It seems that every day there’s something new bell or whistle added to the wide world of social media. Some of them are fantastic conveniences, some of them are totally unnecessary but relatively harmless, and then there’s a third category: creepy.
Yes, the overall definition of creepy has already been drastically altered by social media. It’s amazing the things we’re willing to share on our computer that we would be mortifying in real life. Still, it’s important to have some standards.
For example: Take Facebook’s new feature that allows you to ask your “friends” who haven’t listed their relationship status in their profile to disclose said relationship status personally.
I’m sure the reason they didn’t list their relationship status is so that people could bug them about it online.
I know social media is all about sharing, but if an individual chooses not to share a certain piece of information, it seems odd (and rude) to create a feature that specifically requests that certain piece of information, even if the request is coming from a “friend”.
Call it flirting, call it curiosity, at the end of the day it’s still creepy.
________________________________________
Slate: There’s Nosy and Then There’s Facebook’s New Ask Button for Relationship Statuses
…bi-daily smile…
