthful family members put on and they drop the f bomb and even the c – or k depending on how you roll – bomb I can’t resist calling them on it. employers now look at social media posts of prospective employees, educational institutions monitor social media and people, my mum and her sister are on fb so I don’t want them to have to see some of the trash that goes on.
love it or hate it, I see “social” media as a part of life as we know it…it’s also a bit of an oxymoron of sorts given the definition of social – seeking or enjoying the companionship of others; friendly; sociable; gregarious. not much “companionship” on fb as far as I can tell. it is a great way to keep in touch though and I do enjoy following the lives of family and friends who live thousands of miles away. my only fear for the future is that we lose the ability to verbally communicate, that in 20 year time Mr B Badger.com and I will be visited by little boss and we will all sit down to a lovely meal punctuated by the silence of our fingers tapping away at a touchscreen as we discuss the events of our day in lol speak and electronically rather than looking at each other and having a laugh – see I don’t have to put “out loud” because if we are actually laughing it already is….
at least if people continue to have dogs as pets we will still need a voice box…until some smarty pants invents an iPad for them as well…
barrybadger.com 