The power of the Social Networks

I was browsing through the Swedish news and I read that a Swedish singer and his boyfriend had split up yet again, after having reconciled following their ”break up on Facebook when the singer had changed his status to single”.  I also read about a Swedish politician who had embezzled millions of Swedish crowns, she held a high status within her political party and ”is still Facebook friends with several of the Swedish ministers”. Very often the newspapers refer to Twitter, where the White House has tweeted different statements about ongoing matters. I don’t even know if that is the correct verb? Do you say To tweet or is it To Twitter? I’m baffled by the power these social networks have; how the statuses and statements you put on Facebook and Twitter become legitimate information, how accepted it has become to announce family matters – or any other matter - this way. Anyone can open an account under any name and proclaim anything and it’s considered as a Reliable Source of Information. 

My brother and his wife got married about a year ago in Sweden, when they baptized their third child. I was in Kuwait and I got the information at the same time as their other 500 friends when they updated their relationship statuses on Facebook. I was furious to say the least and gave my brother a piece of my mind. My mother tried to smooth things over when I complained about not being informed properly and she said that ”they did update their statuses on Facebook so you did indeed get the information”. Her comment took me from ”furious” to ”boiling mad” and I needed several weeks before I cooled off and could let go of the anger. I’d probably better deny any friction between my brother and me since I’m writing this blog entry and blogs are also considered as Acceptable Sources of Information; we are very good friends and I care deeply about his entire family. 

Personally I’m not on Twitter and I don’t have very many Facebook friends. Facebook is an easy way for me to stay in touch with family and friends all over the world; people I know I would loose contact with if it weren’t for Facebook. I delete people every now and then, people like old classmates from 2nd grade that I haven’t seen since then and wouldn’t recognize if I passed them on the street, people who have just as little interest in me as I have in them, people who want me as a contact because we live in Melbourne – they will eventually be deleted. That is today’s method of ending an unwanted friendship – to unfriend them on Facebook. As I use it as a social tool and put photos of my family, I only want people who care, people with good intentions in my list. That’s why I unfriend every now and then. "It’s nothing personal, it’s just Facebook.... "