I woke up to a commotion on a Sunday morning. The voice of my neighbor was echoing up from the kitchen. Her kitchen was next to mine, and she was there as disciplined as the newscaster, ready for her morning gossips. My mum was there as the sole audience, as usual, never tired of the never ending gossips and family news.
"I saw my son's Facebook!" Her face was gleaming with pride. It was on such rare occasion to see like this, unless when her son did well in her exams, whether if it's a monthly one or the major ones. But now her eldest son is now in Manchester, I felt relieved for my ears, having to endure every minute detail of her son's marks. Not that I remember, of course.
Well, what she meant was she had a peep at her son's Facebook photos. Her son's life in Manchester, one would presume. Her younger son had shown her via his account, and there was this photo out of many where his son was with a girl. Nothing obscene, no kissess, no hugs.
And the mom was in cloud nine because the girl was a Malaysia tycoon's relative of sort. She was jumping up and down, fantasizing of her future and worries of the "what if's" and was even planning where to have their wedding dinner and the place to stay! It went on and on for a few weeks until the son was back from UK, just to confirm that it was a false alarm. Mothers can rather be hysterical and over reacting to any Facebook status or photos.
I can't say that my mother was innocent either. Whenever she liked it, she'd read a person's profile from A-Z taking everything for real. There was this cousin sister of mine who had put up "I like men and women", the usual ones in interest category. well, there goes the hoo-haas of whether if my cousin sister is a bisexual. And yes, be wary of changing your relationship status, whether if it's single, in a relationship or married. Old folks take it for real and might trumpet their findings to the rest of the universe. They tend to get overly excited over minute details on Facebook, or every single photos, whether you upload them or you'd been tagged. And the worse are the gossiping aunts or uncles who are equally as annoying with their hordes of comments over one little thing that you might not find amusing.
Or some of my friends whom I knew allow their mothers to surf via their account of their friends profile. That would even be creepier, as if seeking potential spouses for their sons/daughters.
In this new era where Facebook are not just limited to youngsters anymore, we see throngs of post-teen years adults joining in the fun of Facebook, regardless of their objectives. It is not a crime, but the borderless world would be a shock for them, for what our privacy and personal life that we had kept away from them, had been revealed in a flooding manner. It is the period of culture shock which amused them, while may seem annoying to some.
And rest assured that our facebook is not as private as you once think it was. whatever you'd done there, a vulgar status or a shameless act might end up in the Facebook network for life. You might not want your parents to know you'd sneaked out in the middle of the night via Facebook, or an unsuspecting friend tagging a photo of you doing some nutjob stunts, just to be found out by your potential/ current employer.
There are of course, many more examples which I refuse to bore my readers, but I hope you'd get the message. If you're a person who keep no secrets, I guess this won't affect you. Otherwise, think twice before you add your cousins, your uncles, aunts, your boss or even your lecturers. You'll never know when you'll be in for the shock of your life. :P
