I have joined Facebook in 2007, if I remember correctly. In December 2007, I think, and I was the late one among my friends.
Recent months were dedicated to shrinking my online personality, which goes for posting pictures and other online activities. To be honest, this decision came spontaneously, without much thinking. Somehow it seemed wise to me to deliberately stop using computer as much, since we all have to interact with it for work and everything else. So why not minimize it where possible. Facebook was the most time-consuming and the least intellect expanding. There was no competition.
Are there any benefits? Without doubt. I read more books, go to hang out with my friends more - to be precise, the circle of my friends broadened - , and I have time. Just time on my hands to do whatever. To climb a tree, to ride a bike, to take a stroll, to sip coffee on a balcony...
Any negative sides? As well. But silly ones, like spending more money in bars while chatting with friends. And that feeling that somehow someone is forgetting about you because you are not online so much. As I said, silly.
Nevertheless, I believe we should socialize more in person, so here are some quite good examples of why you should post less and think more about what you’re posting, if you’re still doing that frequently... And yes, go out more.
No.1
You do remember the Haiti disaster, I guess. It was quite cold in Slovenia at the time and an acquaintance of mine made a relatively innocent comment about blankets that were being transported to Haiti - she was freezing and she wouldn’t mind to have one herself, so she suggested that a plane passing Slovenia dropped one at her door. Being a semi-celebrity in Slovenia this post was furiously adopted by many gossip web sites and the mini scandal began.
Wannabe journalists (trust me, “wannabe” stands correctly here - you should see the level of “journalism” on those websites, and I am not defending her - trying to be very objective here) scooped over her past posts to reveal many jokes she posted that were not meant to go public. Ever. Even though the jokes were cruel, yet really really funny (some of them were an example of good old black humor), they were only jokes. Posted so many times by others. And I know for a fact from a person working in the same media house hosting the web site, that everyone was telling her jokes for months to come. And they all laughed. Strongly. But the damage has been done. Luckily, another gossip came through.
No. 2
This one is more international, I’d say. We all know Tracy. Yes, the OMG Tracy. The epic fail. I believe there are no words needed to explain this, the post speaks for itself. And it is very loquacious.
No. 3
Ant another one for the end. International dessert again. Why would you want to post that? Seriously. It’s bad enough the people involved have the memory of it.
Have a lovely evening outdoors...
xoxo
