Oh Facebook...

If this blog post is shared 99,999,999 times, this kitten will finally catch that annoying red laser dot!

Normally I'm quite a passive person but there is just one thing that drives me crazy these days. If you have a Facebook account you probably have seen the "10,000 likes and this baby will get a free heart transplant!" pictures (or things of similar nature, usually involving small children or puppies). There is just so much wrong with these pictures. Right, I know some pictures are shared out of good heart, to perhaps spread a message or raise awareness. But... here goes

Why these shared photos are just wrong
1) 99% of the pictures are taken out of context and set in a fake backstory used to manipulate its audience. An old dog simply recovering from surgery can be twisted around to say it was abused. This causes a lot of people to jump the gun without making any sort of logical connection or even taking out the time to investigate.

2) Sharing or liking doesn't do anything. There is no doctor cruel enough to say, "hey, normally I don't do this but if this picture of your baby gets shared 100,000 times, I will do her surgery for free!". As with those "every share is 5 cents for (name of charity)", it has been confirmed that every single one of these are fake. There is no money being made for anyone (even the ones that are "sponsored by Facebook"). 

3) Blind-sighted ego boosts. Yes, no doubt there were loads of people who shared these pictures with good intent. But it seems to make people think that anyone who doesn't share it with all their friends is the spawn of Satan who hates little dogs. And that somehow their karma check for the day has been accomplished.

I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me at this somewhat harsh look at what seems like harmless photo-sharing, but having seen too many of these, I felt like I had to rant about it.

Online "Grounding": A response to Facebook Parenting

A few days ago, a video was posted on YouTube that went viral within a day or so.
To sum it up, a father of a 15 year old girl named Hannah found out that she had ranted about her parents on her Facebook page and blocked them, thinking he wouldn't find out. Too bad her dad's worked in IT for years. Needless to say, he found out about her posting to all her friends about how she was treated like a "slave" because she had chores and demanded that she get paid for them... well, that and a lot of other things. You can watch the full video here:

Now, I understand that she is only 15 (I remember when I was 15 years old like it was yesterday) and may be going through a lot at that age. But in my honest opinion, that really is no way to talk about your parents. What angers me the most, however, is the fact that she didn't even directly say these things to her parents. No, she chose to completely humiliate her entire family by letting hundreds of her "friends" know about her personal situation. And for what just cause? I can't think of what was going through her head at the time.

About the punishment. As in, the whole "publicizing your daughter's life and angry ramblings to millions of people all over the world, while conveniently making your Facebook profile easy to find". At first, although I was shocked at the girl's be havior, I was rather iffy onwhether what her dad did was really fair. Take it from me, I'm no parenting expert but once a video like this goes viral, there really is no turning back. I wonder how this might affect her life?

At the moment, I am assuming she is probably furious at her parents. But I do truly believe that it will benefit her overall in the long run. Help her become a better person. And kids really do need to know how to treat their parents (and others) with respect and gratitude. Trust me, I myself hated doing chores but I realized my parents' selfless contribution to me was so much more that it really was the least I could do.

And to end on a happy note, I hope everyone enjoyed Valentine's Day yesterday! I think my stomach is still feeling a bit hurty from all the chocolates but... hopefully it gets better.

What do you guys think on this topic of "Facebook Parenting"?

Dear Facebook...

Now I'm not one of those Facebook haters. I actually was a fan of it for some time. But the change's they're implementing are ridiculous, especially the one they added yesterday. So here's a little rant. The little "Ticker" on the right is distracting and annoying; I don't really care that my second cousins' friend liked a picture of her boyfriend's dog. Besides, if I can see all this information from other profiles, I'm pretty sure that makes my information quite vulnerable as well... The "Top News" features is also getting on my nerves. I am getting top news from people I barely know, even with the help of filters. I know we'll just get used to it like we always do, but I feel like I should migrate to Google + soon....