On MySpace, we were ranked in order of importance on our friends’ Top 8. It later became (up to) a Top 16, and people at least felt a little more included. But if you weren’t even good enough to be #16, it lowered your self-esteem. Admit it, it did. Particularly if it were someone you THOUGHT you were important to. Now, on Facebook, we get the instant update newsfeed, as well as a feature that tells a person when someone has read a message we’ve sent them. Both of these cause nothing but trouble, but also reveal your level of importance, which I guess is, in effect, nothing but trouble, like I said. You’ll message someone, and they’ve read it, but you think maybe they’re just busy or something, and then suddenly, you’ll see them pop up on the newsfeed, talking to someone else, and you think, well fuck, thanks for ignoring me! You’d think people would get this by now, but we can SEE when you’re blowing us off! To some, this may not be a big deal, but it’s rude. I don’t care if you’re in public, on the phone, at work, or online, RUDE is RUDE. Period.
This leads people, overanalyzers like me mostly, to question what you’ve said, how you’ve said it, how they might have interpreted it, or if they’ve just been talking to you at all just to shut you up. This causes problems! How hard is it to say, “I gotta go, later”, or “I’m busy right now, TTYL”, or even, I don’t know, just RESPOND like a normal human? Don’t people realize that in this day and age, rightly or wrongly, we can all see when we’re being ignored? This is a version of walking all over someone. You talk to them sometimes, and other times, it’s as if they don’t even exist. But the other person acts like everything is just peachy. Well, it’s NOT! Or even worse, they lie right to you, “I wasn’t online”, “I was asleep”. Ha, okay, I guess someone who acts just like you hacked your page as soon as I messaged you? Riiiiiiiight. How are you supposed to tell someone that even the little things like this are hurtful, and can build up to even bigger problems? AHHHHHH! Social networking is driving me insane!
I know I sound a little ridiculous, but if you knew how long this had been building up in me and how crazy my life has been lately, you’d totally understand. I liked it better before, when we didn’t know when our messages were seen. This wouldn’t bother me as much if this wasn’t today’s society’s primary method of communication – but it is! Everything revolves around Facebook these days, and while I tolerate it more today than a year or so ago, it still drives me crazy to blatantly see that I’m being purposely ignored. If you knew me, you’d know that is my BIGGEST pet peeve. Ever. I don’t think I ask for too much. More on this subject sure to come shortly.
