what is it about social media that is just soooo addicting?

i know i touch base on this subject a lot…

but i can’t really help it when it is constantly presenting itself to me through various avenues.

(and by “various avenues”, i mean my ‘iPhone’…)

but in all honesty, i have been realizing more and more just how completely public it is…

and no matter how many Privacy Settings and Personal Lists and General Security features you set up, it is inevitable that some of your shit will still be seen by those hidden individuals…

it is on the World Wide Web, after all.

so why is it that with all of that access to our personal information, there are still a ton of people who still insist on publicizing every little aspect of their lives even more?

a few months back, i ran into someone who i had not seen since high school.

as we were ‘catching up’, she mentioned something a tad bit creepy to me…

she said, “is it weird that i feel like i know so much about what you’ve been up to because of your posts on Facebook?”

and i awkwardly laughed a little and replied, “well, i don’t post that much.”

(but i kind of do…)

and that sort of made me rethink just how much of my life i want people i’m not necessarily close with to have visibility to.

i have “friends” from all walks of life on my Facebook…

from elementary school and all throughout my educational years, to old teachers and family and coworkers and maybe a few ex’s sprinkled in there, and their family members, to even some persons i actually despise in real life, but i added out of sheer obligation.

i mean, my ‘Friends List’ is fucking chalk full of anyone who has ever even slightly met me or mentioned my name or waved in my general direction…

which is great…

because that is the epitome of what social networking actually is.

but…

fuck.

after that enlightening conversation, i decided to retrace and stalk myself for a bit…

i felt more at ease knowing that outside of miscellaneous links to articles and YouTube videos i enjoy, and pictures from concerts/cool places i go to, or photos of my food or my lipstick/nail-polish or humorous text exchanges or my pets or random strangers i capture, and maybe sometimes my extremely opinionated status updates, there really isn’t much to go off of.

sure, you can see where i work and where i went to school and where i live and when i was born…

but i don’t check in places (unless someone i am with does so) and i rarely like pages (unless you are someone important in my life), and i absolutely refuse to broadcast who i am dating or who my family members are by simply adding them to an “About Me” section.

i mean, to this very day, i have quite a difficult time even tagging people i am with in my Mobile Uploads, let alone myself…

but then there are these people who have literally dedicated albums upon albums to their children and their family and their significant others and their birthdays/anniversaries/weddings/anyandeverythingelse EVERY. DAMN. DAY/WEEK/MONTH/YEAR.

my god, we get it!

but Facebook is not Scrapbook…

and to be quite frank, i am sure that more than half of your “friends” have already hidden you from their ‘News Feed’ by now.

so give it a fucking break…

and maybe try sending it privately to the five people who might actually give a shit.

-LOGGING OUT-