A while ago, I bit the bullet and signed up for a Facebook account. I didn't do much with it other than gawk at pictures of people I used to hang out with and their offspring, who are all almost but not quite as cute as my own. (I keed, I keed. Well, sort of anyway.) I added a link to this blog, I made sure that none of the people I try to avoid were there, and then I moved on.
Well, it's becoming kind of an issue now, as my Facebook is hooked to my spam email account, as are almost any online sites that require an email address. This is just good practice, as eventually one of them is going to get hacked or sell their email lists, and when that goes down I won't start getting all sorts of interesting offers in my regular email.
What this means is that I tend to ignore notifications being sent to me from Facebook for a random amount of time. Once in a while, it will suddenly strike me that I haven't checked my spam account in a long time. I'll open it up, and there will be invites from people I know in Facebook. The problem is that this almost always occurs while I'm at work, and can not access Facebook to accept the invitation.
No big deal. Not the sort of thing I would typically do at work anyway. The problem is that things remain slightly hectic in my life (it's getting better, but still), so there's a significant chance that I will go home and not go anywhere near the computer. Then, a week or two later, I realize I haven't checked my spam account in a while, and in doing so remember that I never accepted the invitation.
Now I understand that there is a big group of you who do not regularly interact with your computer. You don't think of email as pressing, and things that happen online are a peripheral part of your existence. You might not even use the Internet for days at a time.
You people freak me out.
Well, not really, but by nature of my career, I'm permanently wired into the net. For me, there was a great triumph in being able to grab my PSP, hop online, and look up the answer to some question my lovely wife asked me, all without actually getting out of bed. It was sublime.
As a result of this wired nature, I tend to think of these interactions as real time. I'm picturing someone inviting me to be their friend, and then wondering why I'm ignoring this request. Does it hurt their feelings? Are they offended? Do they sit there and wonder why they sent it in the first place, quietly listing to themselves every thing I ever did to piss them off? In reality, they probably send the invite and then forget it ever happened, but it worries me. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, even virtually. If any of you are reading this, I'm not ignoring you. I'm just busy and forgetful.
Oh the bright side, I'm pretty sure I've elevated being socially awkward to an art form.
Well, it's becoming kind of an issue now, as my Facebook is hooked to my spam email account, as are almost any online sites that require an email address. This is just good practice, as eventually one of them is going to get hacked or sell their email lists, and when that goes down I won't start getting all sorts of interesting offers in my regular email.
What this means is that I tend to ignore notifications being sent to me from Facebook for a random amount of time. Once in a while, it will suddenly strike me that I haven't checked my spam account in a long time. I'll open it up, and there will be invites from people I know in Facebook. The problem is that this almost always occurs while I'm at work, and can not access Facebook to accept the invitation.
No big deal. Not the sort of thing I would typically do at work anyway. The problem is that things remain slightly hectic in my life (it's getting better, but still), so there's a significant chance that I will go home and not go anywhere near the computer. Then, a week or two later, I realize I haven't checked my spam account in a while, and in doing so remember that I never accepted the invitation.
Now I understand that there is a big group of you who do not regularly interact with your computer. You don't think of email as pressing, and things that happen online are a peripheral part of your existence. You might not even use the Internet for days at a time.
You people freak me out.
Well, not really, but by nature of my career, I'm permanently wired into the net. For me, there was a great triumph in being able to grab my PSP, hop online, and look up the answer to some question my lovely wife asked me, all without actually getting out of bed. It was sublime.
As a result of this wired nature, I tend to think of these interactions as real time. I'm picturing someone inviting me to be their friend, and then wondering why I'm ignoring this request. Does it hurt their feelings? Are they offended? Do they sit there and wonder why they sent it in the first place, quietly listing to themselves every thing I ever did to piss them off? In reality, they probably send the invite and then forget it ever happened, but it worries me. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, even virtually. If any of you are reading this, I'm not ignoring you. I'm just busy and forgetful.
Oh the bright side, I'm pretty sure I've elevated being socially awkward to an art form.
No comments:
Post a Comment