It's Official - I AM Weird!

Well of course I always thought there was something odd about me. Others naturally spotted it a long time ago, and most were kind enough not to mention it to me directly, but now I have confirmation. I guess it's a bit like bringing closure to an awkward situation - and it's a bit of a relief really, to get the monkey off my back.

The cause of the classification? I have "chosen" not to sign up for Facebook and apparently devotees of Facebook have decided that anyone who abstains from joining the "social networking" site should be "filed under weird"! And before you jump to conclusions yes, despite my age, I am technically competent enough to sign up if I want to - but I choose for the time being not to do so.

Frankly I find Facebook and other so called social networks to be more anti-social networks myself. People seem to spend hours closeted away with any number of iPads, tablets, iPhones or laptops "talking" to or intruding upon people who have signed up as "friends", and looking at a range of photographs ranging, I suppose, from the truly artistic to the nauseatingly embarrassing. And I suspect more working hours are lost in a number of countries, despite the attempt by corporations to restrict the use of such sites during working hours, by facebookers and tweeters who have become hooked on these networks. And you only have to sit in any eatery (for want of a better word) to discover tables of people busily engaged in looking at small screens.

Whatever happened to the art of conversation for goodness sake?

The concept of being "weird", unfortunately, has been reinforced by the fact that neither the Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik nor the recent killer of 12 people in a Colorado cinema, James Holmes, were on Facebook. So that proves it then!!

The British newspaper The Observer also highlighted those words of wisdom from Facebook founder (and now a less wealthy billionaire than he was at the time of flotation of the company), Mark Zuckenberg who apparently declared that "...anyone who prizes privacy over beloging to a social network is not only pretentious but dodgy". No self-interest there!!

Actually, I like my privacy and respect the wishes of those other human beings who have a similar desire, but I fear that at some stage I am going to have to succumb to something in the long term - even if it is not Facebook.

I asked my elder son a year ago about how I would communicate with my first grandaughter when she became a teenager (some years to go yet), if she grew up on a diet of "social networks", and I was not on Facebook. Without hesitation he said, "how you communicate with her in ten years time has not been invented yet". Scary thought, but quite probably true.

But having Facebook rammed down your throat now is becoming increasingly alarming. I am receiving more and more message from corporations who are saying - if you want to get full details of this or that you can read it on our Facebook page - but of course you have to sign up!! Well, no, in that case I don't want to get full details of something if that is way I am going to have to get it with no alternative choice - I will do without. Perhaps it's short-sighted but then I can be quite stubborn. 

It's already bad enough being bombarded by computer driven telephone calls offering you this or that service, and you take the darned call because you don't recognise the number, and are concerned it might be something important.

So, if that means I am on my way out - then I should subside gently into the elephants graveyard and spend my remaining years having real conversations with real people face to face in the real world, but still reading newspapers, magazines and the occasional book on my iPad! Weird!

Comments

[arbitrage]

Hi Eldon. I definitely with you, It's already bad enough being bombarded by computer driven telephone calls offering you this or that service, and you take the darned call because you don't recognise the number, and are concerned it might be something important.

[celine handbags online]

So don't worry about being weird. I think that in the not too distant future "sensible" people with Facebook accounts will be the ones who are considerd weird!

[Paul]

Contrary to a conversation I had a few years ago about Facebook and its longevity, actually think that it has had its day. Although I do have an account which I actively use, a lot of my friends are going online less and less and all complain about the numerous unwanted changes FB developers implement on the user interface. The growth areas for FB are in countries like Brazil and Indonesia - large populations but limited spending power and therefore not of huge interest to advertisers. Remember also that FB was originally invented as a university student networking site. While I don't think that FB is going anywhere, I think that the average user who signed up when they were at, or shortly after, university has, unlike Mark Zuckerberg, matured and are moving on. So don't worry about being weird. I think that in the not too distant future "sensible" people with Facebook accounts will be the ones who are considerd weird!

[zzachary]

And you will be the last person to buy the much sought after Facebook shares which is now selling 50% below IPO price....not 'weird' Mr Eldon..."Wisdom"...trust you are keeping well...