Hypocrisy (aka To each her own)
So I have mentioned my boycott of Facebook.*
The idea of it scares me in many ways. First, the idea of people from my past who I don't remember having a close relationship with, or I don't remember anything personal about them at all, finding me and pestering me to Friend them scares me just as much as going on AIM does these days...although not so much as a year or two ago, because now all the people I graduated with are generally too busy to go on AIM or have moved on to Gtalk.
But, one might say, there are many ways to block everyone but those you want to see your profile, etc etc. But doesn't that defeat the purpose of Facebook to begin with? No, I'm afraid there is little space or purpose to be found in Facebook or Myspace for semi-anti-social introverts like myself who would rather just communicate with the people I want to communicate with, for which I do not need such networking services.
Furthermore, I find that the endless drivel of mostly-meaningless comments/texts found commonly through these types of forums to slowly corrode my soul. Maybe this goes back to my general confusion/phobia towards people who go around labeling what I would call "acquaintances" as "good friends" instead. In reality, there is no real basis of relationship behind the claim or the obligatory small talk that occurs upon meeting.
But I have two points of hypocrisy: 1) I love to stalk people of interest online if given any material. 2) I have just now found some recipe sites that double as social networking sites that actually perked my interest...namely Barefoot Bloggers and Bakespace.com
My rationalization is that 1) I don't leave any comments generally, and when I leave comments, I make sure it's worth reading (meaning it's a paragraph long, akin to my 2-minute voicemails), 2) the only reason I looked deeper into the recipe/networking sites is that I discovered that it's pretty open access, unless you want to leave comments, I guess, which I'm totally fine not doing.
So in summary, I'm noncommittal, slightly socially awkward, and have voyeurism tendencies. Therapy session over.
*This is by no means a judgment upon those who do use Facebook or any other general networking sites. I am happy for your enjoyment of this revolutionary service, and hope you garner many benefits from the site. It's not you, it's me...
The idea of it scares me in many ways. First, the idea of people from my past who I don't remember having a close relationship with, or I don't remember anything personal about them at all, finding me and pestering me to Friend them scares me just as much as going on AIM does these days...although not so much as a year or two ago, because now all the people I graduated with are generally too busy to go on AIM or have moved on to Gtalk.
But, one might say, there are many ways to block everyone but those you want to see your profile, etc etc. But doesn't that defeat the purpose of Facebook to begin with? No, I'm afraid there is little space or purpose to be found in Facebook or Myspace for semi-anti-social introverts like myself who would rather just communicate with the people I want to communicate with, for which I do not need such networking services.
Furthermore, I find that the endless drivel of mostly-meaningless comments/texts found commonly through these types of forums to slowly corrode my soul. Maybe this goes back to my general confusion/phobia towards people who go around labeling what I would call "acquaintances" as "good friends" instead. In reality, there is no real basis of relationship behind the claim or the obligatory small talk that occurs upon meeting.
But I have two points of hypocrisy: 1) I love to stalk people of interest online if given any material. 2) I have just now found some recipe sites that double as social networking sites that actually perked my interest...namely Barefoot Bloggers and Bakespace.com
My rationalization is that 1) I don't leave any comments generally, and when I leave comments, I make sure it's worth reading (meaning it's a paragraph long, akin to my 2-minute voicemails), 2) the only reason I looked deeper into the recipe/networking sites is that I discovered that it's pretty open access, unless you want to leave comments, I guess, which I'm totally fine not doing.
So in summary, I'm noncommittal, slightly socially awkward, and have voyeurism tendencies. Therapy session over.
*This is by no means a judgment upon those who do use Facebook or any other general networking sites. I am happy for your enjoyment of this revolutionary service, and hope you garner many benefits from the site. It's not you, it's me...
haha! This is hysterical, and EXACTLY how I feel about these sites. I especially like the paragraph with "...slowly corrode my soul..." Although, I must have let the voyeurism win out in my case as I am a member of Facebook :). However, just to clarify (although I know it's not necessary) I only communicate through the mail service on there. Not to mention I often go months without signing on. I use it mostly to share pictures back and forth with select family members; and check up on a few people from my past every now and then, of course :)
ReplyDeleteI am glad that someone understands my sentiments! I felt very guilty for having written that post for days-- I was like, oops, did I actually let myself write that?? But you make me feel much better. Yah, the only real reason I get tempted to sign up is so I can download photos from friends...
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be funny to start a "I hate Facebook" Facebook group? I wonder if anyone has ever done it yet.
Twitter though, must be the ultimate of soul-destroying narcissism.
ReplyDelete