by tanya on September 26, 2011 in Red Ribbon Inspiration

The many Faces on Facebook – deep down we’re all doing PR

Deirdre van Zyl Smit

I’m not a Facebook addict, but I enjoy connecting with old friends, looking at the lives of acquaintances and catching up on family photos of friends not in regular coffee-drinking distance.

From just looking at status updates of my friends (let’s forget company pages completely), I’ve come to realise that we’re all somewhat of a PR person for our own individual image and life.
Some friends tell how well their kids are sleeping; what good eaters they are or how nicely they are playing with their siblings – all under mommy’s excellent guidance, earning them a spot in my Mommy of the year-group. Then you get the My partner is better than yours-gang, thanking each other constantly for being so amazing, making such special coffee and bragging about how they spoil each other with elaborate gifts -  to a point where I wish my husband owned an American Swiss!

Let’s move on to the Watchers, who scrutinise every post and tagged picture they might appear or be mentioned in. They’ll delete comments and untag themselves should it be ever so slightly unflattering, because if it’s not perfect, it can’t be shown.

 Oh and let’s not forget the Moaners – forever on about poor service delivery and naming and shaming whoever did them wrong. They also blow off steam about their bad day, hectic traffic and terrible boss – with the exception that in their world, every day is a bad day… shame. 

I too am fond of animals, and against abuse in all forms, but the Rallyers form a special group  – they regularly rally up and encourage their entire friend-base to join in, by sending or forwarding organisational messages for the causes THEY believe in. They comment and lobby to such an extent that I sometimes wonder how much they get paid.

How much is too much? Clearly the Adders don’t know where to draw the line. They’ll add 17 photos, all with the same group of people, at the same table, with the same drinks, having the best time ever…. Enough already, we got it from the first image. Another trademark of the Adders, is that they add everyone, whether they were ever really friends, or just really distant acquaintances, you can be sure to get a friend-invite from them.

Another special breed is the Likers – they’ll ‘like’ every comment and every photo on every page. They ‘like’ so many corporate pages, that their news feed is filled with all those promotional pages and info, but they don’t care – they like it like that.

The saying goes as ‘quiet as a mouse’ but I know a few mice with microphone. You’ll know who I’m talking about… they’re the most quiet people in society, whether at social gatherings or at work, but strangely they are extremely vocal on Facebook, giving updates about their lives, children and work. Weird, if it wasn’t for Facebook, I probably wouldn’t have known it was their twin’s birthday last week.

My heart goes out to the Loners, where Facebook is their only friend. They’re on the site 24/7, posting pics and commenting at crazy hours of the night, sharing their deep or lonesome (in actual fact all) thoughts.

And last but not least, you get The Browsers… not much of a contributor themselves, but they know everything about everyone from their current and past lives. They are normally well connected too with their eyes and ears on the ground – or is it the screen? None the less, ask them anything, they’ll know!

I’ll stop ‘poking’ now, I’m not saying any of this is bad or wrong – it simply interests me that such platforms exist and how people have embraced it to portray a certain image of their lives. And deep-down, we’re all doing PR in our own little world… for the world to see.