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| Facebook page of yours truly |
I am a self admitted contrarian. If everyone likes a TV show, band, or movie, I probably won’t like it. Just because it’s popular doesn’t mean it’s quality. And don’t tell me do something just because everyone else is doing it…I can hear my mom now, “So if everyone jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?” See, it’s genetic.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve mellowed out some, but I am now faced with a new rebellion in the form of “repost this!” on Facebook. At least once a week these cobbled together shouting matches will appear in my friend feed.
Some of the posts are written as a dare…”odds are only 20% of you will repost this sentiment…” I’m not falling for that trickery. I’m also not falling for the tugging at the heartstrings, appeal to patriotism, or an attempt to be bullied into it by guilt.
Half the time, I agree with whatever sentiment the original writer is trying to get across, but because I’m being told to do something…forget it. Sorry, but I like being a think for yourself kind of gal. If I felt that way about a topic, I’d write about it myself and not have to use someone else’s words to express my opinion.
Maybe I should just come up with one of my own. “If you want to be nice to disabled or sick children, repost this status.” Do you see the mind game? If you read it and don’t repost it, you’re telling the world, and your friends that do repost it, you don’t want to be nice to those poor kids. If you do copy and paste it, you’ve fallen into my trap. Seriously, who comes up with those silly “my daughter is great! If you love your daughter as much as I love mine, repost this!” things? Why bother? Is it an ego boost or a mind game like I my stupid creation?
>I hate those "repost this" things too. It's the latest version of chain letters and emails forwarded a bazillion times before they reach you.
The last repost message I saw on Facebook was something about "Charlie Sheen is getting press because he is a celebrity drug addict but these soldiers who died last week (listed 3-4 names) while serving our country deserve our recognition." Um, you just gave Mr. Sheen more PR by mentioning him – why not focus on the names of the soldiers instead? And I doubt the folks who post this message are going to name-check U.S. soldiers who have died abroad every week. It's all tiresome.
>Exactly!
Or the messages they post about having to go change a setting or the account gets closed, or changing your profile photo for some such cause…those almost always turn out to be hoaxes.