social networking - the good, bad, ugly and the downright weird.

Unless you have been living on Mars or on that deserted island with Robinson Cruscoe if you are in any way computer literate chances are you are part of the "social networking" thing. Me - I've had a Facebook account for just over 3 yrs and been on Twitter just over a year. And I must admit Im pretty addicted to it all.
Recently a few things have happened which have been downright odd so thought I would blog about it. But first the good:

The main reason why I "love" FB, Twitter is due to the fact that it has made our planet so much more accessible. Originally when I opened my FB account it was pretty much to keep in contact with friends I had made all over the world. As someone who loves travelling and has been fortunate enough to have plenty of worldwide adventures it has been a fab way of touching base with friends as for away as New Zealand or as close as Athlone.
Coupled with this is the "new people" I have chatted to through the various apps I added when I first started FB.
Human Pets was once such one where I chatted to a variety of people who in reality I would never have met. It can be pretty liberating telling strangers things going on in your life, asking for advise without the fear of anyone "judging your actions".

The bad:
Recently a few things have saddened me and shows me that there are some crazies and downright mean people in the world. You only have to look at that group set up after the death of Raoul Moat. Within hours of his death someone had posted a group "RIP Moat, you legend" which gained over 30,000 members (i think) before it was removed. Also living in NI it sickens me seeing groups set up glorifying our wee islands tragic past.

The ugly:
Again this is something which became apparent in last few weeks is the on line bullying and the mob mentality which happens. How easy for it is to someone to be nasty, vicious to people and then others join in and egg the first person on.
I'll hold my hands up and say I have got involved at the "banter" you sometimes get on twitter or groups (all the comments during tv programmes like X factor) can be extremely funny to read. However, I would never post something negative about a person ( appearance, weight or any other personal issue). I was saddened to hear that someone whose tweets and blogs I had always enjoyed reading had de ctivated their account because of a campaign of hatred against them. To me thats when it stops being funny. To be weepy, unable to sleep, snappy in your real life because people are sending you nasty messages to ur in box and then post horrid horrid comments goes beyond having a laugh. And maybe Im a wee bit guilty too as although I wasn't involved in it and didnt know all that was going on, I was aware that something was up but didnt want to stick my nose into a battle which wasn't mine.

And the downright weird:
First weird is a Good weird in that I was actually headhunted through my FB again. When i joined FB the old NI discussion board was pretty inactive and there were only really about 10 regular posters. At the time I built up a good banter with 5/6 of the other ones and tried to get the board going with many different discussion topics.
Coupled with this was the fact that my profile pic for about first 2 yrs was the one which is currently on the blog (red hat and glasses). This was for the reason that I didnt want ex pupils seeing me but a marketing executiv from one of NI main advertising companies thought it was a marketing ploy and contacted me about doing some freelance work! (true story) Unfortunatekly was too busy in own work so never went to meet up with him!

2nd weird is the fact that there is a feature on twitter which notifies you if someone "unfollows you". This I found v strange as although I probably banter more now on twitter than on FB the majoritity of people I follow/follow me are in fact strangers. Yes some I would now count as friends and hope to meet up with several soon but strangers none the less.
Few weeks back I decided to unfollow someone - firstly they were tweeting far too much but secondly the fact that they seemed to see themselves as a Kate Adie character and were posting large amounts on the riots (which i DIDNT want to read about) so unfollowed. I couldnt believe it the nxt day when I got a tweet asking had I (and 2 others) meant to unfollow. When I looked at her page she had tweeted that a email notification had come throught at 1 am telling who had unfollowed her.
I found that absolutely crazy that someone whom I had never met seemed to take offence that I no longer wanted to read mundane facts about her life. Furthermore when one of the other 2 people tried to explain their actions , one of them was made to feel so bad that he went on to de activate his account later that day - MAD!!!!!

anyway thats about it. Saying all that I do still think that the good still outweights the bad so for now at least Im here to stay!