Ten bands I've seen and one of them is a lie:
1. Godsmack
2. Metric
3. Panic! At the Disco
4. Flogging Molly
5. Depeche Mode
6. Tina Turner
7. Joe Satriani
8. Muse
9. Tears for Fears
10. The Wind and the Wave
11. Foo Fighters
That is my list. I'm not going to give away the lie one so you'll either have to stalk my page to find out or try and guess again. I had fun with this because I got a chance to dig deep in my past and find musicians that sounded unlikely to give people a lot of guessing fodder.
I was actually surprised at how far-reaching this meme was. A lot of memes, I see going around in SCA circles is not terribly surprising if you think about it. Let's say I have 20, 30 or even 50 mutual friends with someone...They probably have a similar amount of mutual friends with other people though not the same, obvs as me. This really lends itself to the sharing of memes over. and Over. and OVer. and OVEr. AND OVER....ad nauseum. What was surprising to me is that other non-SCA friends shared this as well: my cousin in Indy, a friend from Toastmasters who only shares like 1-2 friends in common, and even people I've met only onc,e yet we friended each other because we were sharing a photo or something. This meme really made the rounds - so much so that it inspired counter-memes:
Apparently someone was so horked-off that they decided to make a meme that showed people just how annoyed they were rather than just siting silent and scrolling by.
Here's where my rant comes in...I read an article on this "Ten Bands" meme and *supposedly* the creator was tired of all the negativity on Facebook and made up this game to bring a bit of silliness and fun back to the social media site. Little did he know, it would actually spawn its own negativity.***
Why do people feel the need to ruin other people's fun just because they don't like the same things? Oh, I'm SO sorry that my post is causing you frustration. I'm sorry you cannot while (wile?) away the hours scrolling through inane crap, whines, memes and pictures of kittens without being forced to learn something about your Facebook friends. Friends is the operative word here, because clearly you don't actually care about what I have to say. You care more about asserting your opinion. Unfortunately for you, it's not called "[Yourfacehere]book". There are other faces out there besides yours.
Sadly, this is not just a Facebook phenomenon, it happens in real life, too. When you say, "I like...X", there are certain people who, if within a 10 foot radius, will be quick to tell you how much they hate X. And it seems that the more inane and unimportant X is in the grand scheme of life-altering things, the more people feel OK in shit-talking it. Why?
Does spreading negativity toward someone or something make people feel better about themselves? Are they just jealous that the attention is not on them? Or do they really wish they liked the popular thing, but they just don't? Therefore, instead of just existing in their bubble of dislike, they want to make other people feel bad for liking it and maybe, hopefully, people will like it less? Is there also a difference between expressing your opinion and belittling someone about their opinion?
For instance, I really don't like Game of Thrones. I read all the books (out at the time) in college and each one progressively crushed my soul a little bit more. By the time the 4th one came out, I got about 1/3 of the way through it and things just kept getting darker and soul-crushing-er. I decided that I couldn't take any more torture and that no potential happy ending was worth this. So, I stopped reading. I did the same thing with The Sword of Truth, The Walking Dead, and The Wheel of Time series. They were all depressing, dark stories containing whiny characters who lived and awesome characters who died and all of them had no end in sight.
I also had found out that George R. R. Martin was kind of an arrogant asshole in person, so that sealed the fate of that storyline in my mind.
Then, Game of Thrones became a TV show, Walking Dead did as well, and they became HUGE. (The Sword of Truth was apparently also turned into a show or mini series in 2008 but it wasn't really popular and I can't talk about if it was actually any good but the rating on IMDB are middling). Now, if you get me in a ranty mood, or if you try to convince me that these stories are quality literature or that the author is actually a genius, I will more than happily expound to you the reasons why you're wrong.
I really do not understand why people find these stories so great. How has GoT become SO popular that people all over the world are downloading episodes illegally and spoilers listed on websites receive completely trolly responses? I do feel bad, I want to like GoT and Walking Dead. I tried...sooo hard...I watched the first season of GoT and WD. But, in the end, I just don't like it. That doesn't mean that I don't keep up with the storyline (yeah, I totally read the spoilers).
It also doesn't mean that I am going to go tell all you GoT fans that you suck or shit on GoT every time you talk about it. It does, however, mean that if you come up to me and want to talk about the latest exciting/traumatic/horrifying thing that you saw on the show, I won't be able to be as excited/traumatized/horrified as you. So if that's what you're looking for, it's probably best that you look elsewhere. I'm still happy to listen, however, and will nod politely because you're my friend and your emotional state is at least marginally important to me.
Also, I made this card for my boss's birthday that contained a bunch of GoT puns.
I also made this HI-Larious door stop:
I know sometimes your friend feed can get overwhelmed with the meme-du-jour (that "Xth photo on your phone" meme, just won't die) but it doesn't hurt you to keep scrolling. If a certain friend posts every meme out there and you don't want to see posts by that person anymore, you can also unfollow them...they won't even know it! But the last thing you should do (unless they are being openly offensive) is to troll their post with the above Batman meme or some other sarcastic, under-handed, passive aggressive post. Even if they are being offensive, posting a constructive counter comment on the post might open up a good debate/dialogue. (It may also lead to a flame war, but if that were the case, why are you friends with that person?!).
Also, please take things into context. Is it an inane bands-list meme that is annoying you or a friends love of sexist jokes? You can probably ignore the former, where you may want to stand up to the latter. If you are really that unsatisfied with life that little things like a polluted Facebook feed get you riled up, maybe you should go on more walks. Or get more hobbies. Or, you know, take a break from social media.
I generally try to encourage the positive posts on my wall by liking, loving, or commenting on them. It seems that by a natural course of doing that, the people that post negative things or things that I'm not interested in, seem to fade into the background. Also, I do find that people get encouraged by posts that have more comments and likes and try to replicate those posts in the future.
Which is good when they are writing about being happy, enjoying themselves, or loving life.
I am more than happy to continue encouraging that or, in times of annoyance in my own life, ignoring those irritating posts and trying to figure out how to make myself less annoyed. And, honestly, I feel that if people focused a bit more on figuring out why they feel the way they do rather than blaming their feelings on others, 1. the world would be happier in general 2. positivity would become viral.
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| This pic is from the Books of Adam. Unfortunately, I can't find the actual comic 'cept on FB, tho I do see his art appearing around the 'net. He's pretty creative and entertaining. Check out his blog (tho not updated), Twitter, and Facebook! |
***One other argument that told people NOT to do this was that this post may become part of a data-mining project but all info on face space is probably mined anyway and if a person is choosing security questions for their checking account, I would hope that they'd pick harder or more secret information anyway).
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