The Alcudia Barfly

Facebook, the internet phenomenon that is still taking the world by storm. It’s changes in image and functionality never fail to be a subject for heated debates. A company that has overtaken google.com as the number one port of call for most internet users. However it still shocks me that something so recognized and universally utilized can still be so foreign for some people. The thing about social media, is that albeit on-line, social conventions still apply. This is what people fail to recognize, they think that every name on their news feed is quite simply a combination of ones and zeros. Although not untrue, that binary code is linked to someone. Someone who has opinions, likes and dislikes just as much as the reader.

Every day I encounter someone who bitches about some “friend” they have on facebook who does nothing but talk shit. It’s always the same aswell, “I’m getting so tired of -friends name-…” or “they’re always banging on about -boring subject matter-…”. Not that I enjoy picking up on hypocrisy or anything like that (I love it) but YOU are boring ME with your bitching about your Facebook contacts. Here’s the thing, if you are so tired of someone on your friends list, well, unfriend them. After all if this person is so tedious, you probably aren’t that good of friends anyway. It’s like engaging someone in conversation and then complaining that they won’t leave you alone. You wouldn’t do it in real life, don’t do it online.

I know, there are some contacts you simply have out of obligation, the type that will question your motives if you ever unfriend them, and the answer “well we’re not really friends” or “I hardly know you” don’t really cut it. The reason for this is that people have got into the habit of adding everyone and (quite literally) their cat to their friends list. So not having them on there may just as well be a slap across the face. For this, those clever little so and so’s at facebook came up with a great way to  get rid of unwanted people without hurting anyone’s feelings. It’s called the hide button, use it, embrace it, love it. People who you find tedious can just be buried so that you’ll never see them again. No hearts broken, no love lost.

So before you go around complaining about the tediousness of your contacts, ask yourself this question. Is it their fault that I find what they write about annoying? or should I embrace Facebook for the broadcasting platform that it is, quite simply choose not to read certain people and stop being a dick.

Slainte,

Barfly