I have a friend living in Japan who has only updated her Facebook status this year with that most famous of engaging Japanese poetry forms, the haiku. From her first haiku update this year, Sarah Jane Blenkhorn, originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, declared that she intended to keep this up all through 2011.
What a really neat idea! It’s something I can see being on CNN or other sites which posts neat Internet undertakings, especially after a decent body of work might have been done. I would say about 200 haiku status updates should be enough, or about half way through the year, to get the world watching the rest of the year.
I’m sharing this idea because aside from it being neat, I think it’d be a great challenge for those of you out there looking for interesting ways to liven your Facebook status updates. You don’t have to use haikus, although they are easily engaging, or do it for a year. Maybe just do some poetry for a certain time, like National Poetry Month in April. I’m considering that as I am writing. I have a lot of visitors who come to this site for the Facebook tagging memes I’ve created, as well as Facebook safety and advice. I hope some of you will take up this challenge. I think it should be a national movement in Japan!
In practicing good Facebook behaviour, Sarah Jane’s status updates are not publicly available. I have encouraged Sarah Jane to hook up her Facebook status updates to a micro-blog, much the way one can hook up Twitter feeds to WordPress micro-blogs, so the world can share in her entertaining and thoughtful Facebook status updates. Nothing has become of it so far, but she did give me permission to share what she has written so far.
I’ve recently written some posts on purging your Facebook friends list due to the misuse, abuse and harm of Facebook friendships incurred by many people (links below). The issue has recently gotten more attention via talk show host Jimmy Kimmel calling for Wednesday, November 17, to be National Unfriend Day of NUD, and I am here to help with some tips and challenges should you want to take part in National Unfriend Day. This also goes for MySpace, LiveJournal, Bebo and other social networking platforms where you can add friends, but the main focus is on the largest social networking platform in the world, which is Facebook.
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Why you would want to take part in Unfriend Day (or do it on another day)
Because Facebook friends can be spies, now or in the future when someone decides to no longer like you, especially people you don’t know well but have as Facebook friends. With Facebook’s new Friendship Page feature that gives everyone creepy new spying capabilities on other people’s profiles, the fact that Facebook friends can be spies has never been truer. Facebook friends have access to everything you have unless you block them from specific things. But let’s be serious. How many people really do that? And even if you did, isn’t that enough of a creep factor to get you to unfriend them? And why are you causing yourself stress in watching your back on Facebook all the time since you might have to block certain friends from potentially every new thing you post?
Jimmy Kimmel talks about unfriending because Facebook has cheapened the meaning of friendship. I have also written similarly about the meaning of friendship versus Facebook friendship. However, there is a real life threat to Facebook friendship and not just an ideology here.
If you missed National Unfriend Day, there’s no reason NUD couldn’t be any other day during the year for you. In fact, I would recommend you purge your Facebook friends list several times during the year.
Facebook activities don’t get you in trouble, Facebook friends who see them do
It seems to me we’ve had enough bad stories of people getting caught on Facebook for everything from cheating to hate statements to inappropriate work comment and other such bad behaviours, but not many people still care all that much. Just remember, those behaviours aren’t what got those people in trouble. It’s the fact they had Facebook friends who saw the behaviours and did something about it, even if unintentional like sharing it in some way, online or in real life.
Will people think you mean for dropping Facebook friends?
Hardly. People seem to think that those with tons of meaningless Facebook friends are the ones who are insecure. Knowing who your friends are, and who are not, is a sign of personal security and integrity, not being mean.
What if the unfriended request being friends again?
If you have common friends with someone you untag, they may notice having been removed if you post something on your mutual friend’s wall and they see it by looking or a notification of others posting on the same post. They’ll probably only realize it because they see your name and realize they hadn’t seen any updates from you in a while. So what if they add you again? Awkward?
Maybe. But you can avoid it by blocking them after you remove them. Or ignore the friendship request. If it means that much to them, and if you have any real friendship in life, they can talk to you about it. If you have any real friendship in life, this Facebook friend stuff shouldn’t matter. Really, it’s not the end of the world.
For those who like to flaunt their life fun on Facebook, especially if there’s a little element of risk to it, how’s about flaunting your Facebook unfriending Facebook tagging style?
Facebook friends dumped tagging meme
I highly recommend you do this after you unfriend the people you tag, of course. Now, you can’t tag a picture with a link to someone you aren’t Facebook friends with, but you can always type in their names instead of choosing from a box listing your Facebook friends. This is like if you were to tag a photo of the Loch Ness monster, Darth Vader, Wolverine, Harry Potter, Bella Swan or anything else. They don’t have Facebook profiles, so far as I know, but you can still tag them in pictures. Same idea for Facebook friends you’ve dumped.
Good luck with National Unfriend Day, Jimmy and the world!
I don’t know how much media clout, or pull, Jimmy Kimmel will have in proposing National Unfriend Day, but it’s good advice. Even if it doesn’t do well, it’s the first year. Things take time to adapt, and more time if it’s a once a year occurrence. But remember what I said above…
If you missed National Unfriend Day, there’s no reason NUD couldn’t be any other day during the year for you. In fact, I would recommend you purge your Facebook friends list several times during the year.
Remember this fun Facebook in Real Life video? It needs a seriously creepy update!
Nov 6 2010 update:
This article just became much more relevant after Facebook introduced the Facebook Friendship Page feature on Oct 29, 2010.
Many, if not most, Facebook users have more friends on their Facebook Friends list than are good for them. Having more Facebook Friends means more people are watching you. There more people to waste your time, even if just having to sift through their updates to find ones from people you care about. There are also more people who could use something on your profile against you in some way, even if it’s just gossip, possibly from misunderstandings or unintentionally. We’re not even talking about potential creeps and malicious people here, who you don’t know well but had casually added as Facebook friends over time.
So how’s about putting the two together for something useful?
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A challenge to remove 5 Facebook Friends and pass it on!
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These would be “friends” in the loosest sense of the word, of course, not any real friends. I don’t think most people need any help to do this challenge if they want to take it up. That’s how frivolous I think the Facebook Friends thing has become for most Facebook users. However, if you need help or want to do a more serious purging, check out some of my criteria for identifying Facebook Friends you can remove without a lot of consequences.
I took up my own challenge, of course, and went way over 5.
Can you?
If you don’t take the challenge, maybe just ask yourself, can I remove 5 Facebook Friends from my list?It’ll give you an idea of the state of your Facebook Friends list to where it maybe should be.
If you can remove 5 Facebook Friends from that thought experiment, maybe you ought to reconsider, especially now that you know you can. It’s just some clicking and scrolling now. 🙂
Or try it Facebook tagging style! (obviously you can’t tag these friends’ profiles, but you can tag and type in their names)
Da Prez only had hopes for Kentucky and Kansas State coming in, both of whom lost at a tournament bracket whopping 80 points per game in Round 4. To make things worse, Duke made it through, a popular pick among many brackets for the Final 4, who the President did not have… and neither did I. But I did have West Virginia.
With both Kentucky and Kansas State losing, da Prez officially had his Barackets closed out on Saturday night, just half way through Round 4, and could no longer earn points. That meant others would only pass him the rest of the way. It only remains to be seen how far da Prez will fall.
Well, after Duke and Michigan State won today, President Barack Obama’s Barackets is ahead of only 55.7% of the brackets on ESPN. From 88% to 56% in one day? OUCH! Da Prez went from an A to a D within a day!
With the next rounds having values of 160 and 320 points per game, respectively, and sufficient numbers picking West Virginia, Duke and Michigan State to do well in the Final Four, the President stands to fall even further. And like I said before, it only remains to be seen how far da Prez will fall.
My ESPN brackets had a tough Sunday as well, but I still have West Virginia remaining. Standing proud ahead of 89.5% of the brackets, I’m still getting an A. I had started out ahead of just 37% after Round 1.
So I’ve beaten da Prez again. Hehehe!
Pending what happens to close things out, I might even kick his butt! Actually, you might argue I’ve kicked his butt already if I’m sitting that far ahead of him.
However, it all means nothing. I could never get that health care bill da Prez got done in the US, and that’s by far the more important thing.
Obama’s Barackets is still doing relatively well because most people have also had their brackets busted open with all the upsets happening so far. However, on this last day of Round 3, the Cinderellas pretty much all went home. For this, Obama and others who had picked favourite teams that have been booted from March Madness will really start to feel that impact. There are now fewer games from which to get points, or compensate for those lost, and the games from now on continue to double in value from those of the previous rounds. Obama only has a potential 360 points remaining when each round remaining, including picking the overall winner, is worth 320 points each.
My ESPN brackets are also rather busted, but I have done well to this past round to jump from 846,668th place after Round 2, to 63,616th place or better than 98.6% of the brackets on ESPN. I’m beating da Prez now, 610 points to 550, but he has Kentucky and Kansas State remaining for elite teams potentially moving to the Final Four. I have West Virginia, Kansas State and Baylor, with the first losing an excellent player due to injury earlier this week so they’ll be in tough against Kentucky… and I have them in the Finals as well so that would be a devastating loss to my brackets.
Oh, well. At this point, I’m just enjoying March Madness as it’s been one of the better tournament in a long time. That Kansas State and Xavier game was definitely something else!
Let’s see what will happen this weekend!
p.s. Congratulations to Obama and the Democrats for passing that health care bill. It’s a good thing they passed it cause his Barackets might need some serious health care soon! 🙂
Digital Citizen 