Total Number of Ratings: 7
Social Networking Woes
First Published: Saturday, June 13, 2009 1:11 AM
Last Saved: Saturday, June 13, 2009 1:12 AM
When is it time to let go? When is it time to wait for the reunion and catch up? (I'm not going to my reunions for my own reasons but..) I've had an interesting dilemma in the last couple of weeks. I've deleted a lot of people from my Facebook that I knew from high school. I mean A LOT. Try about 200 people. These are people who I never talk to on the famous social networking website, I hardly ever talked to them in high school, and when I give them the axe, suddenly they freak out, immediately add me back, and lay the guilt trip on me for deleting them.
When I delete these people I get a sense of calm and accomplishment, maybe because I never need to talk to them again, but that if I actually have to talk to them again I would rather do it face to face instead of sitting at a computer screen. Go ahead and call me a hypocrite I do have some people I don't really talk to still on my Facebook account. But I'm starting to get to the point where I just want to delete my account and stick with other networks like Twitter where we can just disappear if we want to. But with Facebook, it seems if you suddenly disappear from someone's friend list everyone panics. Unfortunately sometimes the only form of communication I have with someone is over Facebook. GRRRRRR damn social networking and internet addictions.
I like doing what I do, the Twitter, Facebook, podcast, etc. etc. But at the end of the day I want to just hang out and watch a movie without being snapped at for deleting someone off an electronic list.
a few months ago, a chunk of my high school class found facebook. like you, i was "friended" by a bunch of women who i never talked to in high school and haven't since. i thought it was weird, but i decided that they just have different ideas about what a social networking site is for.
i hardly pay any attention to their content that shows up in my feed, and i'm sure they extend the same "courtesy" to me. :)
Interesting points you bring up here. However, this is part of living in the "global village." While the internet world has expanded our reach so that we can be friends with Johnny, our "best friend" from Pre-School, it also means Johnny can see what you're doing all the time. It's as if this stranger lived right next door to you.
Respond
I think it is probably a common trend to be added as a "friend" by people who used to do everything in their power to ignore you. I know there is my fair share of these people from past school days. I don't put to much thought into it as I stopped caring who reads/responds/follows me in any of my social networking ventures. If they follow...cool. If not...whatever. I don't care anymore because I see my internet commenting as a way of releasing whatever random thought is in my head.
And you never know...if they still don't talk to you, they may very well be reading what you say. And realizing they have more in common with you then they thought. They just never took the time to get to know you. And in fairness...I have changed alot since high school. So maybe they have to.