There has never been a dearth of issues when it comes to the antics of Facebook micro-bloggers. Well, those (us) Facebook users will always manage to do something or the other that turns into a global rage, acting simultaneously as a fitting classification of folly. Here are a few such acts that don’t help a lot in testifying your intellectual evolution. Avoid these from now on, maybe.
Game of Enemies
Only people who did something great have enemies- and blah blah cover photos swarmed Facebook quite a while ago. Even till date a lot of people are seen posting status like- Take that! #Enemies #bitches #beep_beep. Enemies? Seriously dude? Tell me more about how you collaborated with the Starks that the Lannisters are now plotting to send you their regards. *straightface* You must really have a very dramatic life full of battles and conspiracies. The point is that we all hit a bump down the road of relationships with others but that doesn’t make those people our ‘enemies’. It would still make sense if one would post such stuffs once in a while, but seeing frequent posts from someone about his/her engagement in some frightful rivalry- we are bound to get the ‘Attention-Seeker Alert’. You might be thinking it makes you look like you have a very happening life; plot twist: IT DOESN’T! Your friends and those who know you are probably laughing at you behind your back. Hence, the next time- save the exaggeration.
Of Haters and Potatoes:
“Haters gonna hate, potatoes gonna potate”- first, potate is not even a word; so just coining a random word to rhyme to a borderline makes-no-sense phrase won’t make you any more ‘right’. Fine, there are people who are full of hatred and won’t miss an opportunity to shower this rare charm through Facebook comments. But over-abusing the phrase to counter every other critic thrown at you, however valid, only goes onto show your incapacity to hold a healthy debate based on solid reasoning. So yeah, learn to tell the difference between a hater and a critic.
How are you feeling today?
‘Feeling’ is possibly the most abused emotion on Facebook. You can feel cranky, upset, happy, anxious but how exactly can one feel- Akaashe onek shundor Chaad or crying for that matter. How does one feel crying? You were probably thinking that or watching that or as it appears in most cases ‘feeling like’ doing that. It just reads so darn funny on the newsfeed when you read it out in one go. Instead of posting something carrying half meaning why not write that down on the status window? Remember the time when there were no such options available? It was a better time.
Da Vinci’s apostles
Your mid-terms are ahead and you find one of your buddies is headed to Paris, France. *raised eyebrow* and then you find another, and then another until you find that one third of the people in your friend list are on some exotic vacation spree. No, Europe hasn’t declared itself Visa-free but these friends of yours are in fact on a more critical mission. They are here to spread the word about some illness through status like: I am going to France/England/Italy for Honeymoon (location corresponding with one’s relationship status).
Such annoying status spree that would crop up on Facebook every so often is the most ludicrous of all the other acts. While a lot of times it is done for mere fun which is completely fine….annoying but fine, more often than not it is to raise awareness. Listing fruits on status to raise awareness about Breast Cancer- Really?
Raising awareness is a great deed and vastly important. No arguing there. However, these coded messages have absolutely no relation whatsoever with the illness and is so irrelevant that they make Da Vinci cringe in his grave. I, for one, don’t understand how awareness about something can be raised by keeping the original message concealed. More often than not these ‘illnesses’ involve those typical to girls and are tabooed when it comes to speaking about them in public. Hence, by not speaking about the illnesses unambiguously aren’t we further contributing to the taboo? If you want people to be educated about these issues, TALK about it instead of following blindly anything that’s trending on the social media.
Not so holy
As a person of Faith, be it of whichever religion, it indeed feels amazing when we see people converting to our religion. However, believing in every meme that appears on your newsfeed, claiming so and so person moved to your Faith is not the mark of a logical person. A quick Google search is usually enough to reveal the true picture. Memes can be made by anyone and in this age of internet it is only easier to spread a lie. And, this issue demands particular attention and seriousness because we have already witnessed how houses and temples with valuable religious relics got burnt down based on a false Facebook meme. While we already seem to have been recovering from the contagion of “If you (don’t’) share this” prophecies, many still don’t spend a dime of rationality before buying a false news in the internet just because these come with captions like- True story or Breaking News. While the range of subjects are diverse, religion being an ultra sensitive topic requires much more alertness.
Facebook Donts
