“What’s on your mind?”

In this day and age of Facebook, keeping in touch and speaking your mind has taken a whole new look. Now acquaintances are on your ‘friends’ list and people declare to everyone everything from getting a promotion and attending a fun party to pain in the ass bosses and vomit and constipation.

I am hooked on to Facebook too but I’m not a serial status updater unlike some others that I have noticed. Which is cool. That’s just a reflection of their vibrant and outgoing personality. I have also observed different ‘types’ of status messages. And I have wondered about such statuses. What those mean and what the user is trying to convey coz I don’t seem to get it.

Here are the few types of status updates I have observed and wonder about upon observation:

1. The ALL CAPS status message – Don’t people know that typing in all caps conveys that you’re shouting or screaming? It’s the basic etiquette taught in computer classes and email writing. And it is not restricted to email. It applies EVERYWHERE. That was to make a point. Unless, the people who use all caps are really passionate about what they’re saying and are trying to make a point themselves – “I JUST WOKE UP AT 12:00 PM AFTER A NIGHT OF PARTYING! WOO HOO!” or “ON MY WAY TO WORK ON BORRRRRING MONDAY :( :( :(” ( I will get to the multiple emoticons)

2. Multiple emoticons :) :)  :( :(  – We know you’re happy or you’re sad or angry or whatever but are the multiple emoticons really necessary? It they are, what do they mean? Do 2 smileys mean that you’re twice as happy as you would normally be? I can only guess.

3. UnEvEn cAsEd StAtUsEs – I find these damaging to my retina. What purpose does this serve? If you’re going to make your status difficult to read, people will not read it. They won’t bother. They need their vision to read other people’s statuses too. God, I can’t look at what I’ve written for more than 2 seconds!

4. Song lyrics as status messages – What does the song mean? Is it a reflection of their state of mind? Is it a reminiscence? Or is it just their favourite song?  And why do people ‘like’ such a status message? I have even seen comments -- “wow, dats my fav sng!! \m/” -- Do they even know why that was put up?

5. Putting (famous) quotes but not crediting the quoter – If they know the quote, they mostly also know who said/wrote it. It will only be decent if they write the name of the person whose quote it is. Are they trying to impress their ignorant friends that they can come up with such witty one-liners?  Or do they Genuinely not know who the quoter is?

6. Uploading random pics and tagging all your friends – This is a slight digression from the topic but since it gets posted in our news feed, I thought I’d mention it. The tagged person is not in the picture. It’s either some animal in a supposedly funny situation with funny captions or just some picture with cartoon characters. Why is the person tagged? Does their friend think they’re an animal, specifically the one in the pic? Or do they find the person funny? Or they consider them inanimate? I don’t know.

7. Status messages that inform about the user’s ill-health – I would really like to know why someone who is unwell in varying degrees of fever, cold, cough, constipation etc would get the time and energy to update it on facebook? Shouldn’t they be resting and recovering? I’d prefer they do that than also ruin their eyesight (and other people’s appetites) by declaring such things on facebook.

8. Status messages that don’t address any one person but are meant for only one person – I’ve seen people put up cryptic (to me) messages that are meant for someone in particular but the person is not addressed. These messages can be nice and can be rude too. Why would someone do that? If you have something to tell someone, Only tell Them . Why subject ignorant 3rd party readers to weird, out-bursty statuses? Such status updates seem equivalent to a person with questionable sanity saying things at random to a person visible only to them. Or so says my imaginary friend. (I mentioned you, see. You happy now?)

9. Updating one’s status and ‘liking’ it too – This one just baffles me. One would put up a status because they want to share it with others. Which would make it obvious that it is something of their preference, something they like, something that makes them happy, something they want everyone to know etc (with regards to good, happy status updates). So why would you go and ‘like’ it? You like it which is why you’ve put it up. You don’t have to ‘like’ it again. We know! But do they know that the ‘Like’ button is only meant for Others to show if they like what is being shared?

10. Yeah, that’s it.

This post is not meant to be offensive to anyone. I realised after reading it that it may appear that way but it is not my intention to hurt anyone’s feelings. I’m genuinely curious and I have to live up to my blog’s title and theme too. PeAcE \/ :) ;)