What with Web 2.0 having firmly tightened its grip on the internet (among other things), it looks like social networking is here to stay. And so is, apparently, the phenomenon known as cyber-stalking.
Lately, some of my friends of the fairer sex (and, surprisingly, some of the not-so-fair sex as well) have been complaining about an alleged increase in complete strangers randomly seeking their friendship via popular social networking sites such as Facebook. (OK, only Facebook… I mean, seriously, who uses MySpace here?)
It seems these individuals will stop at nothing to get the attention of their friends-in-waiting. They will, my disgruntled friends say, first send you an innocent friend request, sometimes with a cute little message attached to it, and, if you take the bait and click on ‘accept,’ that will be the beginning of a beautiful friendship – a beautifully creepy one that is. They will constantly write on your wall, send you gifts and then hound you till you agree to meet them in ‘real life,’ my friends insist.
What a load of tosh.
Here’s what I have to say to these pseudo-paranoid friends of mine: If you don’t like the supposedly unwarranted attention, just press delete. Or better yet, do us all a favour and stay off the internet, thank you very much.
Seriously, the World Wide Web is bigger than you and me; it’s definitely bigger than your petty little ego trips. If someone is jobless enough to be spending so much time “stalking” you, and you actually take time out of your oh-so-busy schedule to respond to them, then quite clearly, you’re as jobless as they are. Either that, or you like the attention.
Most young people these days are so obsessed with being perceived as ‘cool’ and/ or ‘popular’ that they will add anyone who sends them a friend request on the net. Some of them - not all. I know people who have hundreds nay thousands of friends on Facebook. I mean, come on, how many of these so called ‘friends’ are they actually friends with? If you have more than 450 friends on FB, you’ve got to ask yourself, “How many of these people do I actually know?” You’ll be surprised.
There’s nothing wrong with adding people you’ve never spoken to; and the internet is, after all, a great way to meet and interact with new people. (Personally, it’s wiser to only accept requests from people you know something about, even if you’ve never met them offline). But what irks me is the hypocrisy of these self-righteous damsels in distress who cry foul about being “stalked.”
If you have such a big problem with it (as you claim), I say, educate yourselves a little. There are things called Privacy Settings, which are quite efficient at keeping potential stalkers at bay. Take the time off Photoshopping that profile picture of yours and go read Wikipedia and learn how to protect yourself. Just don’t be what you claim to be a victim of: An ignorant nuisance case. |
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