Social Networking: Sometimes Good, Sometimes Bad - But I Like It

Social Networking, the wonderful idea that you can find out what anyone is doing at any time and they can also find out what you are doing at any time.

At first I thought this was a load of crap, and asked myself: why the hell would I want to be on a social networking site?

Then due to a few very persuasive friends, I decided to create a MySpace page.  At first it was a bit of fun and I could add all the bands and musicians I knew and admired and be informed of what they were doing, new albums, gigs, what they got up to and where and how often etc.  All very useful information (or so I thought at the time), whenever I bothered to go there to read the updates.  I just put up a few pics and videos, added a few friends and music-related users and so forth.  It was fun and at the time (about 4 or 5 years ago now) a novelty and quite addictive when you started chatting to people on the site, adding more photos and videos, reading people's profiles, reading all the updates, changing your profile graphics, checking out all the new friend requests you got overnight and so on.  But I soon got bored, and getting bombarded with friend requests from bands I've never heard of and people I didn't know or didn't want to know got kind of old really fast.  So I sort of went off it after a while.

Then somehow I got convinced that Facebook was a good idea.  At first I thought, nope, don't need it, I have no interest in trying to keep up with people on yet another site.  But I thought OK why not and I had been told that everyone was using it so I got on there too, mainly to see what all the fuss was about and if it was really as cool as everyone was saying.

Over time I stopped using MySpace and now I only go there to check band updates that's all and that's about once a month if that, it doesn't help of course that they've made it the most user unfriendly piece of crap I've ever seen in my life.  And now I basically use Facebook constantly, every day.  I have signed up for many other sites only because I have friends in Europe who use them like Bebo and HiFive and other similar sites but I do not log onto those any more than every 2 or 3 months.

Facebook is now the staple "Social Networking" site for everyone it seems and for me too.  However some people take it way too seriously and some people misuse it beyond what it's intended for.  But I must say, I really do like it, and really enjoy using it, even when they make stupid changes to it without giving you any warning and even when sometimes stupid people take things way too far.

The way I see it, sites like Facebook are simply there to keep up with friends, share photos and experiences with friends who live far away or those who you don't see very often, or share the same things with your close friends as well such as social events and the subsequent photos and comments about the event so everyone can enjoy the memories and share them with their friends and family as well.

It's a good way to keep up with things and events, and these days bands and musicians are using it too as a good medium to share their information.  It's used as a business tool too for promoting your business and there are many other things it can be used for.

But in my case, I mainly use it for keeping in touch with friends near and far.  I use it to organise events, share photos, share experiences, catch up with people, locate long lost friends or relatives and get in touch again.  I love to see what everyone is up to, where they've travelled, what photos they've taken, how their families are going, and all those things that you normally wouldn't see or know without Facebook.  I guess I will admit it, I like snooping on what people get up to, for some reason, I find it interesting :)

The bad thing about Facebook is how some people just get too serious.  Sometimes people will make a silly comment and things get out of control, friendships are lost and, God forbid, you get "defriended" or "deleted" from a friend's list!! I find this hilarious.  I've had many instances of people who have not known how Facebook works or have mistakenly written a post or a comment publicly that was meant to be private and have caused all sorts of drama... The funny thing is, it's only the Internet people... it's not reality... if you write something silly, you can delete it, apologise to the person concerned and have a laugh about it.  It's not that serious! 

I have been online now since probably 1995, and I learned early on that if you take everything you read online seriously, you would either have no life or friends or be in a padded cell.  Yet people still do.  People fly off the handle, create a massive drama and go on and on about the silliest little online comments that appear from time to time on Facebook or other sites.  People, lighten up, it's only the Internet, nobody will care in like, 5 minutes from now!  I have been flabbergasted at what people have done because of a comment on Facebook, they have deleted friends, they have stopped talking to people, they have bad mouthed people, created huge dramas and all sorts of mayhem and it makes me wonder why.   Why is that?  I guess it's because some people have no life, have small minds, and the only thing they have is drama and gossip and I guess every little thing they can hang onto they will to create what they need for their small, meaningless lives.

So what I have realised is yes, you have to be careful on Facebook, you can't say too much, you have to take what you read with a grain of salt and have a laugh.  Seriously, you really have to laugh!!  And to avoid the idiot over-reactors, you have to make sure when you post something that you remember, it's a public forum, everyone will read it!  And then if you aren't prepared for the consequences, don't post it or delete it once you realise your mistake!  You only have to go to sites like Lamebook.com to read the crap that people put on a public forum!!  Seriously, if you have a serious issue at home with your partner, does that really have to be made public?  If you have personal problems or sensitive health issues, does that really need to be there for everyone to see?  If you feel the need to gossip about people, do you really need to make it nasty in public?  

So despite the good, there is always the bad, and this goes for most things in life not just Facebook!  So think before you post or before you upload that "questionable" photo!  And if someone writes something about you that is a little upsetting, remember it's just an online website, and it really isn't your whole life, so just lighten up!

So it's a New Year...

But how come I don't feel new? A New Year is good in theory, out with the old, in with the new and that's a great thing.  However I just don't feel new but don't get me wrong, I don't feel old either.  I guess the New Year concept takes a while to sink in then by the time I get into it it's already halfway gone!

This brings me to the topic of age.  I would be a liar if I said that I wasn't afraid of aging, in fact I'm really not keen on it at all.  I had not expected to get to this age so fast, my daughter is starting high school this year for goodness sake, and that's scary enough!  I don't feel my age, well maybe sometimes but I don't "think" my age...  I know that the body doesn't take the punishment it used to and bounce back as quickly as it used to!  I remember the good old days, work all day, drink every night then work all day and do it all over again, day after day.  Those were the days. Nowadays, I might have a few drinks on a weekend at some event or at the pub, and then I get a lingering headache and other pains that seem to hang around for days on end.

But also when I was younger I seemed to get more sleep.  Whatever happened to good old sleep?  Sleep is now the enemy.  The enemy you can't conquer even though you try everything to win it over, nothing works.  It still escapes.  I do attempt to get to bed at a good hour (well mostly) but despite my good efforts, I still can't seem to move when the alarm goes off.  I blame it on aging. I never had that problem 20 years ago, and used to get by on 5 hours if that...  But at least when I wanted to sleep, I could!

Then there is the issue of the effort involved in trying to look good.  Of course, the older you get the harder this becomes.  I remember just slapping on some eyeliner and lip gloss and out the door I went.  These days there is a far more time consuming process involved.  OK maybe it's just vanity, but I am female and we do think about these things.  The hair is thinner and hardly there these days, but after all the perming, dying, chemical treatments etc. it's been put through in all these years, it's hardly surprising.  So more effort involved with that too.  Then the body of course is not as bouncy and firm as it used to be, but I am not a fitness freak.  My exercise routine consists of walking in the mall.  I suspect though that this may not be enough to keep gravity at bay...

And then there's the strange phenomenon of how people age so differently.  When I see my old high school friends (no pun intended) from 30+ years ago, the variations in their aging processes is quite astounding.  Some look exactly the same, with maybe an extra wrinkle here and there or a grey hair here and there.  Some look like you would expect after 30 years, they've put on a little weight, look their age but still look like the same person.  Then there are the ones that are total shockers.  The ones that have aged really badly.  I thank the Universe that I am not one of them.

It's like the rock stars you see from the 70's and 80's.  You remember how they looked then.  You see how they look now.  Some look fine, or they look like you would expect.  Others bring on an extreme cringe reaction and you question if they are actually the same person.  And still others, look way better than they used to when they were younger.  Go figure.  Aging just sucks in general but I will say that for some people it is actually a good thing.

Of course with age, comes wisdom.  And again, not in all cases.  I know people my age who have not changed the way they live in all their lives and have not learned a single lesson.  I don't understand that myself, after all we are here to learn lessons and grow from them and progress in life.  It's sad that some people never do that.  But I would like to think that I have and the people I surround myself with have as well.  The older you get the smarter you should get, or at least, you should know better.  Even if you don't really grow up except in the number of years that makes up your age, you can still be young at heart while having progressed within yourself to grow into the person you are proud to be today.