Thursday, January 13, 2011

RANT: Are you connected or just think you are

I am amazed at how people are so "connected" now a days but in reality they are truly disconnected.  They have their cell phones, texting, Facebook, Twitter, email, Blogs, Farmville, Cityville, and what ever alternate universe you want to live in besides the real world. 

People have tons of friends on Facebook yet did you hear about the girl who said she was going to commit suicide and none of her so called "friends" went over to her house to help her.  So sad.  If you don't see your friends, talk to them on the phone, plan face to face time with them or help them when they need you,  you are not really friends or at least not as good as friends as you could be. 

Up until now I have not been texting but I am about to embark on this new phase of "being in touch" with my friends.  As each new phase enters I hope that this will help keep me in touch with people but I don't believe it actually works like I hope it will.  I will keep my "stupid texts" to Facebook.  I will not pay to just chat.  I plan on using texting to tell people what we are doing so they can join us if they like.  I will see how this works out.  I refuse however to pay over $60 for a plan to help me stay connected that doesn't really connect me so instead I will keep my plan to a minimum $30 with minimal minutes and texting and instead spend this extra money on getting together with people and going out.

Using Facebook as an example.   I thought how great especially for those friends who live across the country who I can't see very often.  It would give me a chance to keep up to date on what's going on in their life's without having to put a ton of effort into it.  When I said this I should have realized that THIS is the key.  Friendship requires effort and without it you are merely acquaintances, coworkers or passerby.  But to keep things positive when I first started facebook I realized that I was learning about some people that I wouldn't normally call to talk.  Some I'm related to so it gave me an opportunity to get to know them better and in turn I think they are getting to know me better.  Then I learned that some FB friends are just looky loos.  I think they may feel like big brother is watching so they don't want to clue you in on what's going on in their life's so unfortunately I find that I talk but no one else does.  Sadly I haven't learned a lot about these friends.  I would like to feel more in touch with those who I can't stay in touch with on a regular basis and for those that never say something, speak up.

I did go dark for about a week on Facebook and decided to try Twitter but this was even more odd.  I was telling strangers what was going on.  People follow you and they don't even know you.  I don't even understand how they found me and why.  This lasted for about a week and back to Facebook I went.  I still tweet every so often if it is an informative tweet, nothing personal.

After awhile I decided to go dark on FB and try Twitter.  When it came about I grabbed my name but never really gave it a try.  I gave it a try for about a week and found that it was similar to FB in the fact that I talked but no one else did and in this case I was talking to total strangers.  Why did these people decide to follow me since after a year of not saying anything I decided to talk.  Are there automatic programs out there that glob onto new Tweets, hoping to find out something they can screw you over on.  Now I became paranoid.  I don't understand why someone would follow a nobody like me.  I can kinda understand it with celebrities, some people like to know what celebrities are doing, or with companies so you can get a discount or even with a tweeter who has knowledgeable things to say and you find that what they say makes sense or helps you through your day but me, with my limited tweeting, of nothing, doesn't make any sense.  After a week I gave up tweeting and went back to FB.  At least here those "friends" who are stalkers are friends or people I know and don't mind them knowing what's going on in my life.  They are more than acquaintances and maybe through FB some will become more than that.  I can only hope and I will continue to do it for simply the satisfaction it gives me.  When someone asks what I've been up to  I can say "follow me on FB and find out" because my memory is SHOT!

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