Facebook Commenting

Say what you like about Facebook, it's pretty damn brilliant. It's done a hell of a lot to change the way society thinks and works, and this influence will only strengthen as the user-base grows. I could write about what makes Facebook such a great service, but I honestly have no desire whatsoever to do so - this is only enhanced by the fact that I focus on Facebook's flaws far more often than its plus points anyway. But this isn't about any of the ups or the downs of Facebook; this is about a certain (and rather frequent) happening that makes me cringe so God damn hard I feel as though my face may give in and become permanently corrugated. I've pretty much only ever seen this happen with the older users of Facebook - perhaps those that don't quite understand the concept, or haven't fully grasped the purpose of many of its features. I've seen it happen so many times before, and each and every time it makes me chuckle and groan at the very same time. Here's what happens. Somebody posts a status, the content of which could be anything. Say, for example, John Smith posts a status about the day's footballing action:

"Mr Wenger has totally lost the plot! Changes are needed."

A couple of people 'like' the status, and that's perfectly fine. In fact, it probably makes John feel more satisfied in life. The very first comment though, instead of referring to and responding to the point initially made in the status, actually then goes in a completely different direction. Why? God knows.

"Hey john hant seen you or you mum in aages! Shud catch up soon. Hope u ok x x x "

...says Mary, the Aunt that lives on the other side of the country. I've seen this kind of exchange happen so many times I actually have lost count. Does Mary not fully understand the appropriate use of Facebook's various features? Is she trying to embarrass John? Does she want to look out of touch? And why is she so literally challenged? Would it really have taken much longer to write "Hey John, I haven't seen you or your mum in ages! We should catch up soon. I hope you're okay xxx". None of those words are even close to approaching a 4 out of 10 on the spelling difficulty scale, if such a scale were to exist.  It's clear that the message she's putting across would be far more suited to being a chat message, wall post, or mail. What Mary's done in choosing a comment as her preferred method, however, is interrupt a public statement with something totally irrelevant. It's plain awkward. She needn't even use Facebook to say what she wanted to say. They're family for fuck's sake, nobody's going to mind if she rings up to speak to her relatives across the UK - she wants to catch up soon, after all!

What she probably doesn't realise she's doing is that she's essentially changing the subject, without poor John's consent. Anybody who would have commented on the status with anything actually related to THE FUCKING FOOTBALL probably won't now, because 'that weird woman' has hijacked the status for herself, turning it into a brief, pleasant, public conversation which stops after a mere couple of comments back and forth, therefore deeming the status defunct. Dead. Kaput. Down and out. Out of action. What you're doing, Mary, is invading John's social life - an area of his life you've never been part of for more than a couple of visits per year. He probably only accepted you as a friend on Facebook out of politeness anyway. Wise up, Mary. I'm sorry, this grinds my gears a bit - as you can probably tell. The example I gave was completely fictional by the way, in case you couldn't tell; but it was based on several comments I've seen before, right down to the detail of spelling mistakes and typos. Chow for now!

Irrelevant comments are welcomed on this post, for the ironic humour it entails.

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