An exigent X-Ray of Facebook

       We find almost everyone on Facebook, with few exceptions. Some people really do not understand exactly the ‘benefits’ of being present here. Others fell behind or they have never had a social networking profile. From clerics – who avoid Facebook for religious reasons – to young girls practicing ‘underground’ escort service who can run the risk of being identified, then from people who do not want to align themsleves with the big trend, just to be ‘different’, to those who reject Facebook out of snobbery, on the grounds that they are ‘at another level’. The latter prefer instead Instagram – where they limit themselves only to pictures and videos, or LinkedIn – an elitist and select network, but which loses much of real society’s ‘vibe’.

       Through Facebook you can find out who you are talking to and you can also identify yourself. It is interesting that, using Facebook you can get to know people and you can ‘see’ them, even if they don’t want to identify themselves as they are in reality, because they often let the cat out of the bag. By the lack of style – which, obviously, they are not aware it’s missing – through naughty and absolutely inappropriate pictures – which they do not appreciate as being so, – by revealing some activities, entourages or circles of close friends, from which the necessary conclusions are drawn – obviously without that people’s will and often to their detriment – based on the “man is known by his friends” principle. The conclusions can often be drawn also because of the absence of the user’s ‘opinion’ manifested by the lack of statuses, when the user reduces his activity only to posting pictures and videos. For an intelligent man who knows how to ‘read between the lines’, everything becomes an entertainment.

       Let’s particularize it a little. So, what conclusion can be drawn after seeing the profile of a gorgeous young lady, who graduated from faculty or not, but whom you see impecably dressed, striking the eye with Vuitton or Hermes bags, expensive watches, valuable jewelry, having pictures in exotic locations, on yachts or private jets, etc. … but without ever seeing her boyfriend? Obviously, there are various different readings. One of them is that her loved one is very shy and not too photogenic… :))))) Another one, less facetious, is that he is married. More than likely, not to her. Another hypothesis is that there is not just one lover, but more of them. And another one, that there are many lovers, but she has an extremely pragmatic nature… :)) To be honest, if I were in these distinguished persons’ shoes, I would not post any picture, doubly so as they pretend to be respectable ladies. But the temptation of parade is great, and sometimes it helps in this branch. How? Simply, their quotation increases, as well as the respect from their rivalry. ;) Certainly, these appearances can deceive, and the conclusions I refer to can be completely wrong. Although I personally know an example which says no to the stereotype of the above-mentioned conclusions, the probability of fallacies is extremely small.

       We can hear in mind important details from the pictures. You can see their faces and facial expressions – things that say a lot. However, many people let essential details escape in their own posted photos. Remaining in the young ladies’ area, next to the pictures displaying an incredible luxury, I often see other pictures that actually provide a true and complete picture of the person. For example, the kind of pictures that depict them in extremely modest family home with mother wearing kerchief and father pausing from wood cutting, with the ax in his hand … Nothing to blame in this, but conclusions stand out a mile … Still on personal photos, on many profiles we can easily see that among beautiful photos there are also less successful pictures, some I would say even disastrous. At that point you can not stop wondering about the intelligence and real taste of the persons in question. Some essential details are the look, the attitude, the mimics. Sometimes everything seems fine, but I met many cases when one picture posted could remove almost all the „gloss” of the carefully-built profile, exposing therefore the sad reality about the beauty, the style and the intelligence of that person. To end with the pictures, it is obvious that they can provide all kinds of information and even subtle details for a careful eye – many of them overlooked – such as the real physical appearance, the circle of friends, the real financial or social status, the style, the level of education and culture, the common sense, the decency or the lack of it, the real concerns, the level of understanding life, and even the spiritual level.

       Facebook provides information about how people with whom we come into contact really are and which is their intellectual, educational or perception of life level, based on the statuses they post. Obviously, the delivered idea or ideas is elemental. But we will draw important conclusions from their wording, finishing the evaluation with the simple test of the hyphen. ;)
       Related to statuses, we can easily discover the frustrated persons. They are usually very aggressive and ‘upset’ by many. They hate many people and they flood you with battleful posts, having in the background revolutionary ideas to fundamentally change the society as a whole, by any means. Because the society is not good for them and because in their eyes some people, perhaps even the most, should completely disappear. Staying on the frustrated people subject, on a different category, we can easily locate them through the fake profiles behind which they hide. In my opinion, they are the kind of people that need urgent specialist psychological help.
       It is interesting to observe some people’s language related to their various moods. I note with amusement the colorful language of some ‘ladies’ who, based on some situations they live, completely forget this quality they claim they have. Many of them let unallowable scurrilities blurt out, too vulgar words or extremely embarrassing attitudes. I could propose a language exercise for such moments. For example, instead of telling an individual who has seriously disappointed you by his behavior – ” I’m shocked what a red neck you are!”, you can say ”I was surprised by your behavior with strong rustic accents” or instead of ” You are really an easy woman, I don’t give a damn on you” you could say ”I understood your materialism and direct interest, and and you have sunk to the lowest level in my estimation”, while ” You’re just a stupid illiterate” could be replaced with ”Your level of understanding and information leaves much to be desired’, etc. :)))

       Going deeper, we can observe few things based on a brief psychological study. We see people who are posing with famous books or art, trying to draw attention to the ‘high’ intellectual level. However, a fine observer will understand the frustration and the ‘lies’ behind these photos, posted by these individuals in order to seem at a higher intelectual level than they actually are. A separate chapter is composed of various characters – both men and women – who, in a terrible lack of studies, concepts, thinking or even minimal knowledge, pretend to be erudites, philosophers or thinkers, becoming severily ridiculous. They are the kind of persons who post only philosophical quotes copied from the internet, and who aberrant, but confidently comment on various ideas that exceed by far their capabilities of understanding, having serious gaps in both their choice of words and the knowledge of grammar and punctuation.
       As an aside, at few of the truly erudite ones I noticed even a form of intellectual snobbery, that often strikes due to excessive use of extremely demanding and elevated words, that even many generalists may sometimes need to look them up in the dictionary. True though, such characters, whose blogs are read by many, are quite rare on Facebook.
       In the same chapter, however, we can see how many people unmask their various frustrations and complexes – and they are in fact the majority – trying to ‘show’ to their fellow men what places they get to see sometimes, where they go on holidays, what hotels they stay at, what restaurants they eat at, the company of important or famous persons, or what events they participate to. I consider these things as part of normal psychology of contemporary man, who is constantly in competition and everyone’s desire to show people they reached a certain social level, which everybody craves for, depending on their level of understanding and existence in society.

       On Facebook there is also the brotherhood of those who have professional profiles, with exclusive image and advertising interests, but we are also flooded by the public profiles of pseudo-personalities nobody has ever heard of, or if so, they do not matter from any point of view.

       I saw very few people on Facebook – but fortunately they are and I have a few in my list – posting special things, videos or links that worth watching, great ideas. They are people serving some noble causes, people who set themselves up as good examples for others or who have an inclination for art, beautiful things, culture, spiritual things. As for me, as a weakness, I have a sympathy for people with great talent working in the film industry and I can gladly count some of them trough my friends on Facebook.

       We can find on Facebook a few people absolutely dubious, with a doubtful level of education and culture, also ‘poisoned’ by everything that material values mean. I intentionally kept a few on my list, because they are absolutely shocking by their level of ignorance, guts, language and ideas about life. Viewing them sometimes, besides a bitter form of entertainment, you realize more easily the huge differences between people and how close to an animal can a man be sometimes, as a manifestation of the basic instincts.

       I cannot omit the basic quality of Facebook, which allows the ‘socialization’. Apart from identifying friends, old acquaintances or colleagues, you can meet many people of the opposite sex, some people finding even his/her ‘half’ this way. Definitely though, the most important quality of Facebook refers to finding occasional ‘halves’. ;) I will have a separate article on this subject.
I would like to recall its quality of online information, on people’s opinions about various topics to date, or certain popular trends, social or political, with a significant impact among users.

       Another aspect – Only ordinary material things are found Facebook, rarely something special and qualitative, or something real style or class. From this perspective Facebook is pretty outdated, filled with trivial matters. Sure, intelligent things may also be seen, but they are all copied! Extremely rare you can see posts containing original clever ideas, coming from the user’s own mind, which can really surprise you. Or deep feelings disclosed, or originality through creative pursuits style. Everything is copied – it’s so easy to get on the internetnet, to look for famous quotes and to post them on your own profile showing the ‘bending’ to deep things … It’s extremely easy, within a less intellectually developed person’s grasp, which gives him/her the opportunity to pretend to be someone else. Sure, there are some who lose some time – or get others to do it – and select quotes or certain interesting ideas from the internet, dealing in addition with ‘framing’ them in different pictures, offering a cheap appearance of originality, being shared by many after that. It is true, these things also have their role, but don’t you think we are a bit bored of all this ‘wrapping’?

       So much of Facebook … Otherwise, some videos that seem interesting and that arrouse your curiosity, and in the end you realize it was just a waste of time and very rarely something that is worth watching. There are few who post several funny videos but unfortunately they fall too often into ridiculous and awkward, and we also find some lads who are even famous on Facebook – who write, in an already redundant style, few very juicy and soupy things that make a hit on certain representatives of the fair sex, who passed through some disappointments and suffering in love and who probably remember with nostalgia their lost loves.

       Another thing – pictures from Sinaia, Predeal, or from the sea, and photos in a club – where there’s absolutely nothing to see and nothing of great quality. Feeling ‘do not know how’ for flying to Paris or Dubai, or for eating something I obviously take a picture of first, or feeling more cheerful or sad.

       To conclude, the biggest problem about Facebook is that serious mistake – wasting time and memory on absolutely trivial and useless things. ‘Staying’ on Facebook is really just the time totaly lost, that is stopping you from evolving and is capping you, a subject I have already written about…

       Yeah, I forgot about the check-ins…. hahaha