Sunday, December 23, 2007

Guess What I've Been Wasting Time On Over Break

I'm sure some of you- whoever it is that still reads this while PR is in reruns- use Facebook. I'm also sure you've heard plenty of people complain about Facebook. Well, I started typing this up as a note on Facebook, until I realized how lame that was. So prepare yourself, I am going to complain about Facebook.

I'm not arguing Facebook's uses. Facebook is dreadfully convenient. I can imagine life without it (since life without it was not all that long ago), but inviting people to parties or sharing photos or asking everyone I know where I should go to get tattooed would be slightly more time-consuming without it. And I couldn't play Scrabble with my friends in Florida, New York and Virginia at the same time. I could play Scrabble with people near by, but then I need to buy a board and find a bunch of people nearby that care to play Scrabble- and gosh darn it, I'm poor and not that motivated. Facebook is really unfortunately useful.

Sure, social networking sites may change the way we socialize and how our brains function, but that's not my complaint today- that's one of those long term things that I'm sure will be sorted out after the revolution. Hmm, maybe I should make lists of things to be sorted out before, during and after the revolution... but I digress.

What I don't understand all these "lost cellphone" groups. There are a ton. I know facebook is dreadfully convenient, and if I lost my cellphone I'd certainly use facebook to contact people for their numbers- if they were people I had ever called in the past and/or if they were people I anticipated calling in the future. People tend to just make these groups and invite every person they have ever known since fifth grade to post their cellphone numbers. It's excessive, and gives a false sense of intimacy. Though, I think "giving a false sense of intimacy" is in Facebook's mission statement.

My bigger problem with these groups is that they tend to be "open", which not only means anyone can join it, but also that anyone can view it, completely undetected. I know Facebook has stalker potential written all over it regardless of how you use it, but these groups are just a goldmine of phone numbers. You don't even have to try to be sketchy. Visiting one of these groups makes me automatically feel dirty.

That's all the wit I have for this week. Happy holidays, I'll most likely see you in the New Year. Oh, and so this post isn't a total waste, I'll link to a campaign I found out about today to support the WG A strike (I am in solidarity with my fellow writers on this)- send a message to the moguls with pencils.

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