The cat doesn’t do Facebook. I don’t need to see what my feline friends eat or see pictures of their scratching poles.
However, a fellow moglet did show me his Facebook feed and the very sight of it demonstrated very well that my abstinence is well founded.
Imagine you are invited around to a friend’s house for drinks and, while sat in the lounge you spy a coffee table book of pictures from their latest holiday.
There’s Deidre standing next to some statue or other and Albert standing on a non-descript bridge set against a non-descript city skyline. Deidre in her bikini on a beach somewhere in the Mediterranean and Albert with a glass of what might be sangria.
Am I in the least bit interested? No. I might be if Albert fell off a diving board, especially if it was in Guernsey and, as a result, Albert now suffers from agoraphobia (Dinnerladies fans will get the joke) or Deidre forgot the factor 50 and now has very sore looking tan lines.
Today, however, you don’t need to wait for the picture book to be produced or the cloud version to be put on the telly. Today, you can have a blow-by-blow account of everywhere they have been, everything they have drunk or eaten, every statue, bridge, landscape or seascape streamed via Facebook or Instagram or plenty of other such apps, right onto your phone or tablet.
While Albert is at work, Deidre tells us she is off to have her hair done – with a post hairdo picture later – and is then meeting ‘the girls’ for lunch. Albert delights in telling everyone he is ‘at the match’ despite the fact we all know he wastes his Saturday afternoons at the footie.
Other than the local burglar, happy to know the house is empty, who really cares?
These innocent images are in no way offensive and the reader can skip over them without leaving what some see as the obligatory comment, although it does call into question why some people think their life is so important if not exciting, that they have to share every blasted minute of it.
What is concerning is when things are shared that are not quite as innocent.
Recently, one social media user, reporting his phone had been lost still managed to post his ire at the police who no longer do a lost and found service. Nothing against this chap, who is rightly upset at losing his phone, but really?
If a phone is so valuable and has people’s lives on their phone, why don’t they a) look after it better, b) have gadget insurance so it can be replaced, and c) have a back-up so that their life can be restored to the new phone. If you don’t do these things, then don’t expect someone to bail you out.
Of course, a phone loser could try the other, social media route – set up crowdfunding. The cat isn’t allowed to go abroad so I don’t need travel insurance but why should anyone who goes abroad without adequate insurance and gets into difficulties, expect the rest of the world to come running to their aid.
In life, as in social media, you make your bed and you can lie in it.
Another aspect of social media is the term ‘fake news’. This has gained favour in recent years. It has replaced ‘lies’ which seems to spread far more widely than something called ‘truth’.
There are the once in a lifetime special offers where Bill Gates has decided to give $5,000 to everyone who shares the post. Or the motorhome giveaway where unsold motorhomes with some scratches will be handed to someone who shares the post and makes a comment. Does anyone really believe this? And if they do, should they be let loose with an internet connection?
Then there are messages to say you have won the Spanish lottery even though you haven’t entered but payment of a small fee will release gazillions to you – followed by requests for even larger fees as you are now marked as a mug.
Some of the more damaging posts can be closer to home. People sharing the break up of a relationship with abusive or threatening comments or someone sharing details of a tragic death on social media before the family has been told.
And, of course, we can’t do anything, go anywhere or see anything without the ubiquitous mobile phone held up to record the moment.
Despite what this cat thinks, social media is here to stay. Perhaps we can ensure that we use it responsibly, use it for real news from proper news outlets, and share, with some forethought, with families and friends, those things that they genuinely might be interested in rather than any old tat that shows how important we are that everything about us must be shared.
Cat rant over.
About Cumbria Cat
Born in Cumberland and, now, back living in Cumberland, having spent most of the past 50 years in some place called Cumbria, this cat has used up all nine lives as well as a few others.
Always happy to curl up on a friendly lap, the preference is for a local lap and not a lap that wants to descend on the county to change it into something it isn’t. After all, you might think Cumbria/Cumberland/Westmorland is a land forged by nature – the glaciers, the rivers, breaking down the volcanic rocks or the sedimentary layers – but, in reality, the Cumbria we know today was forged by generations of local people, farmers, miners, quarriers, and foresters.
This cat is a local moggy, not a Burmese, Ocicat or Persian, and although I have been around the block a few times, whenever I jump, I end up on my feet back in my home county. I am passionate about the area, its people, past, present and future, and those who come to admire what we hold dear, be it lakes and mountains, wild sea shores, vibrant communities or the history as rich and diverse as anywhere in the world
