More and more, while surfing sites like Gawker — and even Facebook, where we’re supposedly interacting with friends — we’re tricked into clicking on reality videos with titillating titles. Oh, the videos are real enough, but the trick is we have to watch 15-second advertisements first. As much as I want to watch your dashcam crash clip, I will not endure those ads. Nor will I impose them on my friends.
We’ve all heard of Grover Norquist’s no-new-taxes pledge. Well, I want you to join me in taking the Paul Woodford social media pledge: “I promise to stop posting links to videos that force you to watch ads first.”
“You know who you are” is another deplorable social media development. Here are a couple of examples:
“I am thankful for the friends — you know who you are — who stood by me during this rough patch in my life.”
“To all of you who sent birthday greetings today — you know who you are — I thank you.”
Collective inclusion as a trick to get out of individually thanking or acknowledging others doesn’t work for me. Call me old fashioned, but if 50 Facebook friends wish me happy birthday, 50 friends get replies. I’d almost rather be ignored than have to guess whether I’m included in someone’s “you know who you are” list. This is why I’ll never get an Oscar — my thank you speech wouldst runneth over.
Perhaps I should address problems of a more serious nature, and lord knows there are plenty of them, but those are the two that are on my mind today.