Facebook?

I feel a rant coming on. Well, not so much a rant, as an... observation. A facebook-related observation. Anyone who knows about FB also knows that you can 'Like' pages, and anyone/everyone can create such pages.
I scroll through websites dedicated to spamming my newsfeed with this rubbish occasionally to see whats happening. They're a pretty good indicator of social opinion.
On the top are Justin Bieber, boyfriend/girlfriend jokes, and comments about 'slut' this and 'slut' that.
I choose not to know much about the Bieber Fever purely because it just ain't my style.
The second, I look at, and either smile and ignore, or find distasteful and ignore....
The third however, tugs at my mindstrings, niggling away. Probably because it's something I feel very strongly about. 'It' being a combined cocktail of calling people names just for the sake of it, disloyalty, and an overal sense of what-is-the-world-coming-to?!
I hate the word slut. I got called it in year 8 - at the age of 12- because I was in a bad mood with my best friend. I dont know about you, but the name doesn't fit the description to me... And I figure, unless it directly impacts on your personal relationship with that person, if they want to do whatever with whoever, thats their perogative. Better that they get the STD's rather than me.
Certainly, there is a degree of composure required whilst in public. I would go so far as to say that anything more than a snog is out of bounds, but hey, a persons private life is that - private.....
Until it's posted all over facebook.

Which brings me back to the original catalyst for me writing: A Like page that was written in response to a response to one that said 'this facebook user [hyperlink] is a slut'. The response-response simply said 'thats the default for ALL facebook users, you idiot.'. I smiled at the sillyness, because the original complainer outlined all this information about why she wasnt the town bike and that she'd only 'done it with two guys because they were boyfriends and thought I loved them'. Also points out that she's only 17. Which makes for a whole nother can of worms.
But aside from all the /facepalm-ing and /headdesk-ing hilst reading these (they got progressively worse), it got me wondering..... at what point was it suddenly necessary to post outrage of a personal nature, on a space which the world can see?
I wouldn't want people to know about the really crappy things that have happened in my life, or about the not-so-nice things i've said absent-mindedly, so why would I put them online? The general consensus is that to do something online rather than in person is gutless and just poor form......
add to that the compulsive necessity to broadcast little events that are, really, meaningless, and I begin to wonder whether we're all turning into exhibitionists, that facebook just fuels the desire to feel important, and that everyone cares what youre doing at  any given moment.

Final note-
There's also a lot about fake vs real people. i think it's funny, because theres so many different angles to take on it that i'm not sure where to begin. there's the 'youre just jealous' angle, the 'this is my personal style' angle, the 'you do this therefore you MUST be a 13 year-old whore' (which ties in with above).
It's all stereotyping to the max. It's frustrating.
/ignores it
However, as my lovely boyfriend has pointed out, after i complained about wanting to look like someone in a music video even though they're photoshopped and edited, people who look like that, are often hollow BECAUSE they look like that. They don't need much else other than their absolutely stunning looks and ability to raise tents in the trousers of men they walk past. Although this too is a stereotype (probably designed to make us mortals feel a bit better).
The teenagers who are wearing all this skimpy clothing are just conforming to the times. Just like I had overalls as a kiddie.
It's a while before we'll be able to actually understand the long-term impact that social networks and sexualised media have on a generation, but we'll get there, for better or for worse.

Here's hoping we don't all end up committing the ultimate insult: de-friending sanity