Snow and awkward moments

Social Media is great for one thing...and one thing only. For all of your friends to tell you what is going on in their day. Today for example I found out it was snowing before I even got a chance to look outside because Facebook was blowing up with "OMG snow!" "burrrr its cold outside" "let it snow! let it snow! let it snow!" Therefore I knew to dress for the cold weather before anything. Facebook is like a really distorted news channel, it tells you when its snowing, rainy, to hot, to cold, the end of the semester, Christmas time, Thanksgiving, Pearl Harbor, and black Friday just to name a few. Its nice to know everything but it can also get really awkward. Like this weekend for instance... One of my friends on Facebook was talking about the great night she had with her boyfriend and how great he is in bed....wow. So this girl posted that just thinking that her 300 friends would read it, but a screenshot was taken, sent to friends, who then sent it to their friends, who sent it to Failbook, and now it is being blogged about...I don't think it gets worse than that. And studies have shown that anything put up on the internet isn't just there for a few weeks or a few months...its up there for AT LEAST 10 years...AT LEAST. So I wouldn't put anything up there that's to naughty...

failbook

These pictures are from a hilariously funny website called failbook. Unfortunately we've all had these kind of Facebook fights show up on our newsfeed but we wouldn't dare blog about them because well that's tacky. So here are a few that I don't have to be tacky to blog about because they aren't on my newsfeed....so its different right?

politics and problems

HOLY COW!!!! So the election was two days....I have never seen more posts within 5 minutes in my life! Only reason is because while the president was announced for the nation, some referendums were announced for certain states. Being from Washington we are one of the few states that legalized weed and gay marriage. While neither seriously affect me because I am neither gay nor do I smoke my friends on FaceBook were going WILD!!! It was seriously a feeding zone...so many pictures of bongs saying "legal now mother f***er!!! I can do whatever the hell I want now!!!" umm yeah....good luck with that....I mean am I the only who has seen movies like batman? You can't do whatever you want....there are consequences. Same sex marriage does not affect me at all, its not like gay people are like high people, they don't kill you while they are practicing. So I mean really, lets all be kind; however, with that being said, since my closet connection to a gay person is my best friend Josh I don't feel like I can really comment on it.
On Tuesdays I saw so many of "well four more years of hell" "let the unfriending begin" "Mormons are idiots are must be pissed haha f*** them!"
A post of FaceBook is yours, people like to treat it like a journal even though it isn't. But nevertheless anyone has the right to put whatever they want on facebook. But seriously you are going to trash Mormons? One of my friends who is also a member commented on that post and said "umm how about republicans are mad, not Mormons. The church does get involved with politics. Kthanks." And people went off on her! Saying that "obviously they don't know how to take a joke" "pull your head out of your a**" "wow, what a little b****" wow. that is all I have to say. wow. This goes along with my last post, just because no one can actually see you behind the keyboard does not mean that 1, they don't know its you and 2, it hurts less. Lets not cyber bully? Its obviously rude and the person who is doing it looks like an idiot, its not like it makes you look cool....you just look like an ass.

What the professionals have to say

http://www.cinewsnow.com/news/local/Ask-Dr-Joy-Miller-Social-media-drama-175680461.html

This is a link to a video put out by CINEWSNOW. It talks about why people are willing to type things that they would NEVER say in person. For example if you were to go on a girls Facebook where she has a revealing picture, the guys are going to say "sexy!" "so hot" and some of the girls are going to say "oh my gosh! I freaking love you! you look amazing!" while all the other girls just say "wow" or "slut..." Most of the guys that commented are in a relationship and would never ever say this to the girl but they will post it? Does that make sense? I understand that behind a keyboard that no one can see you, but here is the thing about posting, blogging, sending, emailing, texting... it is out there for at least ten years. People usually forget what you say but they will never forget what you wrote. So be careful! THINK!

CALLED OUT!

So as I was scrolling through my news feed today I came upon this lovely little post (I changed the names to spare them further embarrassment " STUPID BETH SAYS I HATE HER NOW I DO BETH IF UR READING THIS U R THE MOST HORRIBLE FRIEND EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Okay here's the thing about that, one I had to spell a lot of the words correctly, and this kind of thing is unacceptable. It is posts like this that make the older generations think that we only communicate over Facebook and that we can not have a conversation face to face. I heard a horror story a few weeks ago about this guy who asked this girl out on a date but was to scared to talk to her so he just texted her the whole time....texted her. WOW.

No Shave November?

So with no shave November I have a lot of friends that have decided to let themselves be "free" and not shave... So I posted today ( first time in a while) "Happy please shave November! And remember, not all hair is created equal." This one girl that I am Facebook friends with, we used to be friends but then she got married...and now we are way different got offended and commented "DISLIKE!!!!!! I won't be shaving!" ugh. we all know that, you posted that earlier. Here is the thing with Facebook right now, it has become twitter. Like seriously? Did you seriously just make a post about how you will not be shaving for a month?
Facebook Posts "thanks for all the birthday wishes, I had a great day with all my friends!"
Tweets "brushing teeth" "teeth brushed" "driving to friends house" "at friends house"
You could easily stock someone with their tweets.
OH and I know that with the younger generations turning to technology a lot of people may have forgotten....but there is this WONDERFUL thing called...drum roll please!! A JOURNAL!!! A journal is where you put things such as "oh my heck, I freakin hate Becky! she is such a UGH I don't even know how to describe it! I just hate her! but oh my lanta Joe looked at me today! he is soooooo dreamy <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 I could spend the rest of my life with him! Other than that today was alright. Chem sucks but I have a doctors appointment tomorrow so I get to miss it! heck to the yeah. huh, well I think that's good for tonight! goodnight <3 "
see the difference?

gettin views

So I wanted to do another quick experiment and see if people actually read posts while they're scrolling down their news feed, I know I usually go past posts especially if they are really long because seriously? Use a journal!! Anyways so I posted a link to my blog to see how much traffic I would get and within 3 hours of posting that I had 25 views for that day. Apparently people do read posts!

finding out through facebook

So when I went completely off Facebook I didn’t check it, or post....nothing! Well now I’m back on, but not really posting because it’s kind of useless. ...that all changed yesterday- I’ll tell the dreadful story! So yesterday I drove up to Salt Lake City because my best friend from high school was having a hard time, it’s roughly 50 miles to my friend’s house but it’s fine because it’s a straight shot from my house to hers going down I-15. I get to her house and am literally only in the house for 5 minutes before her aunt comes running in and says "whose red car is that??" "Oh, that’s mine. Sorry I'll move it." "YOUR ENGINE JUST EXPLODED!" .....silence on my end as running out to the driveway to look at my car. It seriously blew....there was steam; it looked like smoke from my engine catching fire, and fluid EVERYWHERE! Coolant, water...everything but oil. So I freak out and call my mom, figure out exactly what I need to do and then get it done in a stressed out I didn’t plan on this manner. But I end up getting it towed off and into the shop. The purpose of this long story is that no one would have known about it except for my mom, dad, best friend, and her aunt. But instead ALL of my friends on Facebook knew and were suddenly super concerned because my friend put up a picture of my car. Facebook seems to unify our generation but now I don’t know my view on it. I still enjoy being on Facebook and being able to check up on all my friends...but that’s just it, checking up on. I can see everything my friends are doing or have been doing by just scrolling down my news feed. So right now I think it’s,
Facebook:1
Non-facebook:1
it’s a tie.

7 days in the dark!

So I have been off facebook for only 7 days so far and honestly it feels like a month. I got an email from facebook telling me that I had a lot of activity I needed to check...the email said that I have 3 friend requests, 5 messages, and 68 notifications...HOLY CRAP! its only been a week and I already have all that? Thats a crazy amount to me and it amazes me that facebook sends you an email when you havent been on in a while, they want you to be on all the time. I don't miss facebook though. Even though I have a crap ton of activity that I need to check and I've been off for a week I dont feel like any of my relations have been under strain. So looks like the older generation was wrong! facebook doesnt control our relationships!

Experiment!

So over this next week I'm going to stay off of Facebook but having one of my friends change my password- then I wont actually be able to get on. After that week I'll talk about how hard it was, if I missed anything...all about that! ALSO! I've heard that its dang near impossible to deactivate your Facebook, so I'm going to make a Facebook under a fake email address and see how hard it really is, I'll tell you about that too!

Facebook

Facebook is the largest social networking site, with 955 MILLION active users, according to Wikipedia. There are lots of people to friend, or defriend for that matter. On Facebook you can let all your friends and family know what you’re doing by updating your status, in return you can see what they're doing, you can message each other, play games and reconnect with people. So why then do people have problems with it if it’s "bringing us together?" Is it because while you have 800 friends on Facebook you might actually talk to 30 of them? Because Facebook can cause immense amounts of drama? After talking to some old people about it…it’s because they feel like the “younger generations” rely on it too much. They think that we don’t make “real” friends anymore. As a member of the younger generation I feel like Facebook actually helps relationships. Being 1,000 miles away from home its hard staying connected with my family and friends back home, I can call them all which according to the older generations is more personal but that gets tedious! Saying the same thing over and over again!! BUT with Facebook I can just post a status or a picture about how my day is going…let my family know that I’m alive. While old people say that Facebook tears relationships apart I think that right now it’s bringing all of my relationships together. Another example of how it’s brought me closer to some people is, I made friends with a girl named Anna while we both lived in New Mexico, well I moved back to Washington and she moved to North Carolina- total opposite sides of the country. We never thought that we would friends again but one day, three and a half years ago, I got on Facebook and noticed that I had a friend request from Anna, I accepted it of course and we reconnected pretty fast and have spent every summer together and talk everyday ever since. Without Facebook we would still be on opposite sides on the country and have no idea where the other person is now. Right now… Social Media helping: 1
Social Media hindering: 0