Facebook is an addiction for many.
By Darius Mugisha (email the author)
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Posted Monday, January 24 2011 at 00:00
My friend Dedan recently realised that his girlfriend Angela posted details of all their wrangles on Facebook. Although her posts didnt actually have Dedans name, it was quite obvious she was talking about him.
Angela made posts about lots of things ranging from Dedans late night home coming to the suspicious phone calls he received or ignored while at home. Efforts to try talking Angela into stopping the posts were not successful as she claimed that she at least has people that advise and encourage her whenever she posts her predicaments on Facebook.
Dedan got face to face with the ugly side of Facebook, when his mother recently called him advising him to treat a woman with respect. His mothers call, came after Dedan had slowly been turned into this bad guy courtesy of the posts. And apart from his mums call, there were several calls from other relatives, friends and his boss. Angela was shocked to learn that her posts had raised so much dust among people that matter to her boyfriend.
She recently stopped writing the posts but not before she wrote one last one: People who read my posts and tag them to my hubby, should mind their business and leave us alone.
Angela is one of several Facebook users that has realised that their posts are often misinterpreted and blown out of proportion by different people.
Several people out there rarely take the effort to critically think through most of the posts, comments and status messages they put on their walls or other peoples walls.
Some posts ruin peoples businesses, others are defamatory while several indirectly affect the authors negatively. Take Eunice who recently made a post complaining about Pinky Salon. Her concern was about the driers at Pinky Salon being too old yet they still charge Shs25,000 for treatment. I might not care so much about the driers, but Pinky Salon is suddenly a salon I would not advise a friend to visit after Eunices post.
Addictive
Its generally believed by almost all Facebook users, that the site is addictive. On getting to the office, the first activity for several people is to log onto it. Some do not even wait till they get to the office. They use their mobile phones to log on while still in bed or as soon as they wake up. And on logging on, they peruse through all their friends updated status messages while trying to come up with an interesting one to post on their wall.
And when if they are not reading posts, the people you may know list can easily take hours of their time as they look through all names to find long lost high school friends, former sweethearts or that girl that got heads turning at the university.
And then there are the photos, the humorous and provocative pictures will make you want to post yours, your family, children, dog or car and thereafter, come up with witty humorous descriptions for all the pictures before you actually tag the faces. Isnt this a whole days work!?
Many people have Facebook profiles in their real full names, meaning, anyone that knows your full name can reach you with relative ease. But besides your exes or friends, has it ever crossed your mind that your profile could be used by a stalker, your employers, parents or potential employers?
What seemed like a disguised joke Harry made about his boss didnt turn out to be so funny after it almost cost him a job! After donating a set of Adidas deodorant and perfume as a birthday present to his boss, Harry immediately made a post: I just got rid of the odour at my workplace, just gave my boss his best birthday present ever; an Adidas cologne and perfume!
Harry had forgotten that his Facebook profile clearly stated the name of his employer. Although limited to only friends, Harrys post easily spilled beyond boundaries of his chosen privacy settings.
Not everyone on your friends list is as close as you think. People intending to find out about others take many forms and the smartest way would be choosing an appearance of a friend.
Little wonder Harry suspects someone on his own friends list spilled the beans to his boss.
Things only got worse for Harry when while checking through his Facebook profile, a shocking photo of him and Cathy a female employee, whom the boss was rumoured to have a fling with popped by default. In the photo, Harry and Cathy were having a good time at the beach. It was the last thing he needed after the post that was leaked.
This brings me to yet another centre of trouble on Facebook the pictures. The most recent trouble bred by Facebook pictures, is the publication of several young ladies photos by a local tabloid. The tabloid has gone ahead to dig into these ladies profiles and has published information about them under mortifying headlines.
Tabloids aside, during a friends engagement party last year, Farouq, a city lawyer and Muslim, was pictured holding bottles of beer.
According to Farouq, he lifted the beer bottles to clear a table where a cake was to be cut. On posting the photo on Facebook, someone tagged Farouqs Saudi Arabia-based longtime girlfriend called Hadija, also a Muslim.
As you read this, Farouqs marriage preparations still hang in the balance after Hadijas sister saw the picture. Farouq who swears to never have ever tasted a beer, thinks a friend with ulterior motives was behind the risqué picture.
With his relationship on the rocks, Farouq is even scared of the kind of trouble that the picture is likely to pose amongst his relatives or if it ever pops up in future especially in an era where employers also utilise Facebook as a background checker.
According to reliable sources, a local tabloid also recently developed a new technique that targets male social personalities. The tabloid employees create profiles with common female names and post provocative photos of skimpily dressed women. The administrators of the pages then send male celebrities friend requests, after which they embark on provocative chats. The chat is later published in the tabloid!
Little comments like activities, political, religious views and fan pages can also prove to be a source of drama. Charles had for long been trying to date a cabinet ministers daughter but he forgot to change his harsh political views. Part of his profile read: Greedy liars, I hate you to death. Charles was reminded by the girl that she was actually a daughterto a greedy liar, he hates to death!
Most people using Facebook, tend to confuse online interactions to be adequate substitutes for face to face conversations! Nasser, who was intending to stand for Member of Parliament on an opposition political party ticket somewhere in Eastern Uganda, had a chat with a certain opposition leader on Facebook.
Nasser was convinced the party leader knew about his intentions and had agreed to meet him during the primaries, only to be shocked when the former denied ever chatting with Nasser when they met on the day of the primaries!
While its common amongst daily Facebook users to say they cant do without the site, its crucial to consider the networking sites downfalls even with a keener eye.
Most importantly, we need to remember that making Facebook a compulsion, destructs from more rewarding activities and cuts our levels of productivity. Also while Facebook might seem private, its on the Internet and nothing on the Internet can be 100 per cent secure from public view.
Source:Daily Monitor: - Entertainment |The ugly face of Facebook
