Busy Bodies On Line!

I really enjoy using social media. As a blogger it is of course imperative and I have found being without my usual phone access (while mine is in for repair) quite annoying! I check Twitter and Facebook all the time as usually they are on my phone and with any lull in the day, moments when I am in a queue for example and it is my phone that I reach for to alleviate boredom.

I love reading my friend’s status updates on Facebook as it means I get to have little pieces of information about them even if I haven’t seen them for a while. One friend in particular makes me smile every day with her comical and astute entries. Another posts links of the local newspaper headlines from my home City which are always amusing – nothing happens in Norwich so the news is rather stretched at times! I love keeping in touch with people whereas otherwise I might not!

Twitter is utterly fabulous too and enables connection to almost anyone! I love how if I have a problem on the train or in a restaurant, all I have to do is Tweet and someone will reply hopefully with a solution. It’s also great for breaking news and I rarely actually watch a broadcast as I’ve read it all on Twitter already!

So, for the most part I love social media and the banter between friends on Facebook and Twitter with people I don’t know. That’s how it works I think, Facebook is for ‘real people’ in your life and Twitter is to keep up to date with the current. A friend told me that Facebook is for people who want to know you and Twitter is for stalking… I THINK she was joking! I enjoy most sides of it, even when things get heated but… There is one area that really irritates me!

Facebook group pages can be a real pain in the bum! They go against the ‘friend’ element and you start getting notifications from people you don’t know and definitely wouldn’t follow! Not all of the groups are awful, some are great of course but they all have the potential to excel the busy body in my opinion. They can so easily become groups of people all getting together to supposedly join in team effort because they are all part of something but which often just result in moaning minnies!

For example, there is a Facebook group page for the area in which I live and while some of the content is interesting and helpful there’s a whole load of busy bodies updating daily about what a nuisance everything is! SAY NO to this and SAY NO to that are all I hear and you know what, most of the time saying no wouldn’t be the answer but the busy bodies go into over drive…

‘The street lights are staying on at least 5 minutes after it gets light!’, ‘I saw a litter picker without their hi vis top on today!’ and ‘Has anyone noticed that the bin men aren’t putting bins back in EXACTLY the spot they found them in?’ are the type of gripes others write in this group… It’s literally FILLED with nosey parkers sticking their oar in! The worst one I’ve seen by far came about last night. Someone local posted about how he had seen ‘Youth’ on the corner of two roads in the area so had reported them to the authorities… Someone questioned him about what exactly these ‘youth’ had been doing to deserve reporting for bad behavior and the answer was nothing other than the fact that they ‘didn’t look local’… Hmmm…

To not look local in East London can’t really happen? I mean here we have people from all races and ethnic back grounds. You don’t have to be white to be British and you don’t have to be dancing down the road clicking your heels together wearing a jacket covered in buttons while singing about apples and pears, to be an East Ender! I mean, I seriously doubt that the majority of people in my little patch are originally from London, a good section won’t even be from this country but they are most certainly ‘local’ because they live locally! They have to come home locally and their children have to be able to hang out locally! That’s what teenagers do! They can’t flipping do anything else now can they!

It struck me as an odd and bigoted thing to say. I expected it to be coming from a certain type of person but I was wrong. As it happens it was posted by someone who doesn’t have a British sounding name and doesn’t have white skin. I wonder how he himself would feel to be assumed non local on the basis of how he looks? Just as he has assumed these ‘youth’ not local because of whatever they looked like?

Facebook and Twitter are great but Facebook groups would definitely go into room 101 for me! Along with all the busy bodies who post in them taking away the fun friendly element I see in Facebook!

MY LIFE WITH 2!

The weather has got so much colder in the past couple of days and for the first time this year it is starting to feel like winter. It’s very definitely still Autumn though as in our street the leaves are only just starting to fall off the trees and we have been enjoying kicking about in them and playing in the front garden – albeit with extra jumpers on!

Autumn fun!

Jimmy and Florence have been getting along very well this week and sharing lots of giggles! Jimmy is talking more and more and they are just becoming proper little pals which is awesome! I am so looking forward to watching them both enjoy Christmas and having each other to share it with!