Why I Don't Like Facebook - Part 3

If we get to a part 4 I'm taking down my profile!

I don't like the way it seems to encourage some people to grass on themselves. I'm talking the kind of 'so and so is feeling guilty because he/she (almost invariably she, though I suppose there is a male equivalent) has just devoured a packet of revels/bottle of Sauvignon/entire box set of Desperate Housewives' variety. We all have facebook friends like that...

It seems harmless enough and the people aren't under any obvious duress to put up these little entries, and presumably welcome any attention that might be garnered (which is a little bit sad in itself really). However it smacks of something darker. It's the confess-all-at-the-town-square approach, to be found in red China and other totalitarian states, and organizations which can mimic that (various religious cults, alcoholics anonymous - check out this article on the 'us stupid drunks' conspiracy etc). It may be over-indulging in chocolates or alcohol one day, but who knows what you're going to be confessing and to whom if you keep up the practice. Remember, Catholic Priests, admittedly not a sector of society held in particularly high esteem at the moment, have to take a vow of confidentiality and, along with therapists and counsellors (good ones anyway) have years of training and expertise at their disposal.

You don't need to tell a load of strangers about your little foibles, they have their own, and it's none of their god dammed business.

You never know who is reading your seemingly harmless little confessions or might, consciously or unconsciously, use one of your pecadillos in a hurtful way, so for god's sake don't do it, or at least be very careful about privacy settings and the like.

Presumably twitter is more and more of the same, I have steered clear of that so far so I may be misrepresenting it a bit, but I doubt it.

You can view the previous ramblings here and here.