Thursday, September 10, 2009

FB from Mars's and Venus's points of views

Nicholas Fang has a friend who sees FB as a tool to allow him to look for friends he has met and want to maintain contact with too, but in this is really an invasion of personal space. What if they don't want to maintain contact? This very flaw has put some of my friends off FB.

The writer goes on to mention that the photo albums of our friends allow us an insight into their characters. Indeed, this is the most vital part of a person's FB profile for me. I immediately go to the photo albums of a new friend I've added, to ensure I've not added someone whose values clash with mine. At the same time, I will not dispute that the photos added on FB may be a tool of manipulation to make others think the best of the owner, where the true character of the owner is concealed under these seemingly harmless photos.

He ends off with the opinion that live social interaction and contact surpass information on FB, where getting to know someone is concerned. I agree with that, as body language and facial expressions shown when physically being with a person, cannot be gained access to via FB. Such unconscious revelations will determine the true feelings of a person towards another, as they cannot lie.

Otelli Edwards comments on how some of the status updates she is privy to, are too personal and reveal intimately private details of people's lives. These people are really just trying to gain attention but ironically, it turns me off.

She mentions how the travel photos of some people are put on their profiles for all to see. I do that too but it is not as a form of boasting, as she seems to be implying. I merely want to share my wonderful experiences with my friends.

She reveals that she has 320 friends, which is a conservative statistic, but guess what? I have only 148 friends. Does that make me close to a hermit in comparison? Definitely not. I know each and every one of them, and reject those I don't personally know, unless they verify their identities. I would rather have few but real friends, rather than many friends I barely know.

She goes on to remark on some applications on FB like pokes, gifts and quizzes. I do not really like to receive pokes, as I find them meaningless too. They are exactly like the nudges on MSN. I send such gifts as a form of cheering my friends up and take interesting quizzes for the fun and curiosity of it. I do not see how these are meaningless though. Of course, the quizzes I am referring to are historical- or media-based, rather than absolutely ludicrous or incomprehensible ones. Oh yes, I don't understand the rationale behind hate pages too. I didn't even know there was such a thing!

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