Things That Bother Me: Social Networking Edition

Good morning, readers.  Unless it is another time of day wherever you are, whenever you’re reading this.  In which case, insert the time of day where “morning” is.  There we go.  Perfect.

I’m in the midst of writing a RIVETING* research paper about George McClellan at the moment and cannot find time for much, which is why I’m writing this on Friday night in the hopes that I’ll remember to post it tomorrow morning.  That being said, I couldn’t bear the thought of doing two LazyPosts in a row, so I’m going to post about things I dislike about the Internet/social networking sites.

  1. People who promise ridiculous amounts of friend requests.  This has been cropping up on Facebook a lot lately.  It’s usually in the form of a comment on a page’s picture or post and has the following format:  Want 1000 Friend requests?!1  Add me [insert link to profile here] <—–  then LIKE this COMMENT n watch your friend Requests EXPLODE!!!11!!**  Other than these probably just being spam or a horrid attempt at getting subscribers to someone’s page, why would anyone want to do this?!  I mean, I certainly don’t want 1000 people I don’t know flocking to my requests inbox, and I don’t know why anyone else would.  It’s just plain weird.
  2. Memes that have outlived their expiration dates.  I realize it was hilarious two years ago to put a troll face on everything and call it a day, but come on.  Enough already.  It’s over.  There does come a time when there are literally no new situations you can put them in and have it still be funny.  Let the younger memes have their time in the spotlight.
  3. Any kind of “sub for sub” deal.  The idea is that someone puts out a “sub for sub” promotion involving their blog, YouTube channel, et cetera, wherein any subscribers will automatically get a subscription from that person.  I honestly don’t see why anyone would want to do this.  I mean, sure, you get more subscribers, but does that really mean anything if no one ever looks at your content?  Numbers mean nothing; it’s engagement that counts.
  4. People who comment on YouTube videos promoting their own channel.  I’m on YouTube a lot, readers, and I see this all the time.  YouTubers who aren’t well known will put a comment on any video basically begging people to come see their channel.  Not only does this never work (at least on me), it makes me think that maybe these people aren’t confident in their work.
  5. Comments on a video consisting of nothing more than an insult or slur.  I’m not going to repeat anything here, but I’m sure if you spend any time scrolling through comments of popular videos you’ll see them.  These are people who come across a video randomly, watch about (by my estimate) thirty seconds, and then decide that they don’t like the YouTuber.  So what do they do?  They leave a one- to five-word comment simply insulting the person or video.  Really, guys?  Is this the best you can do?***  Can’t you at least have an intelligent argument handy as to why you don’t like the video?  This would be a classic case of if you don’t have anything decent to say, hands off the keyboard.

Well, that’s about it for me.  I’m sure the first four things work for some people, but I really don’t see the point or benefit in any of them.  As to the last one, well, that should never happen.

This post was partially inspired by recent encounters on Facebook and partially by Louis Foulkes, one of my new favorite vloggers.  Here’s a video in which he talks about similarly annoying things in the social networking world:

Happy reading.

*The Caps Lock means I’m being sarcastic.

**See, you can tell how sincere the person is because of how much they forgot to hold down the shift key.

***Also newsflash: “nerd” is not an insult.  If you’re having trouble, I would recommend Shakespeare.