Friday, December 20, 2013

Facebook Stalkers

Recently I was at a get together where I saw some old friends of mine that I hadn't seen in a while. As I was talking to them, and filling them in on the happenings in my life, they politely interrupted me with a casual "Oh I know... I saw that on facebook."

 Interesting what facebook can do to a relationship. Particularily with acquaintances or casual friends. You know, the ones you don't see often?  Basically, the very little information you post whether it be about the weather, or what you ate for lunch, or this funny thing that happened to you, takes away almost all of your ability to relate that cool story to someone you don't talk to. What it gives you is very little, if nothing, to talk to them about. So you're just left awkwardly standing there trying to think of something to talk about that you DIDN'T post on facebook.

As we continued on in the conversation, I asked this friend if they knew so much about me on facebook, how come I knew nothing about what was going on in their life? Their response, "Oh me? No, I don't post anything, I mostly just look at other people's stuff."

This is a common trend on facebook. It's what I affectionately call, the facebook stalker. This is a person who wants to know what is going on in people's lives, but they don't care to interact with anyone or divulge any information about themselves. They want to comfortably view people's lives without them having to be involved in them. If you think about it though.... that's kind of what stalkers do.

I kind of understand this person. I mean, I try to understand them. But as I thought about it further I began to wonder if they really were a "friend" or just someone who wants to view my life? I thought about all the people whom I was posting personal things to on facebook. How many of those people did I actually talk to? Connect with?  And I decided... you know where a good place to view my life is? This blog! You can google it any old time you want.

I guess what I'm saying is.......






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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I think the majority of facebookers are of this ilk. I myself would place myself in this same category, except that I spill my guts in my blog, which pretty much no one on facebook is aware of.

Years ago, long before the web and long before most people were even aware of the internet, we computer folks had our own versions of social media. Back then, we referred to the people you're talking about as "lurkers", as in the lurk around in the background, watching but not participating.