Social networking is weird, and I think I've decided to bail on it. Perhaps I'm turning into a Luddite, or something, I dunno -- but the whole thing rubs me wrong. It's like everyone is hardwired into everyone else and we've joined a cliquey bubble in which everyone knows what everyone else is doing, and as dutiful narcissists we obligingly update our statuses regularly. It's changing the dynamics of how people interact with each other in a way that I don't think I like, and turns otherwise normal individuals into gossips and peeping toms.
In a fit of pique, I deleted every update or wall post on my facebook page. I was pleased with the result, as it was refreshingly blank. But then there is that awful "news feed," and the right-hand bar with random things from friends' pages: I can't clear all that stuff, and I really don't want to know that a person that I've not seen in ten years spent the morning vomiting. Seriously, why do people post this stuff?
So vaya con gatos, facebook, as a friend would say: I'm not going to play there anymore. Don't even get me started about twitter -- my eyes just about want to roll right out of my head even thinking about it.
EDIT hours later:
Okay, so I'm weaning myself. Can't just cut the cord outright. In the meantime, it's friday night and I'm inside on the computer writing code for a potential future business venture. Lame. But there's no place like 127.0.0.1. (Or ::1, if that's the way you swing already.)
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You can change the settings so that you don't have to see their feeds. There are all kinds of people that I like to be linked up with via FB that I don't give two tweets about what they're on about.
ReplyDeleteWhat I do love? Updates from my sister who never bothers to write but lives on the other side of the planet. Updates on my son's friends' who are getting picked for the basketball team or excited about their Hallowe'en costumes. Updates from my favourite author about the latest book he's writing - who knows why he accepted my "friendship" but as a fan, I loveovelove reading what he's up to, especially when it's about his latest novel or ooooh! a screenplay! Am I a peeping tom? I suppose. But I've had a lot of good laughs in the process.
Yeah, I'm potentially being hasty here, DGNY. It's not exactly facebook's fault that people are gossipy.
ReplyDeleteI've reduced my news feed to practically nothing, and I almost never log in anymore. That seems to have cured most of my grouchiness!