Can't See the Sunlight

Social Networking, what exactly is the deal? I must say I give all kinds of props to the big PR firms as well as the little guys for actually sitting through nonsense after nonsense of meetings trying to figure out what exactly the people want.

I've been a member of the Facebook community for around 4 years now and recently I've been noticing some trends. One being the relationship gender gap. Since I am not nor have I ever been a male I can't necessarily say if the same rules apply but as for the female side of things I have notice a big decline in the amount of messages I receive from friends. What exactly is it that prevents people from leaving messages on friends walls?

There must be an unwritten law of such dictating what is and is not acceptable. Generally the humane code is to respect the relationship status of a person and keep messages friendly, since there is no need to stir up unnecessary drama. Less and less of my male friends have been leaving comments on my wall and/or statuses. Is this their idea of respecting a female friends relationship status? Or is it indeed true that Facebook is nothing more than a website for hooking up sexually?

If so, why don't the same rules apply on the male side of things? If I said I didn't check my boyfriend's Facebook I'd be lying...now no lines have been crossed on the behalf of other females leaving comments on his wall, but still is there the same respect lines for males in a relationship as there are for females? It seems as if females don't necessary care what the status of a male is, they'll choose to leave comments regardless. But looking back, does this indicate some underlying sexual need for attention shared by the female community? If he has a girlfriend, why is it all of a sudden more compelling to attract his attention than usual?

This isn't the only thing I've noticed. When trying to attract attention of my fellow facebook friends, only certain statuses will gain precedence of popularity over others. Sadly they are never positive statuses. It seems to be true the old cliche that 'misery loves company' the more negative things I posted about general situations such as the weather or the fact of disliking humanity from time to time. Why are we as a society so compelled to share our grief with other people and not our happiness? It's almost as if we are setting up the example that being happy within the virtual world is something you keep to yourself, very rarely do people want to see each other happy or much less hear about it.

This is also where I notice another gender gap. Being a female and posting negative statuses gave me more hits than any type of positive ones I left. On the other hand, my boyfriend, who is always a very happy person to begin with, will generally post very happy and motivating facebook statuses. And more often than not he gets around 5 or 6 hits on almost every one. This is also where the relationship gender gap comes into play as well.

So what exactly are people looking for in a social networking aspect? I even have been taking this idea to my blog. Generally trying to post very positive things about subjects I enjoy in the hopes to gain positive feedback and comments in return. For the most part it has been a success. With everyone entitled to an opinion where is the humanity line drawn? From an innocent topic to that of a new Britney Spears album I've received feedback that I was not necessarily expecting. Then again here is an individual doing very well for herself and we are not able to express genuinity to her success.

Yet a subject such as rising gas prices inflicted the same negative feedback as my blog about Britney Spears. I made a facebook status regarding the current events of gas prices being at an all time high for this particular time of year and how we should all be upset as a nation willing to take control to change it. The feedback I got was basically "you're on your own with that one". My concern lies in the alliance we share as a community of people being screwed by our government. We care less to do anything about such monstrosities, we just lie on our asses and take it. The saddest thing is that we continue to talk about the mishaps of Charlie Sheen. This topic alone gained more hits and arose more emotion within people then our government's gas price crookery.

So what is everyone looking for in a blog or facebook status update? Is it truly another popularity contest or have we become deeper than this elementary school ideology... I just can't see the sunlight.