What's going on with the world?

This morning, my mother made me scrub a toilet. I wasn't supposed to scrub the toilet, but she made me anyway.

Okay, now you're thinking that I'm being whiny, angsty ager. But there's actually a story behind this. And a point. There's a point to this story, too.

We the children are assigned one chore a day. Theoretically, we do the chore in exchange for our priveleges, like using the internet, the wii, the dvd player, etc. Usually, each person doing one chore a day is enough to maintain our household at a livable level of cleanliness. Today I was supposed to scrub the bathroom floor.

I was in the middle of cleaning out the mop, when my mother, walking by, said, "Clean the toilet, too."

My response (whilst blinking in bewilderment): "But that's not part of scrubbing the floor."  She was technically violating the one-chore-a-day policy. In my defense, I was not challenging her authority. I don't mind doing a little extra work. In fact I usually do some extra cleaning everyday, especially in the kitchen (not that she notices...*sniff*sniff*). I was confused about the requirementsof my job. But...

She snapped at me. "Well I just made if part of it!"

Ouch.

My response was sort of instinctual. I kind of bristled up and thought rebellious, agery thoughts. But I didn't say anything out loud. I kept my mouth shut, like the little goody-goody that I am. And I scrubbed the toilet. I didn't want to be rude.

My mother was rude. I'm used to her being rude, but it still ruffles my feathers, every single time. I rarely bite back. But today it made me think. Some of my "friends" have called me too sensitive when I expressed dissatisfaction with their rudeness to me. Like my "friend" exhibit A who eats my food without asking or being offered it. Not like my friend exhibit B, who will do puppy dog eyes, look hungrily at my food, and then ask, "Uh...can I has some?" Exhibit A punches people when she is annoyed at them. Exhibit B just gives them a look like "Did you seriously just say that?" I kind of like exhibit B better.

Does it make me old-fashioned, that I prefer politeness, friendliness, and consideration over casual rudeness? I've never considered myself old-fashioned. Has society just decayed to the point where it's okay to be rude? What's going on?

Blogs/Forums > Facebook

On Sunday or Monday last week - I believe it was Monday - I deactivated my facebook account. I think facebook is a regressive way to network.

When I joined facebook (probably about a year ago), I had the same good intentions all facebook addicts start out with. I was going to keep in touch with all my old friends who were moving away. I was going to keep all my distant relatives up-to-date on what was going on in my life. I was going to coordinate with other students on school work. None of this stuff happened.

Have you ever looked at facebook? It's like a window revealing the same sheep-like idiot to you a thousand times over. It's horrifying. Monstrous. The decay of society in action.

Facebook is built around status updates, which allow for users to let the world know when they are visiting their nieces and nephews, doing their homework, getting their teeth pulled, or going to the bathroom. The updates are meant to be short and simple; they allow no room for thought development (probably because most facebook users don't have any thoughts - no offense to you if you use facebook, I'm sure you're different.) If someone wanted to post something thoughtful and intelligent, say, on the meaning of life, their message would be cut off after three or so lines.

But! If you need space for thought development, you can write a note and post that. Of course, your note is also cut off after a few lines, so people can't read it unless they care enough to follow the link. A few people actually do care enough. However, there's no room for them to respond - they can leave a comment, but it has to be short. Again, no room for thought development.

In truth, though, if you really want to talk about intellectual things on facebook, the formatting won't stop you. There's not an actual word limit on the length of your status updates or comments (although it will be abbreviated by the "read more" button). The real problem is the other people on facebook. Generally, facebook users are not people who think deep thoughts; they are people who would rather feed their virtual pet sea turtle than have a discussion on physics.

This is why I prefer the world of blogs and forums. Blogs are made for thought development; forums are made for discussions. I find that the people in these places (at least the ones that I know) are the types of people I like: independent thinkers with original opinions. They're people who know how to write correctly. They know how to convey an important idea.

So far, I haven't missed facebook a bit.