Online etiquette

The number of pple who sign up and are constant patrons of social networking sites these days is through the roof. I won't bore yoou with the statistics (That punishment is for my Lecturer who gave us the assignment in the first place) but I doubt u won't be surprised when you see them. I don't deny being a social networker myself, an avid one for that matter, how else could I find old class mates and keep in touch with friends so easily.However, recently I've seen and heard lots of pple criticising these sites saying that they make pple's private things public and all what not. So I decided to compare online social networking and life in reality if I may call it that and My case study, FACEBOOK.

Now I'm a member of Facebook as well but somethings just seem to...tick me off. I'll talk about 2 aspects of facebook and compare them to relatively similar acts in real life. Facebook's Wall, Status updates.

So facebook's wall, I liken it to a cast, like the one u wear wen u break an arm lol! U know how pple like to sign on casts of friends with stuff like "Hope it heals soon" and "I told u to break a leg and u did?", well that's facebook's wall for you. You write on my wall and all my friends can see what you wrote. You say "Hi wats up?" on it and everyone I know now knows u said Hi. So in reality if I saw a friend of mine on the street and waved to her screaming "Wat's up!?" a facebook wall representation would involve me calling, texting and emailing everyone I knew telling them I saw you on the street, waved and screamed Wats up?. That's even on the soft side. Some tend to go the extra mile in Facebook wall writing and say stuff like "Saw u on FB and u looked familiar, what sec. school did u go to?". It's a simple question with the wrong querying technique because I'm sure the person's inbox is just a few mouse scrolls away and it wouldn't take anything to substitute the wall writing u intended to do for message sending....etiquette pple etiquette!

Next is Facebook's status updates and in my opinion the most abused feature of facebook because of the variety of pointless things you find on it. I may be guilty of this social infringement as well but I've seen worse, "I'm tired", "I'm sleepy", "I love him", "I am praying"...What in flippin' name is that about? In real life would u tell everyone you know that u were sleeping or u were feeling tired. If the brain was a hard disk and u were connected to facebook do u realise how much space would be wasted on irrelevant data. Imagine u owned a T-shirt for everything u ever felt, emotions et al. Would u want everyone to see them....maybe some of them but not all. C'mon pple the aim is to keep urselves connected and happy not tormented and frustrated. If u feel tired, rest, if u feel sleepy, sleep, if u feel the need to talk to God keep it between U and him but never consider a facebook status update in between.

Facebook users aren't all that bad though. As a blogger I'm writting from my own experience and perceptions even though it's hard for me to imagine anyone who will be fascinated by a friends inability to sleep referenced in a status update. I just think we should just keep the private things private and the public things public...maybe I just have a different view on the social networking thing but I doubt I'm the only one. don't get me wrong social networking is a blast when U r at ur online peak but there comes a time when u reach your saturation point and then all the crap u never noticed before pops up everywhere u look on your profile lol!. So if u think facebook's not cool then that's ur opinion and I may have given you even more reasons to back up ur argument but as for we who are already snared I say balderdash...Facebook rocks lol..Ironic isn't it?