With over 700 million users on Facebook, people are sharing more than ever. We have all seen how sharing with social media can be a good thing; finding out that your little cousin hit a home run in his first game, getting updates about your uncle's vacation through Europe, or simply keeping in touch with that friend from high school who moved away for college. Facebook allows users to broadcast information to their entire friends lists at the click of a button. However, with this massive power to share comes the responsibility of knowing what to share.
With Facebook's "news feed" feature, and some of the more recently implemented changes such as the real-time update ticker, everyone knows what's going on with everybody else - instantly. It's easy to see how this can lead to information overload, especially when you get status updates like this scrolling through your news feed:
Fantastic! How was the shower? Was the water too hot, too cold, or just right? Did you condition or just shampoo this time? Kelsea, PLEASE tell us more!
We've seen it all before: "Sarah is laying down", "Mark is eating a sandwich", "John is tired." When I see status updates like this, I usually think to myself, "Who @#%*ing cares!? Quit clogging my news feed so I can pay attention to things I actually care about."
Another type of post I've grown to hate is the obligatory "Overly-Generalized Sweeping Statement" status update:
There's always one person who loves to post updates that are so ridiculously broad and generalizing that they become down right annoying. The above post is a perfect example of this. Sometimes statements like these remind us to re-examine our own behavior before we broadly criticize an entire group of people. Touche, Toby.
Finally, there's the "Bragging-About-Committing-Illegal-Activities" post:
While there's many things people post on Facebook that are an inconvenience or are annoying to others, some can have much more serious consequences. For obvious reasons, broadcasting the fact that you just stole property to your 792 friends on Facebook is probably not a good idea.
Let these Facebook posts be a lesson to us all. Before you share something on Facebook, or any social media website, make sure your post will not have any negative consequences for you, legal or otherwise. Secondly, ask yourself if people will even care about your status update. No one needs to know that you just used the toilet. If your post passes this test, then share away! As social media users, its everyone's duty to think before we click.
Great read Andrew - I got a good laugh from some of those status updates. As someone who is guilty of updating my status semi often (I know, THAT girl, right?) I try to approach it not as a vehicle to tell my 700 "friends" what I'm doing every second of the day, but to share funny content with others who I don't talk to on a daily basis. I'm a huge fan of the m-upload.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, and with a little disclaimer that I worked in social media marketing over the summer, I can’t decide if I fully know if the point of social media yet. I’ve engaged in many chats with people, both fans and haters, and there is no consensus. We can’t seem to live without it, but we love to hate it too. Facebook’s new timeline that they introduced last week is supposed to tackle this love-hate relationship we have with social networking, but it seems to have gotten more than it’s fair share of complaints about invasion of privacy, yada yada – just check Mashable every ten minutes for a new rant.
Andrew i really enjoyed your post. These days people don't pay attention to what they are posting on Facebook. Whether it is unnecessary details about their personal lives or whether they stole a shopping cart, i feel that this information is pointless. People waste their valuable time exposing or promoting themselves. Ultimately it can be annoying and even harmful. Most employers these days check peoples' facebooks to get a sense of who they really are.
ReplyDeleteMany individuals have lost their jobs or were unable to obtain a position because of their inappropriate comments, photos, etc. There is a thin line between private and public information and individuals need to recognize this.
I really connected to your post and im glad someone feels the same way about social media updates. I often find myself wondering why im friends with these people, especially the ones who feel the need to share everything about themselves like what they ate for breakfast and that they are "like omg sooo bored in class." Your title, "Nobody Cares!" is simply perfect.
ReplyDeleteI think the people who find it necessary to brag about the illegal activities they took part in or looking for people to join them should be deemed unfit for the social media sites where people are looking to stay connected to real friends and family. I often find myself deleting people from my online friends and make room for the ones that really matter.