Facebook Fights: New Realms of Confrontation

With the amount of Facebook users quickly escalating to over 400,000,000 it is not an outlandish statement to claim that this social media platform is surely taking over the world and revolutionizing the way we communicate with each other. Loved for its fun, functional features, which basically allow people to advertise their private and public lives at every angle possible, Facebook has also unveiled loopholes into a whole new realm of confrontation which society has never had to face before. Here are some stupid fights caused by the upheaval of Facebook in our modern digital age:

1. Relationship Status

Here’s an instant source of controversy between a guy and a girl contributing to the uncertainties of new relationships. Ever been here? A girl and a guy like each other and everything is flowing wonderfully, until one person (usually the girl) brings up the relationship status conversation. Uh – oh. Awkward. To women in 2010, your Facebook relationship status is the equivalent of a high school promise ring. It’s a public announcement when you’ve selected that special someone to be virtually faithful to. No pun intended. Usually, men don’t want to announce anything of the sort. Whether it is commitment issues, privacy standards, or matters of jealously, relationship statuses cause uncomfortable conflict between people that can surely terrorize a new relationship in our invasive technological age.
 

2. Poking

I never understood this Facebook feature, but it definately has gotten people into trouble. What does it mean when you poke someone or when someone pokes you? At the moment, there is no real accepted “poking etiquette.” I believe it was intended by Facebook to be similar to a “nudge” or just to have an additional communication method to enable people to grab their friends’ attention. Many Facebook users do poke just to give a friendly “hello” but lets be real…Maybe my mind is in the gutter, but poking definitely has a fallic, sexual connotation behind it. Some people consider it annoying or creepy, others perceive it as a cute form of flirting. Either way, I don’t think your boyfriend will be too happy if you pull up your Facebook profile homepage and he sees you have been “poked” by another guy. Good luck explaining that one.
 


 

3. Detagging

 

Whether it is because your parents are joining Facebook, you are job hunting, or you just don’t want people to see you in embarrassing pictures from last night, it’s totally understandable if you are detagging yourself from pictures on Facebook that may hurt your reputation. However, if you meet a guy, have a nice time together and then you notice he detags pictures of you and him, that is a different story. Clicking on that little, blue “detag” hyperlink can seem trivial but can and probably will offend the other person in the picture. This behavior, for whatever the reason may be, demonstrates that that person doesn’t want to be pictured with you on the Internet. This seems pretty misleading and hurtful, but is it worth the confrontation? You tell me.
 

4. Defriending

 

There is no precise, determined method for ending friendships or romantic relationships in a face-to-face format. In real life, people will disclose their hatred for eachother, ignore an old friend, or have a mutual falling out. However, when you defriend someone over cyberspace all of that can be avoided by hitting one button on your keyboard. Some people defriend others because they don’t want that person to be able to see what they are up to. On the other hand, sometimes people avoid the self-torture of stalking an ex girlfriend or boyfriend by defriending that person so they purposely are unable to view their profile. Your decision to defriend someone can have long-lasting repercussions, both for you and the person you defriend. Even if you haven’t communicated with that person in a while, once you notice you have been defriended it is a strange and offensive feeling. When this kind of dynamic between people is made “Facebook official,” it is advertised to the world that a certain person no longer wants to be associated with you. This definitely causes heartache amongst some and probably leads people to get into fights they would have been avoided completely if Facebook was not around.