This is Kevin Alcott. I do not feel the need to make much of an introduction because I hope my words will speak for themselves.
We all seem to claim to want privacy and feel safe wherever we are. We want to feel safe in our schools, in our neighbourhoods and we expect the best client privacy policies with the companies we deal with. That is very understandable; I am one of those claimers. What I find ironic is that at the same time most of us (including myself) fall into the Facebook mania. Approximately everyone we know in real life (and some internet loners who just add you as a friend for lack of real interpersonal skills) knows if you got drunk last weekend and were showing off your granny panties down Peter Street. We voluntarily expose details of our lives that maybe we shouldn’t.
Why shouldn’t we? Well maybe it’s not entirely safe to have your whole school and neighbouring community know that you were getting busy at a party instead of being at work. Maybe not everyone on your Facebook friend’s list is worthy of your trust, and (to be fair) maybe you aren’t worthy of theirs.
Think about it: your pictures with your better half in the hands of your archenemy that just happens to be armed with Photoshop….the possibilities are endless. With Facebook everyone knows (the minute it happens), if you are in a relationship, with whom, and when you break up. If the breakup does happen, you will get amusing little comments from people that you never really talk to such as; “aww what happened hun?”. Like come on; do they really care? No. Why do we expose ourselves like that? Is it maybe a mutual agreement? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours? I’ll expose my life if you expose yours? The times when I have deactivated Facebook I have had numerous texts and complaints from my friends asking me if I was mad at them because I didn’t show up on their list of friends. No. I’m not mad my lovely friends/acquaintances/weird internet loners. Sometimes I just get tired of wasting my life on that webpage and not even knowing why. A very ironic part of my personal Facebook life is that I have my whole family and friends/acquaintances blocked. Why? Because I am paranoid someone is going to tag me in a picture from Saturday with a tequila shot in each hand looking like I’m about to fall over and my dad will see it. Or someone who knows my mom will tell her how I seem to be the life of every party. Does that make me a hypocrite? Yes. Will it make me unblock my family? No. But nevertheless, I let a whole bunch of randoms know my personal life while I hide it from my family. Why? I’m not sure. Do I like the convenience Facebook gives to keep in contact with people I would otherwise not talk to? Again, I’m not sure. To all of you who do not use Facebook, good for you, I admire you for not following the norm. Fight the man!
Think about it: your pictures with your better half in the hands of your archenemy that just happens to be armed with Photoshop….the possibilities are endless. With Facebook everyone knows (the minute it happens), if you are in a relationship, with whom, and when you break up. If the breakup does happen, you will get amusing little comments from people that you never really talk to such as; “aww what happened hun?”. Like come on; do they really care? No. Why do we expose ourselves like that? Is it maybe a mutual agreement? I’ll show you mine if you show me yours? I’ll expose my life if you expose yours? The times when I have deactivated Facebook I have had numerous texts and complaints from my friends asking me if I was mad at them because I didn’t show up on their list of friends. No. I’m not mad my lovely friends/acquaintances/weird internet loners. Sometimes I just get tired of wasting my life on that webpage and not even knowing why. A very ironic part of my personal Facebook life is that I have my whole family and friends/acquaintances blocked. Why? Because I am paranoid someone is going to tag me in a picture from Saturday with a tequila shot in each hand looking like I’m about to fall over and my dad will see it. Or someone who knows my mom will tell her how I seem to be the life of every party. Does that make me a hypocrite? Yes. Will it make me unblock my family? No. But nevertheless, I let a whole bunch of randoms know my personal life while I hide it from my family. Why? I’m not sure. Do I like the convenience Facebook gives to keep in contact with people I would otherwise not talk to? Again, I’m not sure. To all of you who do not use Facebook, good for you, I admire you for not following the norm. Fight the man!
Maybe I’ll set an example and go deactivate my account, but for now I’m going to go update my status.
-Kevin Alcott
No comments:
Post a Comment