Facebook spills over into blind rage
by Fred Roed on 24/07/07 at 1:11 pm
16 comments
For the past while I’ve been trying to get one of my mates to get on the Facebook bus. He recently gave in and then sent me this email (see below for an edited version).
Priceless.
This damn Facebook!
The reason I don’t want to know about it is so many arbs get hold of you!! I mean look at your list of disturbed people!
I don’t want to hear from people from the past or I would phone them and say hoozit my braatjie! And we know how many arbs we have come across in our life that will try to be our best buds again – I mean look at who is on my “friends” list already! Give me a break! Is this not proof enough of what a bad idea this is? I didn’t have the heart to click ignore (a button I have used already though) in case he jumps off a building or sends me a dead pigeon or something. So I’ll just add people to shut them up – don’t you think its a little weird to have a practically public space where everyone you ever met can chat and read your messages posted?
Too many people know too little about how things work and will probably start sending messages relating to other people without realising – its a small world and it just got smaller! Too many ins and outs about what people can see and can’t see for my liking! And people wonder why they get their privacy electronically violated etc when some psycho can find out everything about you and your family and friends on this site – hackers aren’t very stable folk you know! Call me paranoid but the computer is a dangerous tool I’ve learnt over the years…
Anyway I’ve just hacked into NASA so I’m sending a nuclear missile over to Zuma’s house shortly – switch over to CNN to watch aftermath or logon to Facebook for live webcam feed (only for my friends of course).
I’m curious to know how many others feel like this.
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. Fred is the CEO of web marketing company World Wide Creative and the co-founder of online learning portal Heavy Chef. Fred loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. Follow Fred on Twitter here. View more articles by Fred Roed.
Nic
Jul 24th, 2007
Me. For sure. I have gone through phases. Initially I was a heartless, ruthless dickhead and ignored everyone I hadn’t spoken to in over a couple of months.
Then the alerts and emails and msgs and posts and blah blah blah eventually got to me. I have now made it my goal to add as many people as I actually know as possible. If i’ve met you once, talked to you over the web or any other way I will add you.
I am trying to see how many mates I can gather who actually don’t give a toss about me.
I hate facebook, web 2.0 and social networking!!!!
Henre
Jul 24th, 2007
Firstly, it would be a cool day in hell before I ever manage to post a comment on here without it being regarded as spam first.
Sorry guys, just testing. (Shane, you can expect another mail shortly)
As for the article, in a social context I couldn’t agree more. I read an article a while back that touched on this. The writer mentioned that if relationships / friendships were meant to be rekindled, wouldn’t they have lasted in the first place? These folk couldn’t cut it as your mate 20 years ago, why would it change now.
Having said that, all of this is mentioned in good faith and I have found myself spending more time on Facebook and now have many “friends” from years ago again. It’s good fun, and for the 20 odd “friends” you add, at least one will eventually add substance to your life. My belief anyway.
Facebook, and social media as a business tool is of course a completely different kettle of fish.
Henre
Jul 24th, 2007
hooray, it worked. my spamming days are over…
Fred
Jul 24th, 2007
I’ll bet you that my mate, who spits froth a half meter forward when he mentions Facebook, will slowly but surely start spending more and more time on it. He won’t even notice it happening.
Facebook is the future, friends. Face it.
(Henre – we felt so bad about your comments getting spammed that we put you on our comment VIP list. From now on, you’re in the front of the queue…!)
Henre
Jul 25th, 2007
Cheers Fred. This Wednesday s looking up already.
Nicola
Jul 25th, 2007
Fred, I agree with your friend. Firstly I would not like everyone reading my messages, and secondly you spend lots of time entering all your details and connecting friends only to find out in 2 months time there’s a new and better social site out there that everyone is using. I think Face Book is a fad.
Henre
Jul 25th, 2007
Nicola, what you’re saying is probably correct. What we cannot ignore though is that there are 168 000 South Africans on Facebook at present and increasing rapidly. Even if it’s a fad, and even though chances are that the next social site will come along soon, it would be a sin to ignore the marketing opportunity it currently has.
Of course, mine is based on a business principle, and I guess on a personal level, for every one person that feels like Fred’s friend, there are 10 registering on Facebook at any given stage. (Stats are made up on the spot of course)
Adrian
Jul 25th, 2007
Haha, your friends letter definitely made me laugh.
I must say though I often wonder about all these people who get so fired up about invasion of privacy. What are you putting on Facebook that you don’t want the world to see?
If you want something to be kept private why not send it to your friends via email?
I reckon the only people getting upset about their privacy being invaded are people with something to hide… Or am I being naive?
A J
Jul 25th, 2007
cripes
i know how you feel. I signed up and lasted about 4 days. knowing all the minutae of my so-called “friends’ lives gave me the creeps.
you are correct. if we wanted to be contact with all these arb friends, we would have phoned them
look for the FACEBOOK Deregister button
best part of the whole thing
Shola
Jul 26th, 2007
Facebook is a fad but every individual can choose to be part of it or not.
I’m using it to reconnect with highschool mates and hopefully plan a ten-year reunion but it also works great as a social networking system to meet up with ppl whose numbers u lost when ur phone was stolen or when u moved house/town/school.
the messages openly available to other ppl can be censored by the user so it’s up to each person to monitor their profile and send a private message if the info is private.
and like AJ said, there’s always the deregister button for those who hate FB!
Fred
Jul 26th, 2007
Ah, I don’t know. I think that Facebook has it’s merit. Last night at the monthly Heavy Chef Session http://worldwidecreative.typepad.com/heavy_chef/2007/07/july-heavy-chef.html we discussed the power of being able to contact people through just changing your status profile. Imagine you want to tell people about a new product or service and you have 1000 contacts – arb or not, it’s an easy and cost effective way of spreading the word.
Shane
Jul 30th, 2007
I’ve noticed Dave Duarte joins and leaves arb FB groups on a daily basis. so his name keeps on coming up on everyones update list. Rather cunning!
Poppy
Aug 22nd, 2007
Facebook is such a time waster and I definately think that there are major privacy issues with it. I don’t use it simply because I have photos and news I want to share with my closest friends, but I certainly don’t want someone who I haven’t spoken to since junior school to see – its none of their business! And yes, I know I could just forward the pics via email, but that defeats the purpose of having all my photos uploaded in one spot.
Basically, I think that social networks are here to stay, but the whole novelty of them is wearing off, Users need the same tools but with greater privacy controls. And they need to start playing a more constructive role in our lives, instead of leading to wasted time spent poking everyone – maybe then our workplaces won’t go banning them.
Dave
Sep 18th, 2007
LOL! Shane! Better change my strategy now (before it turns into stragedy:-p)… Jokes, nah, I just reckon I join too many interesting sounding groups that then decide to spam me so I’m forced to leave.
Mula
Sep 19th, 2007
I have deleted my facebook account, well “deactivated” it! It is upsetting though because Facebook did help me keep in contact with the people I love. The thought of all those other people though, from 19voetsak knowing all about me just freaked me out to be honest and I too, like Fred didn’t have the heart to ignore their requests. I think if I was able to screen exactly who saw what I would stay on Facebook. But the reality is my only choices are all friends or all friends in a certain network! The likelihood of all my friends being in one network is quite high and I don’t want them all seeing everything! I joined a site called Obami. I was skeptical at first but it allows me the ability to choose exactly which friends or groups (groups that I create) see what. Hopefully this is the future of SN sites because in my opinion privacy is not just an irritating factor but a major problem!!!
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