Facebook-everybody has an opinion. Love it or hate it- it is now a commodity- an ultra fast and effective mode of communication and an incredible tool for building your own personal contact base.
It is also a thorn in my side- an infuriatingly invasive, relentless and self obsessive ball of energy which is always bubbling with something to know or see.
The vast majority of the internet generation use it prolifically and to my chagrin I noticed that my own Dad had logged on the other day.
So beware what you say or do because every picture and opinion is pasted across this worldwide spiderweb of gossip and current affairs. And people won’t hold back with what they think.
Sometimes you cringe with what is posted, laugh with glee or stare ridged with disbelief- did that person really do that?
Other times you wonder why you’ve logged on at all- only to log off three-quarters-of-an-hour later thinking what a complete and utter waste of time it was.
Beware once again, do not log on without a purpose- you will be dragged with the tide of curiosity- and we all know what killed the cat!
And then there’s the smouldering sense of dissatisfaction that someone you vaguely know seems to be having a ball of a time without you.
Have you ever thought it odd to be able to intrude into someone’s life, who in all honesty, you don’t know that well at all?
And it’s odder to know that spending half-an-hour looking at their profile will fill in a lot of the blanks.
But there again, what an age we live in. To be able to see the latest goings on in our friends and beloveds lives.
Whether they’ve just lept from the Seventh Wonder of the World and quickly uploaded their pics or been recently wed on the Vegas strip, you can be part of it all, in a very lonely cyber experience.
Last time I looked, I’d clocked up about 350 buddies, covering many parts of my life from the school playground to the more surreal episodes.
But I’ll be honest, I don’t have that many friends. Certainly nowhere near that amount. In fact, I could count on two hands the amount of people I speak to on a regular basis.
I appreciate that it is great for keeping in contact but the novelty has certainly worn off.
Because in truth I don’t really care about the ins and outs of most people’s lives, despite the pressure to be in the loop and feed the machine.
Although, I have to admit, having logged off for over three months I felt a strange allure back to the website and had to reconnect……..If you can’t beat ‘em join‘em. And unerringly I had to.
This is probably common knowledge, but I understand around a third of organisations vet any potential employees by tapping into social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace.
And you have no doubt received the various email feeds showing how people have been caught out pulling sickies and alike all because of their facebook antics.
So no hiding with a hangover- because we’ve all already seen the pictures from the night before.
And goodness me you had a few didn’t you? And who was that person you were hanging off at 3.15am outside the Red Lion? Oh, and nice top by the way, haven’t seen that one before. Is it new?
Sam Pinnington’s writes a weekly blog published every Tuesday on www.newportadvertiser.com.
