Finn én feil

The world has gone absolutely stark raving mad

4.18pm, in the office: Ola comes in the door, we have a chat and tell him about the huge mega success Facebook has been for Kulturstudier and x-plore. Kulturstudier have got 40 new members and an unaccounted for number of posts and board topics since lunch, more than what we had all autumn at our old forum. So it's all good.

4.21pm, still office: Helga and I try to trick Ola into at least having a look at this phenomenon, if not good for anything else at least it will increase awareness about his band Suspenders and they can post whenever they've got gigs and stuff.

4.27pm: Ola has logged into Facebook and is struggling with the privacy settings. Don't really want your email to be shown off to the entire world, will you?

4.32pm: He's hooked. Helga and me are now guilty of creating another Facebook junkie. Black Suspenders have already managed to get several friends, joined two groups, been invited to a few events and mentioned we hooked up last year and it was good. Now he's in a relationship and it's complicated. (Heard that before, haven't we??)

4.48pm: Another ten people have joined Kulturstudier's group and I am in ecstasy. Trude posts a note on my wall asking for photos of Kristoffer. I say I don't have any available, but that he's added as friend and she can snoop around for herself.

Time-consuming, information-sharing, network-binding, friends-making, espionage on the highest level. Trude haven't repeated her request so I guess she found what she was looking for.

I rest my case.

There's still lots too see

"If you're afraid of dying it means you've got a life worth living." Dr. Garrigan to Idi Amin.

Relationship status: It's complicated.

Excuse me? Who would ever, voluntarily post this on the internet for all, and then I mean your friends, their friends and friends of them to see? The newest, appearantly hottest, thing for many (especially those at university bored by exam studying) to keep in touch with their friends is Facebook. I was tagged by some twenty of my friends (and people who just thought it would be cool to have me as a friend, but I haven't spoken to in years) before I even considered looking into it. Then it was like "oh, what's this, gotta try it out!" and since I'd deleted all my friends' tags I know had to annoy them by sending them spam emails saying "Maria has added you to Facebook, to confirm her as your friend click here," and I would have caused lots of extra work for many of my friends who really should be studying for their exams.

But this phenomenon (and I won't entirely write is off as waste of time) (well I will, but I have made contact with some friends I haven't seen since high school, so at least not entirely evil), enables you to:
a) find your friends on the internet
b) when they have accepted you as their friend, you can see who they have listed as friends
c) you can see the status of all their friends and who they are (went to primary school with Line, middle school with Kristine, was in ANSA with Joakim, travelled the world with many etc etc).
d) you can read your friends' friends' personal comments to your friends.

So it is like a public MSN for anyone to see and everyone to comment on. And it's not like comments on Blogger (which in many cases, like this, are moderated by the author of the blog). If I want to write something on someone's Wall I am free to write whatever I feel and the person can't do anything about it til next time he logs on. And in some cases that could be a day or four and to have some unsolicited comment from friends and foes to see could sometimes, I imagine, turn very nasty. Especially if it's someone you have been/want to be/are in a relationship with.

A friend of mine has listed her personal status as "In a relationship", and then added the comment (which is pre-fabricated, you've got a few to chose from) "It's complicated". I assume she would have her own boyfriend as a friend too (I'd be slightly annoyed if blocked by mine), but can't imagine what he would feel publicly seeing his relationship as complicated. I know their relationship isn't a dance on roses, but that's stuff she's told me in confidence and which I (expect for here) wouldn't tell anyone, but she displaying it to all her friends is fine?

Another friend said it was a great way to snoop in other's pictures, but in most instances, unless I know the occasion, were there myself or have heard the stories I couldn't care less about your Grade 6-trip to Fagerli Leirskole-album. A friend of hers again is in trouble after some guy published slightly more delicate photos on his profile. Again for ALL to see and anyone to click on.

So yes, despite the fact that I keep writing on Kristin's wall in replies to her comments on mine I believe Facebook will be a short affair for me. I know I can look up people I don't want to know about, see their photos and read about their intimate relations to people I do care about.

But really, I've got other stuff to do.