Social networking sites boast an easy and efficient way to update many people at one time about your life. However, reading an article about a woman murdered for her Facebook status, gives me more than a moment’s pause – and it should.
I have never included my relationship status as a part of my profile. Why? The way I see it, anyone important enough in my life will likely know my status already (if you don’t and you’re reading this, well, that probably tells you something). It also saves me from all those awkward “what happened?” wall posts that inevitably come when you go from “in a relationship” to the dreaded “single.” Your status might as well read: “single and looking, with absolutely no standards.”
Some things, like a lack of standards, are just meant to be private.
An excellent example: my sister is an intermittent Facebook user (i.e. her profile exists, then all of a sudden it’s gone, only to return again two weeks later. Lather, rinse, repeat.) Upon one of her forays back into the Facebook world her status changed to single and she was met with all those awkward wall posts. And why? Because, as humans, we’re inherently nosy creatures. We have to be all up in each other’s business because we’re sure everyone else’s life is more exciting, more scandalous than our own.
It’s this mentality that social networking sites thrive on. Think about it… how much time have you spent scrolling through other people’s photo albums, reading their witty captions and envying them for their rock star lifestyle? We all do it. Yes, even you. The sad thing is, it’s like a train wreck – you don’t want to look but you just can’t help yourself.
The challenge is, of course, finding that balance between living vicariously through others and actually living.
I have never included my relationship status as a part of my profile. Why? The way I see it, anyone important enough in my life will likely know my status already (if you don’t and you’re reading this, well, that probably tells you something). It also saves me from all those awkward “what happened?” wall posts that inevitably come when you go from “in a relationship” to the dreaded “single.” Your status might as well read: “single and looking, with absolutely no standards.”
Some things, like a lack of standards, are just meant to be private.
An excellent example: my sister is an intermittent Facebook user (i.e. her profile exists, then all of a sudden it’s gone, only to return again two weeks later. Lather, rinse, repeat.) Upon one of her forays back into the Facebook world her status changed to single and she was met with all those awkward wall posts. And why? Because, as humans, we’re inherently nosy creatures. We have to be all up in each other’s business because we’re sure everyone else’s life is more exciting, more scandalous than our own.
It’s this mentality that social networking sites thrive on. Think about it… how much time have you spent scrolling through other people’s photo albums, reading their witty captions and envying them for their rock star lifestyle? We all do it. Yes, even you. The sad thing is, it’s like a train wreck – you don’t want to look but you just can’t help yourself.
The challenge is, of course, finding that balance between living vicariously through others and actually living.
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