Taking offence

I find social media a fascinating thing, as anyone who knows me will testify.  Perhaps, for all the wrong reasons, it is almost addictive.  I was interested to read the opinions of some ex-work colleagues the other day with regards to “What Facebook is for”.  The discussion took place because someone had been “Polluting their timeline” with articles and opinions about the situation in Palestine.  Apparently, Social media is not the place to air any opinion, and should be for; and I quote “Photos of amusing vegetables, and gossip about television”.  I was rather surprised, as I hadn’t been sent that set of rules, and of course immediately set about deleting anything that displayed a political opinion.  Of course, everyone is entitled to post what they want, just as everyone is entitled to read what they want.  Facebook has some excellent features for hiding things, and of course, you can un-friend, or simply stay away from Facebook.  I rarely get offended by anyone with an opinion, but i do find the endless “Which biblical character are you?” and “which sexual position are you?” quizzes that seem to take up many peoples time.  Simply though, if it bothered me that much, I’d hide them.  There are quite a few people on Facebook who I find particularly tedious, so I hide their timelines.  I don’t want to be as rude as to unfriend them, it’s nice to remember birthdays and suchlike.

The other rant that I seem to see a lot of lately is the “Why must you insist on posting graphic images of war on my timeline?”.  If it is on your timeline, hide it, if it on someone elses, hide them.  Simple really.  I loathe all the nonsense about the Royal Family, so I hide it.  I don’t dislike the other people who want to post it…whatever makes you smile I say.  I would also hope that anyone who gets bored or offended by what I post uses the common sense to ignore it too.  Facebook is good like that.

Whilst on the subject of social media, I have discovered the terms “Vaguebooking” and “Subtweeting” this week.  Whilst being faintly aware of them, this article in the Guardian has been particularly useful in explaining.   I am, I am afraid, rather guilty of the vaguebooking thing, as my response to vaguebooking is to vaguebook myself.  Does that even make any sense?  The attention seeking status update along the lines of “I wish people would get their facts straight” or somesuch…They are clearly aimed at someone in particular, so why not aim it at them?  Ah…it’s that attention seeking thing isn’t it?  But then, by even saying this, I am clearly thinking of someone who updates their status like this, and therefore I am guilty of vaguebooking.  Life seemed so simple when the internet didn’t exist.