Social media has made it easier then ever for us to keep in touch with people. We can talk to people we wouldn't otherwise have time to talk to, find people we grew up with, and make new friends.
Chances are, if you want to know what someone is doing, you'll find out via Facebook, Twitter, or whatever other service they may use. With some, you get very specific details about their day-to-day life.
We all have at least a few friends who carry it even further. I know I have days where I post quite frequently, especially when I'm happy (as in relationship things) or agitated (when work gets crazy). That said, I have my limits on what I post and I believe there are things that others do not need to know about. For instance, if Rachel and I are having any kind of dispute, I'm not going to go on Facebook and start posting about the argument.
Not everyone feels that way though. In fact, far too many feel the need to go online and air out all their dirty laundry for everyone to see, at least those on their friend's list (and friends of those friends if you haven't changed certain privacy settings).
For instance, if you get into an argument with a friend, or they insult you, and you decide to post online about it, it doesn't take much for someone who's a mutual friend to see it. Next thing you know, that person feels the need to defend their friend and starts a whole new argument. Pretty soon it snowballs and it's coming from every direction.
But you know what? You can only blame yourself. You chose to make it public (even if your page is "private"), so you can only be mad at yourself if others decide to jump in on things.
The worst part is people like that are repeat offenders. They constantly post about every last little thing that goes on.
What cracks me up most is those people ALWAYS say they hate drama. They hate people who cause drama. They hate people who think drama. Yet they're always involved in some sort of drama, usually of their own doing.
Here's a word of advice: if you do something stupid, and people tell you you're stupid for doing it, don't go online and complain about people calling you stupid, then give details about what you did to get called stupid, then later complain when others have jumped in and called you stupid for complaining about being stupid.
If you go out, get drunk, and end up in jail for any reason, that's not something that needs to be shared online. If you do share it, don't go acting surprised when people criticize you for it, especially if you've been in trouble before.
Granted, the simple solution on most sites is to block people who post like that constantly, which I have been known to do.
Look, you may be a friend, but I don't care what happened to you, or if people think you're a bad person, or if you are getting yelled at by other people for what you did. I don't care. Most people don't care. The only people who care are yourself and those who actively involve themselves in things.
Don't get me wrong, some people feed off of involving themselves in other people's lives or judging them without knowing them. It happens. The worst thing you can do is give them ammunition though. Don't want to hear about it? Don't talk about it. Block the people causing a problem. Simply put, a real friend won't turn on you unless you do something legitimately bad to them.
So let it go. Don't put it out there for everyone else to see.
Please.
Moving on, but sticking with the social media theme, I seem to remember when Facebook made it's recent rash of changes, a bunch of people cried out that they were moving on to Google+ and were leaving Facebook behind. They were tired of the changes, tired of the security issues (that I didn't know existed), and tired of things being changed on them with no notice.
In that time, of the 78 people I know on Facebook, 4 people moved to Google+, 3 of which were either family or my girlfriend. So all that crabbing, all that complaining led to, well, nothing.
I don't care for what they did. I don't like Top News and Recent News being all discombulated the way they are, but after having some time to get used to it, a couple of things occurred to me. Yeah, the changes suck and sorting through it all is a pain in the ass, but it's not the end of the world. Yeah, some things don't work the way they should, but it's not the worst thing that could happen.
Fact is, Facebook can do whatever it wants to its service. It's free so while we can complain, there isn't much that's going to change unless people stop using it, kind of like Myspace. Everyone migrated off of there to Facebook a few years back and the site never recovered. They changed to become more like Facebook, but the exodus was complete. The few that still use it are in the vast minority.
For a while, it seemed like the cycle was going to repeat. Facebook was going to piss people off so much that they had no choice but to leave it for something else. Google+ started to make some noise so a few joined in, but Google+ has its own issues. For one, one of the engineers made the mistake of posting a rant about the service that made its way around the internet. If a Google employee doesn't like the service, why would everyone else feel comfortable using it.
In the end, the noise about Facebook has all but disappeared and Google+ hasn't gained any ground on it.
**From the "That's Amazing Department"**
* Last night, the New York Jets faced the Miami Dolphins in MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands, reviving what used to be a tremendous rivalry. I say used to be because frankly, the Dolphins aren't very good. Before the season started, everyone wanted the quarterback to be traded away and the coach was nearly fired. The Jets haven't exactly lit the world on fire this season either, going into the game at 2-3 and Mark Sanchez looking completely lost at quarterback. There was one play that defined the Dolphin's season last night though. Up 3-0 and driving down for a score, Dolphins quarterback Matt Moore threw for Brandon Marshall in the end zone. Darrell Revis intercepted and returned it 101 yards for a touchdown, essentially ending the night for the Dolphins in the 1st quarter. Problem was, Marshall never had a chance at catching the pass as Revis had his head buried into Marshall's side, pushing him away from the play, before turning around to make the pick. In short, Revis committed blatant pass interference, it wasn't called, and everyone knows the Dolphins don't need the help. In short, it was amazing.
* On August 24, the St. Louis Cardinals were 10.5 games out of the wild card. Tomorrow, they play game in the World Series, at home, against the Texas Rangers. This despite the Rangers having a better record simply because the National League won the All-Star game. Listen, I know they want that game to matter (it still doesn't), but home field should always go to the team with the best record. Now the Rangers get to play in a National League park for the first two games because of an attempt to make a meaningless game meaningful. That's amazing. However it doesn't take away from the Cardinals overcoming a 10.5 game deficit to win the wild card, then take down the Brewers in the NLCS despite the Brewers having the best home record in baseball this year. THAT was amazing.
* Yesterday my computer went on the fritz after updating it via automatic updates. This pissed me off immensely because it wasn't the first time this has happened (yes, I still use Windows XP because I'm not forking over $200 to upgrade to Windows 7 when I plan on getting a laptop in the future). Initially I tried to restore it, but it didn't work, so I said eff it and went over to Rachel's. This morning, I resumed trying to fix it. I tried another system restore, and while waiting for it to finish, ate my Cap 'N Crunch, and watched some of the MNF game. I went back in and saw it finally made it to the start-up screen (before I had to run it in safe mode for it to make it past the loading screen). Upon logging in, I received a message saying the restore was incomplete, that the system reset itself while attempting to restore the files. This baffled me, but as of now, it's still functioning so I'm just not going to mess with anything at this point time. I just hope if it goes off for any reason (power outtage, 2 year-old pushing the button) that it comes back up. That said, it deciding to work, well, it was minorly amazing.
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