Friday, April 8, 2011
Are you a "facebook stalker"?
Do you often find yourself going on to facebook initially just to see if you have any updates and eventually wind up scrupulously going through every album, wall post, and info of multiple "friends" of yours? If you answered yes, you are probably a "facebook stalker". And if you answered no, then chances are you are lying to yourself.
Now it is very important, if you are not already familiar with this term, to confuse it with actual stalking. But it is very easy to find comparisons with the two. It's not so much that a "fb stalker" is obsessed or deeply engaged with one particular person. Rather, they dig through their friends entire facebook lives sometimes for hours on end for no particular reason. I'll admit, I have caught myself "fb stalking" on numerous occasions because I find that crap astoundingly interesting and it's a solid way to throw time down the drain.
I try my best to stop "fb stalking" whenever I catch myself doing it, because even though my intentions are not that of a real life stalker, it's still pretty creepy.It's gotten so big that CNN decided to chime in on the issue:
Now it is very important, if you are not already familiar with this term, to confuse it with actual stalking. But it is very easy to find comparisons with the two. It's not so much that a "fb stalker" is obsessed or deeply engaged with one particular person. Rather, they dig through their friends entire facebook lives sometimes for hours on end for no particular reason. I'll admit, I have caught myself "fb stalking" on numerous occasions because I find that crap astoundingly interesting and it's a solid way to throw time down the drain.
I try my best to stop "fb stalking" whenever I catch myself doing it, because even though my intentions are not that of a real life stalker, it's still pretty creepy.It's gotten so big that CNN decided to chime in on the issue:
Bullying on facebook
It has been readily apparent to me that people abuse facebook to make comments and insults that ultimately hurt other users. Even though nobody is getting wedgies or getting their heads shoved into toilets for a good ole' fashion swirly, people are using the social network to cyber-bully other people.
I personally can't stand internet tough guys/girls who think its okay to harass their peers behind the protection of a faceless conversation. 9 times out of 10, these are the people who are too gutless to say something to a person face-to-face so they flex their stuff through cowardice attack's on a person's wall or making a demeaning comment on a picture. I've witnessed this way too many times.
Although guys do this too, I've noticed that girls in particular (usually whom I've considered to be sweet, civilized young ladies) are ruthless with their bombarding attacks towards one another. There is no hesitation to point out the other girl's personality flaws, social status, and even weight! The worst one I saw was over winter break where two groups of girls were mercilessly going at it calling each other "fat sluts", "retard", "skanks"... pretty much every insulting name under the sun. One girl even attacked another for how much money her parents earn, the car she drives, and how her boyfriend was kicked out of school! Just terrible disgusting remarks that neither of them would ever dare say to each other in person. I was glad when one of the girl's mom saw what was going on and calmed everyone down, and the ringleader of the verbal punishment decided to delete all of the posts.
People may think that this form of bullying is less severe, but in reality it's still abusive and people are still getting hurt by it. I advise all facebook tough guys to either keep it to themselves or just get off facebook because all forms of bullying is wrong and the results are never positive.
I personally can't stand internet tough guys/girls who think its okay to harass their peers behind the protection of a faceless conversation. 9 times out of 10, these are the people who are too gutless to say something to a person face-to-face so they flex their stuff through cowardice attack's on a person's wall or making a demeaning comment on a picture. I've witnessed this way too many times.
Although guys do this too, I've noticed that girls in particular (usually whom I've considered to be sweet, civilized young ladies) are ruthless with their bombarding attacks towards one another. There is no hesitation to point out the other girl's personality flaws, social status, and even weight! The worst one I saw was over winter break where two groups of girls were mercilessly going at it calling each other "fat sluts", "retard", "skanks"... pretty much every insulting name under the sun. One girl even attacked another for how much money her parents earn, the car she drives, and how her boyfriend was kicked out of school! Just terrible disgusting remarks that neither of them would ever dare say to each other in person. I was glad when one of the girl's mom saw what was going on and calmed everyone down, and the ringleader of the verbal punishment decided to delete all of the posts.
People may think that this form of bullying is less severe, but in reality it's still abusive and people are still getting hurt by it. I advise all facebook tough guys to either keep it to themselves or just get off facebook because all forms of bullying is wrong and the results are never positive.
How does facebook change your every day life?
Personally, I'm a full-blown facebook addict. I can't go 6 hours, let alone an entire day, without checking my facebook. Whether its looking at my friends new photos or even blindly scrolling through the news feed, I can't manage to stay away from it! But I feel I'm not the only one with this very real/sad problem. I can't tell you how many times I've heard " did you you see what _____ said on fb?" and I've actually been interested by it. It's almost nauseating.
More imprtantly than the time kids waste on facebook is the time lost actually talking to one another face to face. Instead of meeting up with friends to see what they've been up to I'll usually just wait to catch them when they're on facebook and use chat. on the opposite end of the spectrum, people I barely know are surprisingly involved with my fb. Every onve in a while I'll put up a movie quote or something as my status and have three "likes" from people I haven't talked to since middle school. I have facebook friends that I've maybe talked to once or twice in my life but have never failed to post on my wall for my birthday, and I admittedly do the same for them. The funny part is that I bet half of these people wouldn't say happy birthday if they passed me on the street! I know I wouldn't. Not because I'm a jerk or anything, it would just seem weird in person.
Not to mention the ways it affects my school work. Besides from spending hours at a time surfing through random people's walls like a zombie, I'll find myself writing a paper and using commonly accepted facebook lingo. Sometimes I'll write something that I think is funny that I will immediately follow up with a "hahahaha", as if it were a natural bodily reflex, and keep writing. I'll hand in the paper (hopefully a rough draft) and the "lol" or "haha" will be underlined and circled with red ink with a giant question mark next to it.
With that being said, facebook is not all bad. Mark Zuckerberg wouldn't be the youngest billionaire ever if it were. All I'm saying is that people should use facebook with caution, because it is DANGEROUSLY ADDICTIVE.
More imprtantly than the time kids waste on facebook is the time lost actually talking to one another face to face. Instead of meeting up with friends to see what they've been up to I'll usually just wait to catch them when they're on facebook and use chat. on the opposite end of the spectrum, people I barely know are surprisingly involved with my fb. Every onve in a while I'll put up a movie quote or something as my status and have three "likes" from people I haven't talked to since middle school. I have facebook friends that I've maybe talked to once or twice in my life but have never failed to post on my wall for my birthday, and I admittedly do the same for them. The funny part is that I bet half of these people wouldn't say happy birthday if they passed me on the street! I know I wouldn't. Not because I'm a jerk or anything, it would just seem weird in person.
Not to mention the ways it affects my school work. Besides from spending hours at a time surfing through random people's walls like a zombie, I'll find myself writing a paper and using commonly accepted facebook lingo. Sometimes I'll write something that I think is funny that I will immediately follow up with a "hahahaha", as if it were a natural bodily reflex, and keep writing. I'll hand in the paper (hopefully a rough draft) and the "lol" or "haha" will be underlined and circled with red ink with a giant question mark next to it.
With that being said, facebook is not all bad. Mark Zuckerberg wouldn't be the youngest billionaire ever if it were. All I'm saying is that people should use facebook with caution, because it is DANGEROUSLY ADDICTIVE.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)