Of late, I have been come into contact with this very kind.
Earlier, on Orkut, it was easy to weed out the ones from amongst the e-friends who seemed to have a different agenda altogether - but, now, on many a socially networking site online, especially on Facebook, these very people are likely to have a brush with the users, and the experience can be anything between mildly unpleasant to grossly obnoxious.
It's an irritating phenomenon - these people just want to get on your nerves in the guise of e-friendship, they want to get unnaturally intimate, they judge you, they pester you like nuts!
You would wonder, 'What have I done to deserve this!'
Omigosh! They try to contact you at every single pretext with the sole objective of disturbing you emotionally, maybe they want you to join them in their psychologically dysfunctional tirades. You are asked all kinds of silly things. Every attempt to ignore them makes them even more desperate. They keep posting ridiculous stuff on your wall, or as messages, mail you spam content, and if, God forbid, they get hold of your cellphone number, they'd bombard you with messages. Do they all suffer from Attention Deficiency Disorder? That's what you'd wonder. You'd try to block these irritating creatures, but such attempts would turn futile as they'd soon be found to resurface under some other garb, on some phoney profile, and, worse still, they might get really nasty and revengeful and even attempt to hack your account.
In the recent past, Facebook has been taking, or trying to take, stringent measures against these pests, many improved features and filters have come up whereby one can have special privacy settings, and there's now a more active supervision by the authorities. I commend them for that. And I hope that we may curb the pest syndrome soon, very soon.
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PostScript: Let me inform the ones who do not know me that they are welcome to be my e-friends; in fact, all - but the pests - are welcome to join me on Facebook too. The list of my e-friends on Orkut have become too large and hence I am not very eager to accept new friends there, it becomes difficult to interact with a very large number of friends, you see. Hence, all you have to do to be my e-friend is too click on the link below and send me a friend request, or message me..... e-friendship is healthy, it's an absolute pleasure for me to buzz with you on an array of subjects, just make sure that it isn't inappropriate, crossing the norms of social decorum and courtesy, and that our online exchanges doesn't make either of us uncomfortable in any way.
Anindo Sen
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2 comments:
I think being a girl, one becomes the worst sufferer of the so-called Social Network Pestering.... I myself have had my brush with the pests (they are worse.... vermins, cretins, creeps!) who have shown an unhealthy interest in me, just because, on Orkut, I have been rather friendly and genuine with people, of both sexes, who wanted to chat or share scraps with me. All kinds of lousy louts have flooded me with indecent proposals and have assumed that I am some kind of easy and cheap exploit. It is the very reason that I have steered clear of joining Facebook, despite most of my good friends being there already. I have heard from of my friends and acquaintances who have been on the receiving end of the repulsive pests who get into all kinds of obnoxious behaviour once they get a whiff of your presence therein. I have stopped getting overtly friendly on Orkut hence, and am wary of joining Facebook - especially after the recent cases of gross hacking and identity theft were in the news-reports all over.
Please share some of your own plights in detail.
Also, do provide an overview of the safeguards that you say are now available on Facebook.
Some of the people on all these Social Networking Sites like Orkut and Facebook are petty attention-seekers. Nothing too wrong with it, except for the fact that a large majority of these attention-seekers pose as gentle e-friends, but, later, act bitchy, especially if they feel let down, even if you be in your best behavior. Some such pests can be truly obnoxious as they are ever-eager to give you a raw deal, no matter what. If you try to look the other way, that is, ignore them, they won't take 'no' for an answer and hence would make you go crazy.
My advice: Cut them loose, as early as possible. Steer clear of all such psychos, and, make no mistake, you can never be an Agony Uncle to them, if that's what the good Samaritan in you murmurs.
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