For BCOOL
Thursday, August 27, 2009 by mkir038
Note: this is not hate post haha just a note along..
I know what you mean about the whole being deleted off face book. To my utter bemusement, a very good friend of mine deleted me off face book. Now I had probably better add here that so called "friend" is not a Kiwi, he in fact is Croatian and constantly likes to reminde people of how much better Croatia is than NZ. I confronted him in real life with a friendly joking "hey dude, you deleted me! whats up?!" to me, it actually felt as though he did not want to be friends. In reality he just told me that he was "cleaning" up his facebook of "kiwi trash" um...(yea don't ASK why I'm friends with his guy..) he rightly assured me he did not think of me as trash but rather than he thinks it pointless in having English people on his page when all he does is speak Croatian on it anyway. OK fair dinkies.
It got me thinking however, more so when I read the post by Bcool. Seriously, when you delete someone off facebook does that mean your deleting them as a friend in real life? This just shows how sadly addicted I am to my networking sites, i feel like if I'm not a friend on facebook then I'm not a friend in real life, furthermore I have tons of "friends" on facebook who I barely speak to in real life but talk a lot to via facebook. You know whats worse? When I see these "friends" at uni we barely acknowledge each other, rather its a awkward "hey hows it going?" and then we scurry off trying to make sure we do not bump into one another again.
On another topic however, (and please do forgive me for jumping from one to another, their related i promise) Aesthetics – danah boyd (2007), how its claimed that my space is for I guess the "others" who are not "the good kids" Im going to have to disagree. Who's to say that those "misfits" are not good kids, but rather have just found a different (and probably easier way, lets face it, facebook is hard to use to begin with) to express themselves. I'm sure we have all dabbled in bebo before and you find that you have a multitude of ways of expression from skins for your page to sending "love hearts" to people. Its just a different way of expression and perhaps some kids just find it easier being colourful.
I know what you mean about the whole being deleted off face book. To my utter bemusement, a very good friend of mine deleted me off face book. Now I had probably better add here that so called "friend" is not a Kiwi, he in fact is Croatian and constantly likes to reminde people of how much better Croatia is than NZ. I confronted him in real life with a friendly joking "hey dude, you deleted me! whats up?!" to me, it actually felt as though he did not want to be friends. In reality he just told me that he was "cleaning" up his facebook of "kiwi trash" um...(yea don't ASK why I'm friends with his guy..) he rightly assured me he did not think of me as trash but rather than he thinks it pointless in having English people on his page when all he does is speak Croatian on it anyway. OK fair dinkies.
It got me thinking however, more so when I read the post by Bcool. Seriously, when you delete someone off facebook does that mean your deleting them as a friend in real life? This just shows how sadly addicted I am to my networking sites, i feel like if I'm not a friend on facebook then I'm not a friend in real life, furthermore I have tons of "friends" on facebook who I barely speak to in real life but talk a lot to via facebook. You know whats worse? When I see these "friends" at uni we barely acknowledge each other, rather its a awkward "hey hows it going?" and then we scurry off trying to make sure we do not bump into one another again.
On another topic however, (and please do forgive me for jumping from one to another, their related i promise) Aesthetics – danah boyd (2007), how its claimed that my space is for I guess the "others" who are not "the good kids" Im going to have to disagree. Who's to say that those "misfits" are not good kids, but rather have just found a different (and probably easier way, lets face it, facebook is hard to use to begin with) to express themselves. I'm sure we have all dabbled in bebo before and you find that you have a multitude of ways of expression from skins for your page to sending "love hearts" to people. Its just a different way of expression and perhaps some kids just find it easier being colourful.
I actually went on a facebook purge today, deleting anyone who i haven't conversed with in the last 3 months. It's nothing personal, I just don't feel that having 800 billion friends I never talk to is particularly useful to me. The people left include family in South Africa and my friends I regularly see now. Not all the people who ignored me all thru school coz I was a 'nerd' and then added me on facebook.
I know what you mean about seeing people you converse with on facebook at uni.. it can be very awkward
Sounds like a healthy approach to me!
Regarding your original post, mkir038, I enjoyed reading this. I should probably just defend danah boyd here, though - she's only reporting on the perceptions and labels being applied by her research interviewees and not being judgmental at all about the who aren't deemed "good kids" (if anything, the label "good kid" seems a tad derogatory - read "nerdy" or "boring", perhaps!)