I was having a conversation with one of my colleagues and they had shared with me a concern about posting pictures on Facebook. I in turn mentioned to them a comment that an old friend had made about some photos of me and it got us both thinking.
While I don’t truly live a “frat boy/South Beach” lifestyle that my friend had ever so politely commented to me a few weeks ago, the one interesting conclusion that they came to was the fact that everyone is usually pretty happy when it comes to broadcasting their life stream on Facebook.
Now I know that people share, over share, and blatantly lie on FB, but when we thought about a good majority of the posts that we’ve read over the past few days/weeks/months, most of them were positive. No one generally bitched about how sucky their jobs were. No one complained bitterly about how they didn’t’ get a holiday bonus. In fact, most of the complaining that we read was relegated to the cold weather.
So why only the positive and upbeat instead of real and cantankerous, hell if I know? However if I were to hypothesize, I’d bet were seeing a rise in some collective intelligence. (OK, I know it’s a stretch, but hear me out) Maybe peeps know that recruiters are now trolling FB and they’re being smart about what they write? Maybe students have finally grasped the message that posting their keg stand times and beer pong league standings will hurt them in the long run? Maybe corporate HR types are looking, digging and sharing embarrassing stuff just to pass the time until their next gig? (OK, that’s not a stretch, that’s partially proven)
Before you tell me that my theory on the rise in collective intelligence is complete crap, do me a favor?
Tell it to me nicely…
Photo credit: http://www.free-extras.com/images/sunny_summer-1153.htm
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post John! I’m all about common sense and logic and I believe your post is spot on. It was nice not reading a lot of updates that had too much negativity or complaining.
As far as common sense, how many more times are we going to read in the news about some idiot who was fired because they were bad-mouthing their boss on Facebook? I even wrote about that because it was way too stupid to even make news! I think folks just might be catching on… !
…and you said it so nicely : )
Since Facebook is a narcissist’s friend, I think most people only share the best parts of their lives. We want people to think we’re attractive, rich, smart, successful, loved, exciting, etc. etc. so we only share the photos of ourselves where we think we look good, or it looks like our family gets along, or we’re in a cool location where our “friends” will be jealous of us. Hey, I’m guilty too. When I’m crabby or angry or having a horrible day, I’ll sometimes start a status update and think twice about it, because I don’t want people to think that I’m a crabby person. However, I just might be – but you’ll never know that if we’re “friends” on Facebook. 🙂
I swear someone wrote/said something once that life and/or people are messy. I can’t recall who said it, but man they were dead on…