Weirding out the Internet

As we use social media more and more and it becomes part of our everyday lives – are you a victim of doing these weird things on the internet?:

1. Intruding on peoples’ conversations

While I’m an open person, there’s always a line you need to draw. I have always been careful when it comes to Facebook’s privacy settings and I try to keep my wall conversations hidden for obvious reasons. I mean, who really wants to know the most boring details of my life? You’re right, everyone does. Stalking is the new thing and it’s easier than ever with social media. It grants us laziness in not making effort to contact the ex best friend/boyfriend/girlfriend/friend to see if we’re doing better than them. Facebook gives a comprehensive outlook of a person’s life in less than 30 seconds and I, along with many others, couldn’t be more grateful.

Generation Y has become decenstorised to the fact that everything is public and the most worrying thing is that privacy is a thing of the past. Too often I see conversations that shouldn’t be taking place online and of course, the drama thriving 15 year old in me just has to look because it provides more entertainment than the current Labour Party debacle. I have never once heard someone tell a room full of people, “guys don’t worry about my mood today. I’m on my period” or “I really shouldn’t have gotten so drunk last night. I seriously can’t remember what happened!” Telling someone this on Facebook is the exact same thing; everybody can see it! So just stop it. Please stop it.

2. ‘Defriending’

Facebook has coined the term ‘defriending’ where a user is able to moderate their friend list by adding and removing people. If only life was as easy as walking up to a person and clicking a button to remove them from your friends. If only. From past experiences, I’ve noticed an uncanny resemblance between defriending people from Facebook and then losing the same ‘friend’ in real life.

People take this shit seriously because everything you do on the internet reflects your real life. Don’t commit to that button if you don’t want future awkward conversations and public avoidances.

3. Having over 1000 ‘friends’

Whenever I see a friends list with over 1000 people in it, I scream ‘tool’ because there is NO WAY you know all of those people, let alone have grounded relationships with each one. And to be honest, it’s not an indication of a high school popularity contest and you are definitely not ‘well known’ or a social butterfly because you’re able to send a few friend requests. In fact, it says the opposite: you’re desperate and you need to have that attention.

But if it weren’t for Facebook, we’d be stuck talking to our 8 close friends. Imagine that.

4. Animals having an undying need to communicate to humans

I used to think my dog was like any other normal dog.  I would take her for walks and she would go to the groomer. She’d laze around in the backyard all day, having no worries whatsoever and would only make an effort when dinner was served. But since social media has graced our lives, it’s become apparent that animals have become smarter. And my dog has not. I’ll never understand the undying need for people to make their pet a Facebook, but it’s become the norm. 
Even if your pets were smart enough (and I’m being really, really tolerant here) to make a Facebook, their status updates would be things like, “went for a walk today and marked my territory. King of the streets bitches” or “had some backend chemistry with another dog, it was love at first sight” and who really wants to know the most intimate details of their pets’ life? There needs to be a rule against this.

5. Poking

Nope, this is still weird. I have never understood poking on Facebook and never will. Especially when I’m being ‘poked’ by randoms from other countries who don’t even know me. It’s not sexy, and you surely aren’t making a good impression.