Social Networking

Today's Topics:

• I don't think this needs explaining...

 So social networking has taken our world by storm in the last five years or so.  Yes, I know it existed before that, but I'd say it's only become really popular in that time frame.

Anyway, it's changed our world.  A lot.   At first it made it easier to commune with friends.  That's probably all anyone had planned, back then.  But social networking slowly started integrating into our lives, changing even more.


Practically every business has a Facebook and/or Twitter page.  I wouldn't be all that surprised if major restaurants put 'Like us on Facebook' at the bottom of their menu. 

You can take part in all sorts of special promotions if you support the company online, and then it gets announced to all your friends.  Great advertising, and you don't even have to pay for it.   

Social networking has another feature for business, though.  Sometimes companies will check your profile to see what you're up to.  Even worse, some companies will get suspicious if you don't have a Facebook page, because they think you have something to hide. 

Personally I find that absolutely ridiculous, and anyone who considers this when looking someone over for a job is most likely incredibly paranoid or incredibly stupid.  Or both.  I don't normally get so vocal or brash on this blog, but just the fact that people are thick enough to actually think the main reason someone didn't sign up for Facebook is because they want to hide something dumfounds me.

One: it's ridiculous that they think everyone has to have Facebook, and Two: It shows that we've gotten to a point that it's like we can't even control ourselves around Social Networking.  They figure that if this person has bad things to show, they'd put it on Facebook, so they don't sign up at all to avoid temptation.  Have we really become that mindless?

Which brings me to another point.  I saw a commercial for the show Can of Worms talking about Social Networking, which is actually what got me to write this.  A guy said, "I'm going to Tweet anything and everything, and if you don't like it you can un-follow me." 

I find this phrase stupid for multiple reasons. 

One: Let's take me, for example.  I'd like to think I'm interesting.  So people may enjoy listening to me on Twitter (which I have, by the way).  But if I keep posting things like "eating at McDonald's" or "Just bought a new jacket" every hour or so, it's sort of 'punishing' my followers, if you will.  They still want to get the interesting bits, but 'suffer' for the other crap.

Two: What happened to the social part of Social Networking?  Since when is saying you just ate dinner social?  In real life, would you start a conversation with someone about how you ordered pizza?  Do your friends care that you refilled the ink on your printer? 

No.  Nobody cares.  I doubt the person saying it cares.  If a second person were to post 'anything and everything,' the original person in question would probably get extremely bored reading all of that.  By the way, these messages on their own aren't all that bad, but when you're saying them all the time it just gets pointless. 

Now I know for sure everyone doesn't do this.  None of my friends do this, but I know some people out there do.  Maybe someone reading this right now.  I'd say to you: think of your life as a movie.  You don't want to bore everyone in the opening scene, you want them to enjoy the whole film.

Also, if you're someone who would deny/be wary of someone because they don't have a Facebook page, I apologize for calling you stupid, but face it, it is a bit ridiculous. 

-Logic Box