The Social Phenomenon of MSN
This weekend, while in Toronto, my sister told me about a little something called "MSN GEEKS." She explained that by logging onto this website, you could see who has deleted you and who has blocked you on MSN. So of course, out of sheer curiousity, we both logged on to see who had deleted us from their lists. To my surprise, a supposed "friend" of mine had not only blocked me from her list, but I was also deleted! At first, I was a little offended and then I got a little worried - what had I done to offend her?
Then I thought about it some more and realized this social phenomenon that has been created on MSN. A lot of times, when someone offends you, you TELL them...(at least, that's what I USED to do...) Now, it's so much easier to "avoid" the people you dislike - just delete or block them from MSN!! And eventually, they will get the hint.
Perhaps this "friend" of mine was doing some social cleansing and decided to clean up her list - or perhaps she has erased me because we have not spoken in the past half year due to some misunderstandings. We were used to seeing each other online so often and eventually, she deleted me when I had blocked her from my list. It's so stupid really because I am just as bad...instead of telling her and confront her... I kind of avoiding the situation on msn. So no one is really at fault here...
The people I have deleted from my list are people I don't really know..sometimes for school projects, you add people to your list that are working in your group and after the project is done, you really don't need to keep their contact anymore. It's nothing offensive, right? At least, I don't think so.
I guess friendship has always been exclusive ... that is why we had cliques in high school. So the "list of friends" has taken on a more literal meaning - the social phenomenon is that we actually HAVE lists now.. and whomever we block or delete from the lists is entirely up to us...and the others will have no say.
Then I thought about it some more and realized this social phenomenon that has been created on MSN. A lot of times, when someone offends you, you TELL them...(at least, that's what I USED to do...) Now, it's so much easier to "avoid" the people you dislike - just delete or block them from MSN!! And eventually, they will get the hint.
Perhaps this "friend" of mine was doing some social cleansing and decided to clean up her list - or perhaps she has erased me because we have not spoken in the past half year due to some misunderstandings. We were used to seeing each other online so often and eventually, she deleted me when I had blocked her from my list. It's so stupid really because I am just as bad...instead of telling her and confront her... I kind of avoiding the situation on msn. So no one is really at fault here...
The people I have deleted from my list are people I don't really know..sometimes for school projects, you add people to your list that are working in your group and after the project is done, you really don't need to keep their contact anymore. It's nothing offensive, right? At least, I don't think so.
I guess friendship has always been exclusive ... that is why we had cliques in high school. So the "list of friends" has taken on a more literal meaning - the social phenomenon is that we actually HAVE lists now.. and whomever we block or delete from the lists is entirely up to us...and the others will have no say.
posted by Mandy Lam at
4:18 PM
2 Comments:
Speaking of MSN, I really feel that I lost my phone skills. I get nervous before I call people and dread answering machines--I was NEVER like that before, but I've become so dependent on having intense dialogue through e-mails and chatting and I HATE THAT!
I noticed the affects of msn and ICQ when I gave it up for Lent one year. It was so interesting to hear the PHONE RING and to hear people's voices instead of reading their replies.
By
Nadie, at 11:06 PM
I hear you. I've recently tried to turn off my MSN now when I'm away from the computer for longer periods of time. Last night, I was studying for a test and I had my computer on and I had changed my MSN name to "Mandy: Do not disturb." So he says to me, "I just find it funny that you turn on your msn and then you say, 'Don't talk to me.'" It made me think. I've had this disgusting habit of keeping it on and keeping it at away to avoid certain people and then .... I miss out on talking to the people that I really want to talk to! It's a new social phenomenon and I think that it's really making us scared of personal face-to-face interaction. We are different people online than we are in person!
Thanks for the comment!
By
Mandy Lam, at 12:23 PM
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