Thursday, August 21, 2008

Social networking.

I have a love/hate relationship with social networks. I love them because I get to connect with people I don't talk to all the time. I hate them because they often create a false sense of familiarity that really irritates me.

I get it. We're "friends." But that doesn't mean you can ask extremely personal questions. It doesn't mean that you should assume that I want to hang out with you.

I'm sorry. That sounds harsh.

But it's true. If I want to hang out with you, I will cultivate a relationship. I will take the time to listen to you, see how you're doing. To call. To email. To converse. I will not invite myself to things, or put pressure on you to take time out of your busy schedule to pay attention to me.

If it's impolite to do it in person, why is it ok to do it online?

4 comments:

Mrs. Case said...

I've got a rant for the day, too:

Class mates.

Why is it that in small college classes, people think they can take the libery to explain in detail stories they think pertain to the lecture. I'm all for an anecdote here and there, but I'm paying $500 a class to hear the professor speak, not your grammatically incorrect ass! Ugh! To make things worse, it's a class full of WOMEN so trying to be heard is a competition. I'm ready to kick some of my classmates to tell them to shut their pie holes and work on their listening skills. End rant

Elisabeth said...

Ah, yes - I find this to be very much the case on Facebook!

jamie said...

Good call!! I think the term "friend" has developed an extremely loose meaning! Some of my "Friends" on social networks are NOT people I would freely associate with in real life...it's interesting, the dynamic they create..

Allison M. said...

The best is when people introduce you through Facebook. I still don't know who that person is, duh, even if you do introduce me. I need a reason.