Hello, WORLD!! Last December, while working on a job for Amazon Mechanical Turck (look this up if you're unemployed or if you are looking for a way to supplement your income), one of the tasks had me start a Facebook page if I hadn't already done so, which at that point I hadn't, and "Like" a status. I dont really remember which status but I know for that $0.75 it wasn't too much trouble to do. Little did I know that that one act would limit my A.M.T. production. I haven't went back on there that much since. One of the last times I did return, however, had me do almost the exact same thing except I had to "ReTweet" something via Twitter. I figured why not? I did both jobs and thought nothing about them until a week later when I checked my eMail. By that time I had maybe 100 request from names I hadn't seen in years. Just what was this Facebook thing I had gotten into? I had no idea at that time, although I remembered a few of my friends had wanted me to check it out on various occasions. I was skeptical, but for the life of me I can't remember why I felt that way. Anyway, I decided to see what was to it and lo and behold, I had fun. Enough fun to make me regret all the time I wasted not being on Facebook. This feeling of fun lasted on Facebook until maybe March or April when I started noticing how fake some of the people on here was. Not my friends from real life; out of all of those friends that I also had as Facebook friends, I only know of one that was being phony and she has since deleted herself from my page and my life to which I say "Good riddance, with your phony ass!" Nuff said on that, for now. Anyway, around that time I decided to give Twitter a try. And lo and behold, THAT was fun. I can't believe I had so much fun on just thinking out loud (which is all Twitter is, IMO). As much fun as I had on Facebook, it seems I'm having more fun on Twitter because the Followers on Twitter (as opposed to "friends" on Facebook) are not obligated to follow me; instead they follow because they want to follow. I figure you gotta be saying some good shit in order to get a few 1000 or so followers and over the course of these 6 months I believe I have had at least that many followers total but never at one time. On Facebook, at one point I had 1000 friends until I realized I didn't need that many people in my life that's not worth knowing period and started cutting the loose ends loose. I am now @ 600 plus friends and almost 300 followers. As far as followers go, it's modest but the people who follow me are more than likely worth following in return. There's that at least. As far as my Facebook friends go, I know each and every last one of them. Admittedly, some I met through FB, but these people's insights are as valued as the insights from my real life friends, some I look at as true friends in every sense of the words, feel me.
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What have I learned in these 6 plus months?: I've learned a few details about social networks in general and Facebook & Twitter in particular:
1.)Not everybody on these pages keep things 100: A no brainer. Remember I mentioned an ex-friend? She was always posting stories of her traveling and such when she did not go anywhere. I found this out when I told her to "Enjoy a trip" she had been discussing earlier on her page. She responded "I'm not taking a trip. I did that so I could make the nosy people more jealous of me." My thinking is why would you do this unless them same nosy people were only being nosy because you lied in the first place? Whatever.
2.)Even if you had been friends with a person in the past, that doesn't mean yall still cool just because you befriended each other on Facebook: Time changes outlooks, you know. A person whom was ya closest friend might not recognize the new you, even if you aren't the one who has changed. #SadButTrue....
3.)Twitter is more "adult" than Facebook: Another no brainer. My major pet peeve with Facebook is the fact that I have a gang of inboxed things that have absolutely no beneficial properties for me at all, like invites to fan pages such as "I like Doing Hand-Stands" or "Vote for Banana the Chimp as Facebook's Sexiest Animal". I made them up, but look through some of the pages you guys are part of and you'll see I ain't that far off the margin. Twitter, however, doesn't have these annoying messages or games and game request ("Send my a Bulletproof Shield" ala Mafia Wars and the like) for that matter, or maybe it does and I don't get the junk mail for it. IDK but as long as I am not receiving it, hey...
4.)Make sure you dont embarrass anybody that has old pics of you you dont want to see online: Nuff said on this but then again...Nah, this one is self explaining. BUT I do want to add a note or two about sexting here. It's a couple of guys that be on Twitter that admit they save pics people tweet and sometimes save profile pics. But if that pic you saved is of a half nude minor, that could cause a small problem. Another small problem could be sexting on your behalf. You meet somebody, feeling 'em, and soon you're sending 'em pics of ya naked ass. The problem arises if yall have a falling out and that person still has them pics. You already know whats next, right? Right. You know. Watch what you send people in regards to yourself and how you want to be viewed.
5.)Engaging in Twitter Wars/Facebook Beefs is worthless: Instead of wasting your time trying to put down somebody that you probably don't know in real life anyway (what's the sense in that?), why not use your energy wisely and try to help others you don't know? #ImJustSaying... And with that said
6.)Stay out of your Friends/Followers beefs: Nine times outta ten, if it involves real friends you'd do your best to stay out of it unless you're a drama king or queen. Try to remember that next time there's an Internet war of words between people you are cool with. You find yourself in the middle of some stuff you really ain't got nothing to do with and it might wind up costing you not one friend but several after all the smoke clears, feel me.
7.)You don't have to accept every friend request/Screen who sends you a friend request before you accept: I just got a friend request from a JASMINE YOUNG (she's looking for friends so feel free to look her up). The first thing I do is check her page. I see she has just become friends with 9 people by one line on her page, another line says 10 and then it says 4 more similar stories. The thing is she only has 113 friends. She just got started on her page, I assume. What does she post? Her only posts reads "hi guys come view my webcam". The WORST kinda people get you to leave a relatively safe website like Twitter or Facebook to come to a Webcam site which is usually the home of dozens of viruses and spyware, just waiting on a sap to come and check it out so they can infect the user's computer. Avoid these like the plague! Also be weary of any friend request you get and yall have no mutual friends in common. It's strange how a person in San Jose can request your friendship and you dont even know how they came across your page. Sometimes it's nothing; sometimes it's a person trying to spread more of the viruses that you see on other websites. #SadButTrue...
8.)Being thirsty gets you nowhere!!: Take this advice on EVERY level you can! First, I'm not a fan of dating anybody I didn't meet in person first, but that's just me. If you are into that kinda thing, be careful. If you try to talk to a person based on the picture you see as their profile pic, you're setting yourself up for an epic #Fail. See Lesson #1 again in case I need to elaborate. Then if you're satisfied that that pic is the person ya feeling, you STILL should be weary. I mean, after all, that person chatting with you over the computer isn't just chatting with you over the computer no matter what you think. Again, #ImJustSaying...
9.)Maybe you're not right after all...: We, as people, have a tendency to think that whatever we say or do is the end all be all of whatever. This is not the case. Say you share an idea and your brainchild gets heavily criticized. Does this mean your idea is a bad one? No, nor does it mean that your friends/followers are idiots. It could be exactly what you needed to hear in order to take your brainchild to the next level. Then again, it could be total shit just like your people tried to tell you. Learn to accept criticism for what it's worth. Conversely, if you're the one giving criticism, do so in the manner that the critized person can learn and build from instead of tearing down his or her hard work and not so much as leave a 'what's needed for improvement' note.
10.)These are websites, not your life!!:Typically, I dont do websites after I get off work. Main reason: After work, I live my life! Secondary reason:I got things to do. Even if there is nothing I have to do, the main reason is good enough to warrant me a break from posting/tweeting. I know for a fact that there is a few people who surprisingly are on this sites all day long. How can that be possible, especially if these people: have children?, have real friends?, are human (24 hours without sleep?!?!)?,etc. I understand some people are not really social and yes I will admit that this site can help a person in this regard. But the fact remains that having a cyber life doesn't constitute having a life. It's just one aspect of life and just like the rest of them, it does not complete a person. Get off the website for a minute; see what the real world is doing once in a while.
Of course, I've learned more than just these things but these are the main points that stand out to me as "Why doesn't everybody know this shit?" department. That's all for now, WORLD, but isn't this enough?
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