life through pink colour glasses: The defence would like to make it's case

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

The defence would like to make it's case

The fact is that the world is made up of whiny complainers. And I’ve just about had it with the lot of them! You know that saying – “you can’t make all of the people happy all of the time”? Apparently what you can do is make all of the people unhappy all of the time. These days nothing is without it’s critics and praise is like the honest Indian politician – rare and even when you get it, it’s never a 100%. Magazines, papers and of course, the headquarters of the negativity movement – blogs, are full of people dissing on this, that and the other.

It’s like that game I used to play as a kid “spot the differences”. Only nowadays, we seem to be brought up on it’s evil twin, “spot the flaw and bitch about it”. Taj Mahal – too ostentatious. Mother Teresa – converter! Money – root of all evil. Austerity – too severe. North Indians – that nasty accent. South Indians – that ridiculous accent. Kareena – too thin. Ash – too fat. It’s an awful, frankly dangerous attitude to have and like I said, I’ve just about had it!

(Of course, this particular post is really pandering to the same negative outlook I have a problem with, but sometimes you need evil to deal with evil. And besides, it’s my blog and I’ll deride if I want to.)

Recently, it was a particular series of incidents that really got me so nettled about the whole “let’s bitch this thing out” take on things. New York Times did this article about people leaving Facebook. As luck would have it, around the same time someone sent me a link to another article about annoying personality types of Facebook (this one was pretty funny actually). Soon a friend announced that she was leaving Facebook. “It’s just too intrusive!” she declared. Suddenly, everywhere you looked, there were articles and posts complaining about Facebook and how it was the anti-Christ. I think even Oprah did a show about the general dangers lurking on the Internet and of course Facebook was on the list of major offenders.

Now listen. I’m not asking anyone to stay or not stay on Facebook. It’s your choice completely. I just think this Facebook bashing has gone a bit too far. The fact is that Facebook is simply a social networking site that allows you to create a network of friends and acquaintances and stay in touch with them. It can also be very helpful to put out a message to a group of people and to indulge in some virtual conversation. Most importantly, it is a very customisable tool that allows you to decide just how much information you want to put out and to whom.

Plus it has great games!

So today, in the spirit of being constructive and not simply finding problems, I have decided to address some common Facebook gripes.

I don’t want to share my shit with every Tom, Dick and Harry. Then don’t! Facebook has some really great security settings that allow you to decide just whom you want to share your information with. Create lists of friends/others and control who sees, reads and comments on what. That creepily quiet chappie from your first job you added to your list out of politeness does not need to know anything about you.
Also, you’re the one adding information about yourself. If you don’t want people to see that picture with your boobs hanging out, don’t put it up!

I hate adding people I don’t really know. Again, just don’t do it. If you ignore or block a friend, that person will never be notified. Just get over you need to please everyone and learn to bloody say no already!

I hate those never-ending feeds from that girl who takes quizzes all day. It’s a one click solution. Just hide her.

I’m sick of receiving feeds about my friend who puts up every picture of every moment in her life. I hear you. Hide hide hide!

I’m not comfortable knowing that anyone can put my picture up on the web. This is a serious issue. The thing is that even if you get off Facebook, people can still put your pictures up. The only thing you could do is untag yourself and request your friend to remove your picture. Other than that, I really think it’s more of a the-times-we-live-in sort of problem and not just restricted to Facebook.

My ex boss is not my friend and I don’t fancy calling him that. Let’s make our peace with it. “Friends” on Facebook does not mean what we usually take it to mean. It’s just a convenient heading they came up with for a list of people. What would you rather they called the list? “People I have known in some capacity or the other in my personal, professional and or academic life” might be a mouthful.

That status message box taunts me to write something witty everyday. Just plagiarise. Go to a quotations website and copy and paste.

I waste too much time on it. Hmmm… that might be true. You could stop by this blog instead. Or maybe you could see this as an opportunity to build up resistance to temptation?

Big brother is watching me. This might be a valid concern that I need to look a little more deeply into. Personally, I think I’m too much of a small fry for big brother to take an interest in me, but then you never know! And again, it may be more a function of the electronic age we live in. We must all be alert!

You see? Every problem has a solution. It’s just a matter of asking. And if you still want to get off Facebook ‘cause you’re bored of it/you’ve found all the friends you wanted to find/you just don’t like its layout, by all means, do it. Just quit bitching about it!

Posted by that girl in pink | 2:14 am | 9 comments

9 Comments

at 2:43 am Anonymous said...: '...game I used to play as a kid', she says, peering, all the while, at the two apparently identical panels.

Haddocks' Eyes
at 12:34 pm Anonymous said...: good to see you blogging again on ur original space. cheers pink!

lemontree
at 8:17 pm Anonymous said...: you're back! :) (loud applause)
... Am coming back for more, so you better keep 'em coming!
at 4:15 pm Anonymous said...: defence comes well timed :)
i almost got carried away by prosecution!
-RJ

[p.s. keep the top spinning....]
at 1:53 am that girl in pink said...: thanks for visiting and leaving your lovely comments guys!
:)
i'm much inspired and plan to continue to post.
at 3:51 pm Deliciously Alive said...: I agree with all your points!:) I love facebook, for now:)
at 9:55 pm freespirit said...: After a creepy 2 year silence while my imagination overdrive made up all kinds of horrifying reasons for your absence, you quietly crawl back in, like you went for a stroll!!!! Bah!

Yayay! you are back :)
at 5:13 pm that girl in pink said...: quicksilver and freespirit: thanks for stopping by you guys! so great to bump into my old blogger buddies again! :)
at 10:47 pm Anonymous said...: Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now. Keep it up!
And according to this article, I totally agree with your opinion, but only this time! :)