Hosing down political discourse

Janus ... pic: AP

There's no kind way to say this, so I'll just come out with it:

some of you are annoying me.

I was brought up reasonably properly, and I was taught not to say anything if I didn't have anything nice to say. So, I'm not trying to insult anyone (even if that's a by-product), I'm just trying to explain why I may appear to be mounting some kind of attack when I firmly believe that being mean is never nice.

Keeping it virtually nice

"It's better to give than to receive."
"You only get out of it what you put into it."
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

We've all heard these hackneyed phrases, usually uttered by sainted aunts or well-meaning parents, trying to teach us something about life.

With a lot of social interaction now occurring online I thought it pertinent to observe that these sorts of sentiments apply equally well to social media.

Facebook birthday wishes

I’m in two minds about this.  Facebook reminds me about friends’ birthdays way more effectively than anything else in my life, giving me the opportunity to wish a happy birthday to people whose birthdays I would normally miss.  On the other hand, the ease with which one can wish a friend happy birthday by leaving message on their Facebook wall renders the wish comparatively meaningless.  I mean, you don’t have to go to a lot of effort, and in the end it’s just characters on a display, rather than a voice on the phone or a handwritten wish in a card sent through the mail.

I know that, on my own birthday, I quite enjoy looking through all the messages on my wall, and it does give a little boost to one’s self-worth.  But it just seems too easy to punch a few keys and think “there, I’ve done something nice today”.

Whatever, it won’t stop me trying to think up something appropriate or witty to write on peoples’ walls, but I’ll still feel guilty about not being able to get better organised all the time!