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Facebook Profile

Name: James Solely

Birthday: September 15, 1991

Sex: Male

Interested In: Women

Religious Views: Atheist

Political Views: Other

Favourite Quotation: “I don’t like being out of the crowd. It’s lonely within a group.” – Julie Walters

Friends: 986

 

Facebook Newsfeed: Lucy Mason accepted your friend request

James: One more for the friend count. Racking up the popularity points

Reality: You’ve never even spoken to the girl. She’s a friend of a friend that you saw at a party once. You just clicked “Add Friend” on your friend recommendations page. Why did you do this? Because you think that you get some sort of satisfaction from having a high friend count. You think people are impressed and will consider you to be popular. Does your Facebook friend count have any bearing on the quality of you as an individual? You are “friends” with people but could you even look them in the eye in the real world?

 

Tweet: Hey there all my followers! Going to the gym now and pump some iron. Getting ripped!!!

James: If I tell people what I’m doing maybe someone will want to go with me or maybe I’ll even see someone there. I’ll tag my location on my iPhone when I get to the gym. That way I might bump into someone I know.

Reality: #noonerespondsandnoonecares  #attentionseaker

 

Facebook Photo Tag: Remove tag immediately.

James: This one’s not such a great picture of me. Not exactly Profile-Picture-Worthy! Maybe I’ll Photoshop some of those sweat marks from the picture and then retag myself.

Reality: The problem with photos on people’s profiles is that they can decide what pictures they want to allow their “friends” to see. The set of photos is therefore biased and hence not a fair depiction of the person. Is it sad that some people feel the need to airbrush their own photos? Have we really become this vain and shallow? It is as if with the ability to make more relationships through social media we are more afraid than ever of what people will think of us, so we hide in plain sight.

 

Event Invitation: Come to my 21st Birthday! It’s on 03/07/12 at my house at 9.30pm, let me know if you can make it!

James: I’ll just respond as “Maybe”. That way I am not committed and can make my decision as and when the time comes. I’ll see who else is going  first.

Reality: This is just plain rude. Would anyone think about replying to an invite for a birthday in the real world with a “Maybe”? It’s even worse if you ignore the invite altogether. It is strange that our increased ability to connect with others has made it more acceptable to ignore each other.

 

LinkedIn: Reconnect with Dan Passer?

James: He’s my old school friend’s dad. I think he’s a partner at that big financial firm. I should add him on LinkedIn. Maybe he’ll help me get a job when I get out of college.

Reality: How are you going to follow up this connection? You don’t know him. You’ve never actually met him. He probably doesn’t know who you are. Just linking with him does not make him a business partner. That takes time, work, and effort. Linking on LinkedIn is no substitute for these. With the ability to make better business connections we appear to find it more acceptable to make less of an effort. Technology should improve our business relationships, not weaken them.

 

Tweet: Republicans can rot in Hell!

James: I can say what I like on twitter because it’ll never get back to me. I’m using my alias account @ReliableRanter.

Reality: You’re afraid of what others may think of your opinions. Using an alias makes you believe that you can say whatever you like about anyone and anything without repercussions. Can we ignore our responsibility towards our actions simply because we have concealed our true identity?

Facebook Chat: There are 58 of your friends online

James: Who should I chat with? Who haven’t I spoken to in a while.

Reality: You can’t talk to any of them. You don’t know any of them well enough. What would you say to them to start a conversation in reality? There are only a handful of your Facebook “friends” that you would actually talk to and none are currently online. So then what are these 58 people to you?

 

Facebook Profile

Name: James Solely

Birthday: September 15, 1991

Sex: Male

Interested In: Women

Religious Views: Atheist

Political Views: Other

Favourite Quotation: “I don’t like being out of the crowd. It’s lonely within a group.” – Julie Walters

Fake friends: 986

Real Friends: 0

With Social Media we are now connected with more people than ever before and yet we have never been more alone. It is not the quantity of acquaintances that matters but the quality of the relationship.

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