miércoles, 28 de julio de 2010

If you don't know me why do you want to add me? and other Facebook conflicts

Facebook is really big right now, amazingly big, can't live without big. My mom has Facebook even tough she thought that only the owner could see their own wall and the comments on pictures, she couldn't upload pictures or do pretty much, anything there.
I always thought it was uncomfortable when some that you don't know so much, or someone that you don't want to give access too (a boss for example) tried to add you and you couldn't ignore them. I didn't want the guy that I met just once to look at all my pictures and see my posts! But you had to add them right? Just in case you ran into them again. Well yes, but now Facebook new privacy settings allow you to choose how much you're sharing with people, this has caused a lot of conflicts in addition to the ones that were there from the beginning:
- You don't know me, I've never seen you and you look creepy in your profile picture, why do you want to add me?: There is actually guys that "collect" girls in facebook that they think are pretty, if a girl falls for that she's definitely far from being classy; there is also the person that assumes he knows everyone but maybe doesn't remember; and there is the person that wants to feel important and have a profile saying XXXXX has 1000 friends. Good for you! everyone on the planet knows about your life and sees your pictures, kidnappers won't have it hard finding you.
Don't get me wrong, I know of people that have met friends or boyfriends on FB but in that case, please people send a private message aknowledging the fact that you don't know them but want to meet them. A week ago a guy that I'm sure I don't know, and looked really weird on his picture wanted to add me, why would I?. I don't want to see posts about what's his face and his plans for saturday night, or even worse, him having my pictures as a wallpaper (photoshoped with his face in it.) If you try to add me like that, you're not making your self look better (eheem stalker ehemmm)
- How much privacy is too much: I was a victim of privacy settings, I didn't realize that if a person couldn't see a wall or pictures, they were seeing pretty much, well, nothing! a couple of them deleted me and other ones send me private messages asking why or knew that it was a mistake and letting me know. I have a friend that was sick of Facebook and decided to set everything as private, a lot of people will delete her for sure thinking that she blocked them.
- There is also the overly friendly person, that you don't know much, but may or may not have one friend in addition to you, that loves to creep and comment on everything you do. do you delete that person, or just block them from writing or seeing your things?
- Parents on Facebook: So many parents are on Facebook, that their friends ask them to open an account "to share with them", thanks people! I didn't want to share some pictures (nothing illegal!) with my mom. Before this privacy settings, I just ignored requests from anyone older than 40, now I can just set everything on private and hope for the best.
- TMI: The best type of TMI is relationship TMI. Believe me if I don't like drama in my own life, I don't want to relive every moment of your tormentous, latin soap-opera like relationship with your on-and-off boyfriend. What are relationship status for on Facebook? Don't your closest friends know if you have a boyfriend or not? And even worse I don't want to know that you had a fight, he cheated on you, that you think all men suck and should die because someone has made you suffer again.
And there is the emo people too, come on! if you have depression, life doesn't make sense and want to die, I don't think Facebook is the right answer, therapy might be right for you. People won't believe that you're really depressed (just really desperate for attention), there was one guy who even wrote: I'm depressed, please call me. I think that instead of calls, people deleted his number from their phones- a lot of them.
Well, the privacy issue is complicated, I have a rule, I ask myself if I would say that comment in a conversation with anyone on my list, if the answer is "no", I'd keep it to myself. It is better to be safe, maybe I did add a creepy unknown guy without noticing him, and I'll never talk to him when I see him but he'll know by heart all the colors I own bikinis in.

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