7 DAYS WITHOUT FAKEBOOK: POST 1

Christmas and New Year


I've often toyed with the idea of deactivating my Facebook account but it took the New Year to roll around for me to actually do it.  

I did wonder if the timing was coincidental, but on reflection, I doubt it.  I think it was more influential than anything.  A catalyst.  

There is so much out pouring of mawkish sentiment at this time of year with most of it being amplified ten fold by the social networks that all I want to do is crawl into the rather large cavity under my sink and reappear mid-Jan.  

You love your family.  Congratulations.  So do I.  But why do most people only say it once a year?  Is it because festive celebrations inevitably result in an annual epic domestic that takes another 12 months and a nip of brandy to recover from?  If  so, that leaves you with a damn slim window to get mawkish before all hell breaks loose.

But why profess on Facebook?  Why not face to face?  If it can't even be done through a cloud of alcoholic merriness, there is no hope for us.  I don't have a problem if you're spouting well wishes to family and friends you can't physically be around.  I do however take issue with this sort of fare:

'Just had the most amaze day with Darren and the fam.  Ate way too much, best Christmas eva.  Got totally spoilt.  So lucky to have you in my life, love you guys loads xx.'

We're just a species that's evolved with the specific purpose of creating barriers to physical human interaction.  Or that's evolved only to be comfortable dealing with emotion when you don't have to deal with the real time reaction.  Are we DEVELOPING EMOTIONAL POVERTY?  FAKEBOOK is it your fault?  Fakebook will say no because like guns don't kill people, people kill people, Fakebook will say Fakebook doesn't kill physical human interaction, humans kill physical human interaction.  

Yes, it's a dog eat dog world isn't it Fakebook?  But here's a point, like guns Fakebook, you enable.

Anyway, long story short:  I don't need to know you love your family, your family needs to know you love them. 

And as an endnote to this entry I have discovered that there are actually sites out there blatantly feeding into this festive Facebook feeling frenzy.  If you yourself can't even produce the mawkish sentiment to stick in your status update box, some freelance copywriting hack has saved you the exertion.   

These are taken from FacebookStatus123.com:
"Merry Christmas!  From my wall to yours..." (all the Marketing Execs would have used this one)

"The best gifts in life will never be found under a Christmas tree! Those gifts are friends, family, kids and the one you love!!" (Mawkish Sentiment Level - MSL = 9/10.  Also, no editing here, it really did come with two exclamation marks).

Strangely enough, I actually quite like this one:
"Ha ha ha Christmas is coming and there’s nothing you can do about it..."

Overall and in sum, at this rate, there is no hope for us.  But please, prove me wrong (I really want you to). 

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