zaph8000.com

I guess it had been coming for a while now, almost a couple of weeks had passed without any kind of Facebook related life interference, it’s back now though as if it was just saving it up. I wouldn’t mind but I hardly get any trouble concerning me from Facebook, okay so I don’t go on much except to update my status here & there & see what everyone else is up to but even so, it’s crazy how much of an effect it has on me. The teens have it the worst I guess as they always seem to do & say now & doing any thinking required later, this is not a good strategy when online both in public & in real time. Considering that just one hasty post made in anger can produce reams of anger & days of threatened retribution you’d think they’d know better but they don’t & afterwards go back to doing it anyway. Normally there’s at least one of the kids embroiled in some meaningless argument during any given week, sometimes it’s due to gossip, sometimes to their joining in with other peoples’ rows but there all the same.This week though it’s been relationship week on Facebook, relationship week is always a barrel of laughs & as the statuses change from single to otherwise & back again the only real surprise is that more people don’t get killed over this nonsense.

Honestly, I don’t know how any of the rest of us ever survived our teenage years or ever had the bottle to ever go out with anyone else after the first dumping episode, nowadays, or at least online people can’t just break up anymore, there has to be an inquest & the judges are in residence. That these things are none of anyones’ business doesn’t get a mention & as the judge in question is almost without fail the one who was dumped it’s not what you’d call an impartial process, I’ve yet to see one where self-respect or dignity got out of bed. My only conclusion so far is that for reasons as yet unclear you’re no longer allowed to break up with anyone unless they say that it’s okay to, it’s patently nonsense to me but I’ve ran it passed a few of my kids & some of them can’t see my problem. Growing up I was dumped myself a few times & returned the favour a few times as well, I never got a written thesis on my faults from those who dumped me & when I was ending a relationship I can’t remember having to fill out a form. Over was over & although it hurt there was damn all to be done about it, sure we might have got a bit of sympathy from our mates but no-one took a vote on how awful the whole thing was, it was just something that happened. Having to wade through three days of someone elses’ break-up just because the world’s online is too much, & that’s without the ‘phone calls it inspires or the shrieks of rage as the single flickers into worse.

I’d like to say that this is all confined to the teenage amongst us but of course it isn’t, a couple having a fight now is almost obliged to run up a flag on their Facebook page & tell the world what’s going on, this may be easier for those who have completely separate friends from their partners but as most of us have mutual friends the rot spreads. If you’re lucky then only the fact that you’re arguing goes up there, if you’re unlucky there are details, there are also even worse scenarios but I’m lucky enough to have only heard about them. Since all this goes off in public everyone knows everything within minutes & if you’re not the first one on then opinions begin forming, my trick is to ignore it all because people have fights & they’ve got to sort it out for themselves, even so it can make painful reading. What are you meant to say when the kids demand to know why their Auntie  is claiming to be single? Still, these are all better than the rows about Facebook itself, yes some people spend too much time on it, yes some people are carrying on affairs over it & at times because of it, this isn’t the fault of Facebook though, this is people behaving like people & there’s no technology in the world that will ever fix that.

© 2010, zaph. All rights reserved.