[BRIEF NOTE] On Facebook issues
Sep. 1st, 2009 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldThe Wall Street Journal's Elizabeth Bernstein inveighs against the perils of Facebook in "How Facebook Can Ruin Your Friendships". Facebook does certainly have its positive sides, she readily agrees.
But, Bernstein goes on to write, too much information--excessive detail about one's personal life and passive-aggressiveness in particular--can make Facebook participation all the more difficult and unpleasant.
All that I can say is that these problems are ones that I've become used to since I got only in September 1997. The only thing that I can further note is that these has become a mass experience now; the only thing that I can recommend is the development of a high tolerance for this.
We took our friendship online. First we began communicating more by email than by phone. Then we switched to "instant messaging" or "texting." We "friended" each other on Facebook, and began communicating by "tweeting" our thoughts—in 140 characters or less—via Twitter.
All this online social networking was supposed to make us closer. And in some ways it has. Thanks to the Internet, many of us have gotten back in touch with friends from high school and college, shared old and new photos, and become better acquainted with some people we might never have grown close to offline.
Last year, when a friend of mine was hit by a car and went into a coma, his friends and family were able to easily and instantly share news of his medical progress—and send well wishes and support—thanks to a Web page his mom created for him.
But, Bernstein goes on to write, too much information--excessive detail about one's personal life and passive-aggressiveness in particular--can make Facebook participation all the more difficult and unpleasant.
In all that information you're posting about your life—your vacation, your kids, your promotions at work, even that margarita you just drank—someone is bound to find something to envy. When it comes to relationships, such online revelations can make breaking up even harder to do.
"Facebook prolongs the period it takes to get over someone, because you have an open window into their life, whether you want to or not," says Yianni Garcia of New York, a consultant who helps companies use social media. "You see their updates, their pictures and their relationship status."
[. . .]
Facebook can also be a mecca for passive-aggressive behavior. "Suddenly, things you wouldn't say out loud in conversation are OK to say because you're sitting behind a computer screen," says Kimberly Kaye, 26, an arts writer in New York. She was surprised when friends who had politely discussed health-care reform over dinner later grew much more antagonistic when they continued the argument online.
All that I can say is that these problems are ones that I've become used to since I got only in September 1997. The only thing that I can further note is that these has become a mass experience now; the only thing that I can recommend is the development of a high tolerance for this.
