Tuesday, January 25, 2011

facebook is so weird ...

My cousins had a baby last night and while there's no way I could accuse them of 'live-birthing' (I've seen some of that shit and it's scary), they did check-in with regular updates on facebook, keeping their combined total of over 1000 'friends' up to date on when her water's broke, how far dilated she was, when they had the epidural and finally The Photo, a scant 25 minutes after the baby was born.
Weird.

I mean, great for all of us who were interested and eager for the news, but still - weird. Am I the only one who thinks so?

I made a big hoo-ha about taking a break from facebook a while back, and this is not the first time I've questioned the sanity of the medium. I enjoyed my month off but inevitably I got back on, there's just too many people I really enjoy interacting with. I missed them.

The other day I was looking for that setting where you can choose which 'friends' to hear more about on your news feed and which to ignore, but it seems to have gone in the latest of the regular facebook make-overs. (Really spell-check, do you still not accept facebook as a word? Really?)
What I did find was the page where all the gazillion people you could possibly be 'friends' with resides, so I had a brief flip through that. So weird.

There's a couple of people listed there with whom I've 30+ 'friends' in common, yet we've not hooked up. I know them, as in I know of them, some I was at Varsity with etc, but we're not friends (as in the no inverted comma's definition) so I've never thought to send them a 'friend' request. And interestingly if we've that many people in common I must've come up as one of their suggested 'friends', and they've not sent me a request either. I feel like this means we understand each other. Or they've no clue who I am. Either way, I'm more than ok with that.
But there are people there I've 20+ 'friends' in common with and I've definitely never met. So weird.
The majority (both known and unknown) share 5 'friends' with me. There's over a hundred of these. Inherent proof of the 6 degrees of separation theory?
Weird.

But here's the weirdest. I've had facebook suggest I befriend some of the bloggers I read. (Oh c'mon spell-check - bloggers? Not a word? Hellloooo, it's 2011.)
People I've no 'friends' (or indeed, friends) in common with, never had any interaction with on facebook. I've not searched for them, I assume they've not searched for me, but yet facebook knows to suggest them to me.
That's weird.

Know what else is weird? I'm off to have a shower with a surgical glove taped over my hand.
Sounds way kinkier then it really is.
Stupid wound.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

facebook is definitely odd that you keep in touch with many people, know about their lives, but it ends there. You will never share a meal or be anything but information to them. I usually facebook add people that have some creative talent or works I want to keep up on. Some are just friends!

kathleen xx

Charlene said...

My opinion is that Facebook is a medium where people you know but not well are able to stalk you quietly; a voyeur and exhibitonists enabler.

McGillicutty said...

Yep guilty.. I do have some bloggers as friends 'cos I like to see what they're up to and sometimes I'll catch a post that I missed on my reader. I think I had you a suggestion once??? maybe??? but didn't want to interfere with your life because you're a kinda private blogger.. you know.. not all ads and traffic and blah blah...
FB is weird... no two ways about it.

no one special said...

Oh my god, it is like you read my mind!! I have just stopped using facebook for the exact some reasons you have talked about. Do people not interact in person anymore?? Thank you so much for your blog, I thought I was the only one who felt like this, my 'friends' though I was weird.

krista said...

i can't quite facebook for the same reason...there are too many people i probably wouldn't talk to if it weren't for that.
but i'm okay with it.
i just hide the people that give me too many updates.
:-)
the strangest thing BY FAR is when people i don't know ask to be friends. i had one guy ask three times. and we had no mutual friends. i finally blocked him because he was kind of freaking my shit out.
oh, the bookface.