China and Facebook

Before coming back to university, Dafydd and I held a mini leaving do at my house for our friend Ben, who has just gone to China for a year to teach English. He was supposed to be leaving on or around the 15th, as far as I know, and so all being well, he should now be safely in China. Yesterday Joe and Soph popped over for a bit and I asked if either of them had heard from Ben yet, as I had written on his Facebook wall and not heard back yet. To which Joe replied:

"Yeah, but he won't be able to read that because Facebook's banned in China."

What?

Facebook is everywhere these days, where someone's more likely to 'add' you on Facebook than ask you for your number. The concept of you not being able to access it in a whole country absolutely blows my mind. So much so that at first I wasn't even sure I believed it was true, and I googled it. I typed in Why is Facebook blocked in China? and the internet told me this:

"Because in China when people start to question the Government the government cracks down. Opponents are called terrorists, traitors and unpatriotic.

The state controlled media that supports the government 100% then begins to feed the masses with all sorts of stories about how the government is good and only wants to help. That the dissidents, are a danger to the country because they question the wisdom of the government.

To make this stick they have to block outside sources of information because they fear that the people will not just accept the media stories and instead decide to find out the truth for themselves." - Yahoo Answers

So that clears that up then. Thanks, internet!

Speaking of Facebook, I have a daily internal debate with myself every single time I log into my account over whether or not to delete it. Because to tell you the truth, Facebook infuriates me. I have it because it's a convenient way of sharing photos, catching up with friends, sorting out events, and things like that. But there are so many people on there who TyPe LyK diS in a manner that obviously takes much more effort than just typing properly. Text speak seems to have taken over in such a way that some people shorten words that simply don't need to be shortened. Also, you get those copy and paste statuses some people put up that say something along the lines of:


"Copy and Paste this as your status if you know anyone who has cancer. 93% of people won't paste this as their status, but will you be part of the 7% that does?"

I know they're supposed to raise awareness for a good cause, and believe me, I am a full supporter of cancer charities and awareness is obviously a good thing. However, I certainly don't need a patronising status update to remind me that cancer exists. I feel like it's trying to make people feel guilty, that those of us in the 93% are terrible people or something. Actually, I give money to cancer charities on a fairly regular basis. Maybe you in the 7% should get off Facebook and do the same. I don't know, perhaps I'm being unfair, I just think it comes across as really self-righteous and it really grinds my gears (haha, I love Family Guy references).

The stupid pointless groups are another Facebook annoyance of mine. A lot of them are supposed to be petitions for this, that and the other. Whilst some of these petitions are actually legit and for something serious, a lot of them are like, 'If one million people sign this petition then they'll do another series of Gavin & Stacey'. No they won't. Deal with it.

The worst thing about Facebook is the people who go on there just to insult everyone else. On so many group walls where people have simply written down their opinion on something, there are sometimes hundreds of comments full of the vilest language towards this unsuspecting person simply because they disagree, and it just becomes a slanging match. It's the whole internet society where you can sit at your computer and say things you'd (most likely) never dream of saying to someone's face.

All that being said, I probably won't delete my Facebook account, at least not for the foreseeable future. After everything I've just written, it does seem a tad hypocritical, but to be honest I think I'd just worry I was missing out on something if I did get rid of it. It's a sad, sad world. I do have a phone, after all.

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

Bit gross, I know. Funny though.

Have a good one,

Emma

Today I'm loving: the beautiful new boots I got from Brantano, the text from my mum saying she liked the photos in my last blog, and that when I searched for why Facebook was banned in China, the fact that Miley Cyrus is also banned in China was brought to my attention. I didn't look into why, it probably would have been a let down.

Today I'm hatin': that there were no Apple Turnovers in Morrisons, when secretly they were the whole reason we went in the first place.

Song of the day: Looking for Love by Michelle Featherstone. It's beautiful, check it out.  

I'm looking for love/And love, love, love/I  thought it was you