This video made the rounds a few weeks ago, but if anyone missed it take a look and enjoy a good laugh.
It brings up an interesting concept though: the social norms for Facebook are completely skewed from reality.
I’ve always argued that the anonymity of the internet is what helps degrade any societal norms (such as the brutal depths of Digg’s comments, the horrific nature of most video game forums, or the dehumanized interactions on the WordPress support pages). Because people have no connection to their real life persona, they feel the openness to say whatever they want.
The strange thing is, that on Facebook it’s not anonymous. It’s actually very much the opposite. It’s public and out there with your name, picture, birthday, everything, right up there. The problem is that it’s still an online forum so people are conditioned to behave however they want. Facebook has set up a system where it’s ok to be annoying and write inappropriate things on friends’ walls. And that’s what Facebook is all about- virtualizing relationships.
In a virtual friendship you can do whatever crazy thing you want- throw sheep at people, poke your friend’s mum, or write obscenities on their walls.
So the answer to the title question- Could Facebook actually be any more annoying? - is yes, if these practices make it into real life.
So would you like to be my friend? Confirm or ignore.
