Okay, it's Sunday - and Technorella must digress a bit. I've been thinking about how to be "polite" in the social networking arena, and frankly, I'm just at a loss.
To be specific, there is a certain person - let's call him Fred - who is pushing my social networking limits. Fred sits near my office, although we work in separate groups. And if I'm being honest, well... Fred annoys me. A lot.
I don't actually have any people from my office as Facebook "friends," and Fred and I rarely talk. So I was a bit suprised/perplexed when Fred invited me to be his Facebook friend.
Here's the thing: I don't really want Fred knowing what I do in my free time. But, since I see him daily, wouldn't ignoring his friend request be kind of rude? So I accepted his request, but I must admit that I felt a little bit forced into the situation. And the kicker? Fred just invited me to join his LinkedIn network.
So - here I am, socially networked to someone who I frankly don't particularly like. Yet, not taking him up on his offer would have been considered rude, especially given our proximity at work.
My point is that the more I explore social networking, the more I find online relationships to be relatively meaningless... thanks to people like Fred, online social circles don't mirror day-to-day reality. So here I am on a Sunday - feeling like a mean person because I don't really want to be Fred's Facebook friend - even though the social connection isn't there to begin with.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Oh Technorella, what an interesting conundrum... I frequently have strange co-workers send me a friend request. I usually don't even know them so I just ignore. But if I do know them, I accept just to not be rude.
The way I see it, if a coworker wants to be friends on Facebook and sees something in my life that offends them, then it's their own fault for sending me the request in the first place. I also am not a very private person, though...
Thanks, as always, for your insight, Eddie. I guess you're right - it's Fred's fault if he sees things on my page (not that there's much to see) that offends him. Still - I feel like the request - in itself - was a bit invasive. Makes me think about your post on "Defriending" - social networking sites certainly require their own set of social rules.
Oh, right. Dude, Technorella, just DEFRIEND Fred. He'll never know unless he actually stalks you. And, if your real relationship is that forced, than he'd probably have trouble confronting you about it.
Post a Comment