And then you have your friends in Facebook. The small amount left after the sifting and rejecting by the QC master.
We have the good friends. Decent ones who passed the test and are polite throughout. They have no idea what your life is like. But you don't have to tell them do you? Let us live merrily thinking all is fair in love and war.
But this doesn't stop you from observing. You don't have to 'like' or 'comment'. They post the pictures and it's up to you to view their life. You feel so happy for them all the while struggling to keep the green eyed monster in the dungean where it belongs.
You have the insanely rich friend like Ms S who make you giddy just by imagining how much they have in their back vaults. You sighed when they posted pictures of countless hermes bags in their walk-in closets. You ooh-ed and ah-ed their holiday pictures in Milan, Greece and far to reach places. You felt happy that you walk past the F1 race gates and hear the roaring engines (although you didn't get to see it because you couldn't afford the tickets) while your well-to-do friend is sitting at the Marina Mandarin balcony sipping champagne and taking pictures of the supercars lining up below.
You wondered in surprise when Ms S posted "holiday in Pahang" and you thought "eh, going local?" Then she posted her Ferrari and you go ooh. What better way to test the 400 horsepower than zooming across the north south highway? See? Even Ms S can make a simple holiday across the causeway in style.
Lucky Ms S and her District 10 address.
Then you have the friend who added you as if whatever hell she put you through in secondary school didn't exist. Of course. No tormentor ever remembered their absolutely bad behaviour. It's the tormented who usually bears the scars.
So she behaved as what she was. Snobbish. Until one fine day she started messaging you and asked about your life, your kids, your work. See, if she bothers to look at your timeline, she would know the answers to all these but well, there's always a prawn behind a rock.
Many appropriate questions later, she will casually slipped in about this part-time job she has. Being slightly clever now, you know what she is getting at. Unlike her, you looked through your news page. You look through her profile pics. You know what she's been doing. All those meetings with 'partners', million dollar community meetings and seminars. All boils down to one thing. Multi-level marketing. You can paint it any way you like. The ultimate tagline is "bring a sucker (oops, friend) and you get rewarded".
You've had your fair share of MLM. You hated it but you're always dragged into it by Mr High and Mighty. You despise the thought of becoming a two-faced shit and being overly friendly just because you want your reward. You befriend people whom you hate just so that you can can fulfill your quota.
So she asked you if you want to attend a no obligation meeting. You politely declined. Then she gets aggressive and spam you with testimonials and holier-than-thou products. Now you know why you're never her friend in secondary school to begin with. You firmly said no. Her last words were, "Better to act now because in a few years there will be more people in this market and you're left biting dust". Haha - you already know that too.
You feel so jaded by all these but you take everything in stride. You know there's two sides to a coin and there's always a reason behind everything.
Maybe it's about time we clean up our facebook pages eh..
Sunday, December 16, 2012
The Two Faces of Facebook Part I
The bane of having a Facebook account. You think it's so nice to link up with old friends. Little would you know it will teach you so much more in 2 years than 20 years of your life put together.
It was so much fun at first. We have friends you have not met in ages adding you up in their friends list. Updates, how-do-you-dos are exchanged. Family photos, vacation shots, what you just did, what you wear, what you eat. Everything is published for the whole world to see.
Then, everything just went sour. Your hubby hates the thought of you linking up with male friends just because you open your big, fat mouth and said Mr so-and-so earn 3.5k a month and he didn't have that much of an education in the first place. You naively thought it will motivate him who didn't have to work because he just don't feel like it. No. His royal majesty gets jealous and you have to "volunteer" to delete all the male species in your friends list. It doesn't matter that you never attend gatherings or tete-a-tete with your girl friends out of respect for your master. You didn't even bother to ask for permission. Oh no, HE can have all sorts of friends on his list. Both male AND female. HE can attend all the gatherings dragging you along if he wants to. HE can have a gazillion friends because HE is your master. You just get the short end of the stick when you decided to marry him.
So this coupled with financial worry and the stress of having to make ends meet turned you into an introvert monster. Somehow along the way, you learn to get smart and work around the system. You throw precaution in the wind because you thought you don't deserve this shit of a life.
Enter the ex-man. Uh-huh. He would make you regret your life decisions. He would make you think twice about your so-called humdrum life. He would make you think life is worth living again. You just have to choose. Heaven or Hell.
It’s a good thing you got smarter after that. You blocked the ex-man and you resume your life. Shit or no shit and picked up the pieces one by one. If at any one time you got mistreated, emotionally abused, screamed at, threatened, humiliated or just plain hated by his royal highness, you tell yourself that this is to make up for all the sins you’ve done and you’re paying for it. Hopefully, GOD will forgive you. It’s the only chance you’re riding on.
You then reduce the amount of time in facebook. You don’t post often and you privatized your posts. You get wiser and did not post your unhappiness in your status updates. Everyone knew you’re happy. So you let it be.
You live your life serving as a slave for his royal highness. He signed the marriage contract and he gets a maid, a slave whom he can humiliate and a prostitute. Only thing is, he didn’t have to pay a single cent for the services rendered by the above.
It was so much fun at first. We have friends you have not met in ages adding you up in their friends list. Updates, how-do-you-dos are exchanged. Family photos, vacation shots, what you just did, what you wear, what you eat. Everything is published for the whole world to see.
Then, everything just went sour. Your hubby hates the thought of you linking up with male friends just because you open your big, fat mouth and said Mr so-and-so earn 3.5k a month and he didn't have that much of an education in the first place. You naively thought it will motivate him who didn't have to work because he just don't feel like it. No. His royal majesty gets jealous and you have to "volunteer" to delete all the male species in your friends list. It doesn't matter that you never attend gatherings or tete-a-tete with your girl friends out of respect for your master. You didn't even bother to ask for permission. Oh no, HE can have all sorts of friends on his list. Both male AND female. HE can attend all the gatherings dragging you along if he wants to. HE can have a gazillion friends because HE is your master. You just get the short end of the stick when you decided to marry him.
So this coupled with financial worry and the stress of having to make ends meet turned you into an introvert monster. Somehow along the way, you learn to get smart and work around the system. You throw precaution in the wind because you thought you don't deserve this shit of a life.
Enter the ex-man. Uh-huh. He would make you regret your life decisions. He would make you think twice about your so-called humdrum life. He would make you think life is worth living again. You just have to choose. Heaven or Hell.
It’s a good thing you got smarter after that. You blocked the ex-man and you resume your life. Shit or no shit and picked up the pieces one by one. If at any one time you got mistreated, emotionally abused, screamed at, threatened, humiliated or just plain hated by his royal highness, you tell yourself that this is to make up for all the sins you’ve done and you’re paying for it. Hopefully, GOD will forgive you. It’s the only chance you’re riding on.
You then reduce the amount of time in facebook. You don’t post often and you privatized your posts. You get wiser and did not post your unhappiness in your status updates. Everyone knew you’re happy. So you let it be.
You live your life serving as a slave for his royal highness. He signed the marriage contract and he gets a maid, a slave whom he can humiliate and a prostitute. Only thing is, he didn’t have to pay a single cent for the services rendered by the above.
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