The great artist Gary Numan once pondered ‘are friends electric?’

Well… if they are only on fb, if they are only ‘electric’ signals via the computer, typing, sentence after sentence making you feel good, while in fact you are wasting your life away because you have never seen or spoken to them in person, then…well... then friends they are not.

Even if programs, like Catfish, try to bring the “is that fb-profile really who he says he is” issue to our attention, and attempt to expose these false fb-profiles to relieve broken hearts, it is still just considered as ‘fun TV’ and only hits home when it is almost too late. A facebook friend is only a friend if you know him or her personally from real life. If you have had actual conversations!

Avoid the whole catfish drama, and add friends in a responsible way. Never add someone to your friend-list before talking to him or her in real life. And do not forget friends of your friends aren’t necessary friends of yours, the same principle as mentioned above is best applied.

Now go and get a life ;) till the next time!

Welcome!

Let us start this blog by discussing one of the questions posed in ‘our goal’, namely ‘is facebook a good media for social contact?’ Our simple answer is NO or more precise fb is a backstabbing, two-timing, paranoia inducing, privacy violating medium that is ideal for stalking. Lets break this answer down into two different aspects.

First ‘fb Posts’. People with no life will waste it even more on facebook by spending enormous amounts of time looking at posts of other people enjoining their social life. Click on the ‘like’ button all you want, it won’t stop the wasting process. The solution? Simply STOP, shutdown your fb page, step away from the computer and back out of the room. One, two, three, four,...and you’re back on fb before you know it. Fb has become a part of life, although we questions its efficiency as a social media, we encourage you to keep fb, but use it wisely. After all there is nothing wrong with liking other peoples posts, it can even lead to social contact. Go further than just liking the post, give a comment, ask a question, and avoid an explosion of emoticons or moving images.

Secondly ‘chatting’: The way you chat on fb depends greatly on your attitude. People who are dealing with the ‘wasting my life’ syndrome, interpret a chat session in a very different way. Every sentence will be scrutinised intensively to find hidden connotations, that probably aren’t there. Which will result in a lot of needless over-thinking i.e. wasting of life. When a person doesn’t answer within one minute of you sending him/her a chat message, do not panic. This person probably has a life, which means the fb chat is mostly left unused and that he or she has other occupations and can therefore not answer right away. When the message is viewed, but no reply follows, there is still no reason to think you’re being ignored (although this could be the case, as you have no life and might come across as boring...). Just leave the session or better close fb and look at it some other time, give your mind some time to worry about other things.

Chats and posts on fb are indirect, the gaps between reactions can lead to a manifestation of feelings of doubt, loneliness and wrong impressions. Direct contact gives direct feedback, most of the time it’s only interpretable in a certain way and it is more enjoyable. So don’t forget to take a picture of the moment so you can post it on fb...(it never ends).

Is life getting you down? Are you lonely? Do you think fb is a way to socialise? Being a pessimist is great? Are you WASTING your life???

Well why not waste it by reading this blog on how NOT to waste it. Join us in an ‘epic’ debate on solutions to get a life! We do not guarantee a social life after reading this blog.