We are back from our travels with Thomas' brother and sister-in-law, and wish everybody a happy new year!
This year I send completely self-decorated happy-new-year-cards to a selected group of people. With the digital world nowadays the die-hards who send actual pen&paper cards are few, and I decided it wasn’t worth it anymore to send 30+ cards when I receive less than 10 in return.
To take this back-to-pre-virtual-times further in the new year, shortly before midnight 31 December I deactivated my Facebook account. Although I was never very active on Facebook and pretty conscious about not putting any too personal info there, I really enjoyed Facebook as a source of information. In the last year I found out about multiple wedding proposals, pregnancies and divorces just by occasionally checking Facebook. Also the wealth of (sometimes pretty personal) photos that people put up there was really amazing. 500 photos of someone’s travels through Africa or 600 photos of newborn babies, and you’re totally up to date...
However, I found it increasingly annoying to find out things only through Facebook. It seems like even email is old-fashioned, when you can just update your status on Facebook and all your 100 (1000) friends instantly know that you’re pregnant/ill/at a specific restaurant. Or when the only thing you have to do to show someone that you take an interest in them is to “like” their photo.
Also the sheer overload of information from some Facebook addicts started to really bother me. I really don’t care what you have for dinner or when your hubby is coming home or in which café you are having coffee. Or the “put this in your status update so everybody knows that Facebook uses your personal info for evil purposes!”. If that bothers you, just stop using Facebook.
In the last months I watched 3 social network films and documentaries, and despite all the bad publicity I started to really like Mark Zuckerberg. To me it seems he is just fiddling with the Facebook code and applications because that’s what he likes to do. He is not per se after all your personal information. If anything he is probably just as flabbergasted as I am about how much stuff people are willing to put on the internet. And if people are that stupid, why not make use of it. After all, you can opt out or just not use Facebook or any other social network at all.
So that is what I decided to do. I might be back at some point, but probably not in the next year. It is a sort of new year’s resolution, to have more “personal” contact with people and spend a little less time on the internet. The blog is where you will find my (long) “status updates” and if you have something to tell me you can email, write or ring me. Of course I’ll do the same. After all, not everything makes it to the blog, if it’s too personal or if I have little time or if it doesn’t make a good blog post, it might feature in an email to you personally.
This year I send completely self-decorated happy-new-year-cards to a selected group of people. With the digital world nowadays the die-hards who send actual pen&paper cards are few, and I decided it wasn’t worth it anymore to send 30+ cards when I receive less than 10 in return.
To take this back-to-pre-virtual-times further in the new year, shortly before midnight 31 December I deactivated my Facebook account. Although I was never very active on Facebook and pretty conscious about not putting any too personal info there, I really enjoyed Facebook as a source of information. In the last year I found out about multiple wedding proposals, pregnancies and divorces just by occasionally checking Facebook. Also the wealth of (sometimes pretty personal) photos that people put up there was really amazing. 500 photos of someone’s travels through Africa or 600 photos of newborn babies, and you’re totally up to date...
However, I found it increasingly annoying to find out things only through Facebook. It seems like even email is old-fashioned, when you can just update your status on Facebook and all your 100 (1000) friends instantly know that you’re pregnant/ill/at a specific restaurant. Or when the only thing you have to do to show someone that you take an interest in them is to “like” their photo.
Also the sheer overload of information from some Facebook addicts started to really bother me. I really don’t care what you have for dinner or when your hubby is coming home or in which café you are having coffee. Or the “put this in your status update so everybody knows that Facebook uses your personal info for evil purposes!”. If that bothers you, just stop using Facebook.
In the last months I watched 3 social network films and documentaries, and despite all the bad publicity I started to really like Mark Zuckerberg. To me it seems he is just fiddling with the Facebook code and applications because that’s what he likes to do. He is not per se after all your personal information. If anything he is probably just as flabbergasted as I am about how much stuff people are willing to put on the internet. And if people are that stupid, why not make use of it. After all, you can opt out or just not use Facebook or any other social network at all.
So that is what I decided to do. I might be back at some point, but probably not in the next year. It is a sort of new year’s resolution, to have more “personal” contact with people and spend a little less time on the internet. The blog is where you will find my (long) “status updates” and if you have something to tell me you can email, write or ring me. Of course I’ll do the same. After all, not everything makes it to the blog, if it’s too personal or if I have little time or if it doesn’t make a good blog post, it might feature in an email to you personally.
A good example of something that should not be on the internet ;)
