Facebook Revenge

I’ve always thought of myself as a techno-realist, a wee bit computer illiterate, surviving on the bare minimum of internet access and cell phone usage. I’ve felt that I use new media, Facebook and the like, simply for social acceptance and to kill my boredom. However I found myself shocked recently to discover exactly how deeply new media had planted itself into my life and relationships…

After a minor disagreement with a friend one Saturday night I found myself awake in the middle of the night with ideas popping into my head about how to get back at her and let her know I was angry. Yet, for some reason all the options that popped into my head were ‘Facebook attacks’. I considered updating my status to something that would get at her or deleting all of my photos with her in them but I finally decided on deleting her as a contact all together. I followed through with this early the next morning.

After questioning a number of people on this matter it seems that this is a rather common thing to do - getting even with someone through Facebook. I wonder how many people, like my self, don’t realize when they’re doing it.
Facebook has become so commonplace in many of our lives that we don’t even realize when it’s influencing our actions.
The major downside I can see in these situations is the immediacy in which Facebook allows us to express ourselves. It is such a readily available source that it allows and in some ways encourages us to act on our thoughts and feelings immediately, as we feel them, without thinking of repercussions or consequences.
This brings me onto my next point…
Another negative of impulsively expressing yourself on Facebook is the inability to take anything back. For example, I’ve deleted this girl but regretted the extremeness of my actions almost immediately after. Now the only way to fix the situation would be to would be to re-request the girl’s friendship which in-turn would alert the girl to the fact that I had deleted her in the first place, if she had not already noticed, in which case she would probably reject my request anyway.

Think back to years earlier when if you were at an intermediate school disco, if some drama went down that night, we all had to wait until school the next day to do anything about it by which time you had probably cooled down anyway to the point where all you wanted to do was discuss it briefly with your friends and then forget about it.
I’m sure I’m not alone in this and that there are a large number of people who have posted or done things that they regret on a social networking site.
Maybe all we need to do is think before we type or maybe this is only going to get worse…

By Sally Weir