Read it, don't read it

One of my brother's friends, who I'm friends with on Facebook, made a very valid point earlier by way of a tweet. You'll understand the slight irony in all of this when you read further on.

He said that people treat social networking sites like popularity contests, and that Twitter made a mistake using the term 'followers'. I'm not directly quoting here, but that's the gist of his tweet. I'm inclined to agree with him.

I don't do Twitter. I've looked at it maybe twice. I don't get the appeal; it seems like a lot of fuss for 140 characters or less and I can't be dealing with all that '@' and '#' nonsense, although I've used the odd hash tag recently, mainly for comedic effect, on Facebook. And, I have FACEBOOK! Why do I need to record my thoughts in so many different places (see, I told you there would be irony)?

Recently I've started using Instagram, a handy little app on the iPhone (think they're working on the Android version now) that lets you take pictures and apply funky filters so your pics look a bit cooler. That's pretty much it. Jazzing up phone pics. I'm just starting to understand the etiquette, but there is an awful amount of elitism. Subscribing to a user's feed is also referred to as 'following' on there, and it seems people spend an awful amount of time begging for likes and followers, saying they'll. 'like 5 of yours if you like 3 of mine' and 'plssssss follow meeeee', stuff like that. Why? What's so important about how many people clicked a button which added an extra digit to a number on a screen? You're not going to connect emotionally with these people. They're not your friends. The footballer Cesc Fabregas is on there, he has a 5-digit number of followers, but only follows 2 users. Do you think he gives a shit? He has 6 pictures on Instagram, he's got better things to do than worry about his follower count.

I get what social networking does for people, it makes the world smaller and connects you instantly to old and new friends, shows you things you might never otherwise experience unless you travel, and most importantly, it informs. I think, unfortunately, a lot of people do treat their pages like 'Let's see how many people I can get to notice my digital existence' games.

So, what are my pages for? Well Instagram is because I used to do photography and I like taking photos, Facebook is for sharing bits of info, photos and keeping in touch with people I care about, and this here blog is for indulging my ego and ranting about shit I don't like. That's it. If 2 people or 2000 people read my stuff or look at my pics, what does that matter? It's the *right* people I'm after.