The advent of social networking sites has, in my opinion, a lot more to answer for than it's usual charges of Internet grooming, virtual bullying and complete knob-waggling in the face of every personal privacy law we have left.
What it has spawned, more dangerous than anything else, is the cult of the 'Status Update Interpreter'.
[It is something I'm guilty of as much as any of you currently reading this thanks to whatever witty or persuasive tag line I've linked it under.]
Whether you direct your efforts as Facebook amateur empath towards a particular person (religiously updating their page every five minutes) or, less commonly, simply scan the Newsfeed for anything that you may be able to attribute to yourself is irrelevant - the motive and result for both are one and the same.
You end up quietly seething, completely deluded or in it's most base form - just wrong.
There have been several incidents over the past few days wherein certain people have decided to read into rather benign, or so-vague-as-to-be-utterly-inane updates on my page as a direct attack on their person.
None of them the actual target.
Unable to hamper their rage, public and private posting has been made that I think everybody involved probably regrets and friendships of many years were tested...the catalyst for this? Misreading a single word; 'train' as 'plane'.
You see, I say we have become 'Status Update Interpreters' - I never claimed that we were particularly attentive or adept at what we seek to do.
It manifests itself in a number of other ways, not all of them as 'balls out' aggressive.
I'll put my hand up and admit that often, when I have read between the lines (include in this also 'wishfully') but am unsure of my conclusions I'll update with something that, if I had read the other parties message correctly, would signal them to my understanding...for example an in-joke or the use of a similar word.
Obviously, if a reply is not made in partner form I can assume I was wrong and evade feeling like a dick.
More often than not, this is what happens.
Complications occur however when you're actively seeking a cause for argument or in the odd instances that a third party is involved, when interpretations must vie for dominance it is increasingly likely that intellectual sparks will fly.
A third incarnation of this growing trend is found merely in our readiness to reply to a status as though our poorly worded opinion may make the person stop in their tracks, re-evaluate their entire life and buy us a yacht to say 'Thank you, before this I was blind to my own emotional and social standpoint!'
I can positively see the smattering of raised eyebrows; "But Annie, fair point and all but why is any of this a problem...especially a larger one than kiddie fiddling?"
There are two conclusions this argument can reach:
1) It illustrates the absolute breakdown in inter-personal communication - conversations that could be conducted or conflicts resolved in a matter of minutes over coffee or on the phone are drawn out over days of hiding behind YouTube clips, obscure remarks or jauntily angled profile pictures. We're slowly becoming a generation of non-entities, these persona's are spilling into real life and relationships (subsequently emotional and mental health) are suffering because of it.
2) We are opinionated, yes and this is something I actively campaign for but rather than getting gobby about the actual injustices in the world we're pouring pages of prose into judging 'X' because she fucked 'Y's' boyfriend at some shitty student party on Saturday night.
Stop wasting your energy, scribble up one of your witticisms on a placard and go and make a meaningful difference in an arena that needs you.
Annie.
<3
What it has spawned, more dangerous than anything else, is the cult of the 'Status Update Interpreter'.
[It is something I'm guilty of as much as any of you currently reading this thanks to whatever witty or persuasive tag line I've linked it under.]
Whether you direct your efforts as Facebook amateur empath towards a particular person (religiously updating their page every five minutes) or, less commonly, simply scan the Newsfeed for anything that you may be able to attribute to yourself is irrelevant - the motive and result for both are one and the same.
You end up quietly seething, completely deluded or in it's most base form - just wrong.
There have been several incidents over the past few days wherein certain people have decided to read into rather benign, or so-vague-as-to-be-utterly-inane updates on my page as a direct attack on their person.
None of them the actual target.
Unable to hamper their rage, public and private posting has been made that I think everybody involved probably regrets and friendships of many years were tested...the catalyst for this? Misreading a single word; 'train' as 'plane'.
You see, I say we have become 'Status Update Interpreters' - I never claimed that we were particularly attentive or adept at what we seek to do.
It manifests itself in a number of other ways, not all of them as 'balls out' aggressive.
I'll put my hand up and admit that often, when I have read between the lines (include in this also 'wishfully') but am unsure of my conclusions I'll update with something that, if I had read the other parties message correctly, would signal them to my understanding...for example an in-joke or the use of a similar word.
Obviously, if a reply is not made in partner form I can assume I was wrong and evade feeling like a dick.
More often than not, this is what happens.
Complications occur however when you're actively seeking a cause for argument or in the odd instances that a third party is involved, when interpretations must vie for dominance it is increasingly likely that intellectual sparks will fly.
A third incarnation of this growing trend is found merely in our readiness to reply to a status as though our poorly worded opinion may make the person stop in their tracks, re-evaluate their entire life and buy us a yacht to say 'Thank you, before this I was blind to my own emotional and social standpoint!'
I can positively see the smattering of raised eyebrows; "But Annie, fair point and all but why is any of this a problem...especially a larger one than kiddie fiddling?"
There are two conclusions this argument can reach:
1) It illustrates the absolute breakdown in inter-personal communication - conversations that could be conducted or conflicts resolved in a matter of minutes over coffee or on the phone are drawn out over days of hiding behind YouTube clips, obscure remarks or jauntily angled profile pictures. We're slowly becoming a generation of non-entities, these persona's are spilling into real life and relationships (subsequently emotional and mental health) are suffering because of it.
2) We are opinionated, yes and this is something I actively campaign for but rather than getting gobby about the actual injustices in the world we're pouring pages of prose into judging 'X' because she fucked 'Y's' boyfriend at some shitty student party on Saturday night.
Stop wasting your energy, scribble up one of your witticisms on a placard and go and make a meaningful difference in an arena that needs you.
Annie.
<3
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