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Saturday, June 2, 2012

Don't Mess With Me or I'll "Unfriend" YOU!

That title will not have to be explained will it? By this time most of us know what that  means. Facebook. That social medium that isn't always about being social. A college class could be initiated as a social studies class or maybe it already is being studied in colleges across the world; a study in human interactions and reactions.

First comes the interactions quickly followed by the reactions and both of these intercourses aren't always of a friendly nature.

Everyone is so excited to hook up with people they haven't contacted in 40 years. A quick request for "friending" and another person is added to your friend's list. The list grows and grows though many of these people you will never interact with. You have "friends" on Facebook.

You have friends until interactions and reactions lead to the "unfriending" stage of the social experience. This part of the scene reminds me of grade school and high school when one friend became angry with another friend and ostracized that person from their circle of friends. Of course all your friends were expected to ignore this one person in support of you. I never played this game in school and to this day I  continue to make independant analysis of friends and acquaintances.

The difference with Facebook is the angry one unfriends and then continues to unfriend all the friends of the person who is object of their displeasure.

I watch this action over and over; a study of sorts in human interactions and behavior. Are you insulted when you are unfriended? Does Facebook try to be kind by not sending out a notification to you in the hopes that you might not notice and your feelings will be spared?  Observing people is one of my favorite past times and my social studies class was, of course, one of my favorite classes. Being a Facebook voyeur is an awesome place to study.

Besides this benign activity on Facebook, the personal attacks are inevitable. This is not something I enjoy watching and usually it is the main reason I will use the "unfriend" option. I don't enjoy watching one human being bully, degrade and insult another. It wasn't the reason, I'm assuming, for the creation of this popular venue.

I don't watch Jerry Springer/Maury Povich type shows and when Facebook veers in that direction, I have to change my viewing there too.

I'm not much on posting often on Facebook and sometimes when I'm busy I may not check in on a daily basis but catching up on it isn't a task that takes up a lot of time. Much like soap operas, one can fade out for days or weeks and return much to the same place where they left off.

Now to change up the subject a bit. I dislike the new blogger format. It's not because of it being a "change" in the usual that I'm used to but because the layout is impossible to work with. I'm sitting here looking at a split screen and inputting typing into it is a random operation as it "saves" in the midst of the typing and all the letters that you have inserted were not recorded so it becomes a matter of hitting the backspace key to go back and insert all the words that weren't recorded. I may have to look for a new place to exercise my typing skills which is what I coin this blog as.
If I start blogging more then what I have been doing in the past 4 months, I'll hunt for a new home.
I'm done here..for now!






3 comments:

  1. We must come as a package deal..whatever happens to you happens to me..ha ha

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  2. I find Facebook fascinating for the same reasons...well it's more that I find the behaviour fascinating really. Coincidentally I got caught up yesterday in an attack on the person who runs the dog rescue that I support. I won't go into detail but I was appalled to see that grown women had actually set up a separate page just to personally attack this woman. They were spreading lies. I only interacted to put the record straight, and advise them that they were likely to be sued for libel...which in fact is going to happen. Many of us reported the page and it disappeared overnight. Great we thought...Facebook actually takes notice..but it reappeared later today, heavily edited, so maybe FB just raps knuckles. I wonder why the internet brings out the worst aspects of human nature?

    I agree about Blogger too. I don't like the way they keep changing things. If it ain't broke...don't fix it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Linda, I can almost understand childishness from juveniles on FB but many times the ADULTS are worst then the juveniles. Petty behavior embraces petty people. Im my best incredulous tone of voice, I'm saying "Really?" when I observe their childish behavior. Facebook can be dangerous in the hands of these adults. I think it's the anonomity of the internet that allows them to behave as they do.

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