Read A Good List Lately?
You must have seen it by now. You must have. Even if you didnt want to.
I'm talking about the 25 things that everyone has been busy telling everyone else about on Facebook about themselves
For the sake of the three people who somehow managed to avoid it, it's what everyone is doing on the social networking site now.
In short, you write a note detailing 25 random things about yourself that no one knows (I collect fingernails, I dont eat broccoli, I still wet my bed) and pass it on to 25 friends, who then write 25 things about themselves, and pass it on to another 25 friends, and so on.
I'm pretty sure the Internet must have slowed by at least 25 per cent since The List started.
It's the modern equivalent of the chain mail, except that people pass it on even when there is noi threat of death or promise of striking tomorrow's 4D.
In the on month that it's been alive (at least that's when i recalled seeing the first such note), it has already drawn considerable flak.
So narcissistic, goes the main grouse.
Last week, an article on Time.com titled "25 things I didnt want to know about you " also estimates that 54 million of these notes - which works out to 125 million "useless facts" - have appeared on the website in one week.
"Assuming it takes someone 10 mins to come up with their list, this recent bout of viral narcissism has sent roughly 800000 hours of worktime productivity down the drain," the writer pointed out.
"I cant believe I'm saying this, but i think i've finally found something more stupid than Twitter."
In fact, I think 800000 hours of productivity is a very conservative estimate, because anyone who has done this list would know how long it takes.
Many of may friends have said that they want to post their own list, but never have the time to start on it, because they could see how much time this would take up.
"A list of 25 interesting yet unknown facts, all written with attitude? Whoa, let me down my laundry first."
Others have admitted that they wrote theirs over days, adding new items when they come up with them.
For however random the lists claim to be, most of them need to be crafted carefully,because it is ultimately You as you want others to see yourself: Your first crush, movies you cry at, your pet peeves.
And since you cant keep writing that you are God's gift to the world, the writers have to rack their brains to include poignant, embarrassing or clumsy episodes of their lives. No just any clumsy story, mind you. for they have to make them seem human or lovable.
So "I once got so drunk that I fell into the Chinese Garden lake" enters the list. "I once got so drunk my car ran over a family of cats" stays out.
Yet, despite the many misgivings people have, I have clicked on every single new list that someone contributes.
For all the brickbats the list gets, Facebook could have done a lot worse.
I personally think that knowing my friends better beats knowing "what Star Wars character I am" any day.
The list has also made me sit up and reassess just how well I know the people around me.
It's funny how we can meet up every so often and say that there's "nothing new" with our lives - and probably go on to moan about work - when there is so much that we havn't learnt about those who're not our closest friends.
Some of it may be superficial. (I still thought it was cute though that three of my colleagues had separately admitted that they were all child actors with Channel 8. Never mind that one of them only played a farm animal.)
Others are insightful, honest and quite touching.
I never knew that so many of my friends have had stormy relationships wit their families, underneath their pleasant, easy-going exteriors.
Or that another friend, always cheerful and ready with a smile, actually suffered miscarriages recently.
That's the curious thing about these lists. you learn things that people may not actually bring up face-to-face, or talk about over dinner.
Much has been made about how the Internet reduces human contact, but in this case, it actually leads to greater human interaction.
So maybe these lists are crafted. Perhaps a few of them are a bit indulgent. But at least they're real.
That's more than you can say about that other Facebook favourite: Throwing sheep at people. - Teo Cheng Wee
I must say that yes, this list-y thing-y has been around for some time. Yet not many of my friends have written it. I wouldnt say mine was witty or written with attitude but I do think that some points are at least giggle-able or smirk-able, just as i read my friend's with amusement. (at how pro-friends they are, how much they honour friendship, and whose friendship they treasure, hah!)
This is the 21st century. This is 2009. This is the age of social networking websites. Shame on you if you had been tagged but had not written. Shame on you even more if you still are not tagged. Shame on you the most if you dont even have a Facebook account.
(that said, i only got tagged last week, lol)
No comments:
Post a Comment