Day 86 - Peep Show

Facebook is what it is. You can choose to read it all and believe it all or you can cherry pick the moments that might make a difference to you. Its a bit like voyeurism and I'm sure there are stacks of people out there who use it for exactly that purpose. There are also stacks of people, it seems, that will believe anything that someone / something puts up as a status.

As someone I know wrote today, and I quote "YOU CAN'T see the hot girl stripping nor did she leave her webcam on, YOU CAN'T find out who looked at your profile, YOU WILL NOT know what that man saw when he walked in on his daughter, YOU WILL NOT see pics of Osama Bin Laden's dead body, there are NO free iPads, you will NEVER know why that baby is laughing. FACEBOOK will always be free - STOP CLICKING THESE LINKS & EXPOSING ME TO THESE VIRUSES - seriously!!!!! "  This pretty much sums up the crap that we put up with. But is it all worth it?

Being a bit BC I can tell you that back in the day, and not that long ago, if you wanted to stay in touch you either wrote a letter and actually posted it or you called someone on the phone. If you were travelling you used the Poste Restante system at the main post office. There were times as a backpacker when months went by before you could find a phone to phone reverse charges to the parents.In the army, the rare calls had to be booked, and ideally when you were on ops room duty - which came round every 6 weeks or so.

So, the world has moved on. now days we take it all for granted and get frustrated when its not easy. Facebook for all its leanings towards voyeurism fills a gap that hadn't been filled previously. And lets admit it, it does it bloody well if you do it right. I don't think ever before have we been so easily able to catch up with people that we grew up with. We have not been able to share real time pictures with our dearly beloved so quickly and so cleanly. We have not before been able to share our emotions online quite like we can now.
There are those however who go over the top and report to their never ending growing list of 'friends' every movement of their bowels at all times of the day. We have seen more pictures of their friends and family, especially babies, than we would like, we have seen their car, their workplace, their partner, their drunken moments of joy, their check ins at the Wimpy. They have overshared. And we have encouraged it by reacting to their drivel. We have applauded their ability to copy clever sayings from the bottom of the diary page, we have commented on good they look. We are their friends after all. And we worry when they don't reciprocate to our postings.

So have I answered the question. Is it all good? Well yes it is and I think everyone should be mandated to be of facebook, but perhaps the training in the settings should be a course that people are forced to go onto. There should also be a list of criteria to sign up a 'friend'.
a/ do you actually know that person
b/ do you know where they live
c/ have you shared something with them
d/ have you been drunk with them before
e/ would you donate a kidney to them if they needed it
f/ would you pee on them if they were on fire

And then there is skype. Now here is a clever thing that I have recently discovered for myself. Free, so that's a good starting point, and easy to use, even for someone like me. The world, so far away in SA can only get better. Everyone should have it. How long before the proverbial peep show goes digital? I wait with bated breath.

Until tomorrow.