It’s fun to read status updates on Facebook. That’s why we go onto social media, after all. To bring a piece of our lives to the general public, so that we can share our experiences and feel closer to people we know. We cannot logically spend every waking moment with everyone we know, so Facebook and other social media give us the ability to catch the highlights of our friends’ experiences and feelings without crowding them or worrying them.
Sometimes, however, there are status updates that are slightly worrying, if you take them at face value. For example, I went roller skating the other night and I began to write a post that went something like this: “It’s really hard for me not to run over little kids.”
I re-read this prepost, and I realized how terrible it sounded. I wasn’t actually struggling with an evil desire to smash little kids with my car. Not at all.
No, I was writing about the little kids that kept darting out in front of me, as I tried to remember how to roller-skate, and how I nearly fell down trying to avoid them.
I was aware, rather jarringly, actually, that many people on Facebook would not know that I was roller skating, and would call the authorities on me.
So, it takes a little thought to make sure your posts do not come out sounding like you’re a homicidal maniac.
Nevertheless, Sometimes spontaneity creates a very humorous experience for your status followers.
I was thinking about badgers at work, when accosted by several books on them checked out by a young patron one day. When I finished, I went to my computer and looked up some interesting info about badgers for my own edification. There, on the screen was this precious looking badger (not one of the more well-known looks a badger can give you) and I thought about a context for a caption for the photo. (Haven’t I gone through this before?)
“I ain’t dig no holes in your backyard.”
Without trying to sound like I’m justifying my post, I realize now that there was some context missing from this post.
Badgers are from Europe and England, so I should have written
“I ain’t dig no ‘oles in your backyard, gov’nor.” That’s how it sounded in my head.
I guess it could be misconstrued as slightly racist, although it never occurred to me at the time (I was smitten by the cute little look on his face.)
Some of my friends on Facebook ‘LIKEd’ my post and obviously didn’t see it as offensive. Yet, when it was gently mentioned to me that it was a tad racist, I went red, and removed it immediately.
It’s difficult to understand this extreme need for context in social media posts. In real life, if we're with friends, most of our comments would flow within the context of a conversation. On Facebook, a random status update can be seen as standing alone and not really needing context if one infers from the statement only what it says. For example:“Good night world, sleep tight, see you tomorrow.” This is a perfect post. It contains within it the context of the statement, without need for more information. This can be considered a good post, and safe from misunderstanding.
Whereas what I almost wrote about little kids and did write about the badger were not good posts because they assumed wrongly that the audience was understanding the context of the post.
Admittedly both were pretty tame in comparison with some posts I’ve seen, yet within the realm of posts that make sense to everyone I failed to consider my own subjectivity.
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