Last night my wife came into the room and announced that she had ‘un-friended’ her mum. Enough was apparently enough and Jo had decided to take action against her mum’s lurking habits on Facebook.
It had come to a head earlier in the week when Jo’s mum let slip that she knew what she had been up to after reading it all on FB. Jo was not impressed as it appeared to her that her mother had not logged in for months. Instead it appears that she likes to log in and just read what other people are up to but without ever giving anything back. Jo said she didn’t have time for lurkers,
This all prompted a discussion, because we decided that the type of person who sits back happily snooping into their so called friends lives on Facebook without ever contributing anything in return needed a name.
In the end we decided that they should be called Flurkers and so from now on that is what we shall call them. To be honest as this was an impromptu, spur of the moment chat we didn’t have time to search on Wikipedia or anywhere else to see if a name already existed, and so it’s possible that Flurkers is actually the Oxford English dictionary entry for this anyway. Perhaps we are way off and the real entry is very different – feel free to let me know.
Having shaken off her first Flurker, Jo is on the rampage now and is intending combing finely through the last three months status updates to see if anyone else is trying to live their life through hers. I suspect their will be many more casualties in this war.
Can you do this in real life I wonder? If someone is hanging round not really contributing to conversations can we ‘un-friend’ them? I might try it at the pub. If a group of us are chatting and one person is just sitting at the end laughing at everything but not saying anything back I think I shall take action. I shall take a Flurker pack out with me consisting of ear protectors that you can quickly put on the Flurker, and then he can continue to see you but can’t hear what’s going on.
I think I have a few Flurkers on my FB too; perhaps it’s time to get nasty.
7 comments:
I'm famous for hiding people on Facebook. I hide half my "friends" so I don't have to read dribble and then wonder why no one is posting anything! Or I have a lot of co-workers as friends so then I hide all my posts and status updates from them. It's so complex!
You have an Estonian flag. Cool. I got an Azerbaijan this morning but it didn't show up on my counter. Stupid thing.
Even more reason to waste time on facebook looking for my flurkers.
Have some pity for us...after Esmeralda left with the goat, the bell ringing takes up so much of my time, really. That and sending my old laundry tickets and utility bills to Shah Rukh Khan keeps me from updating my Facebook account as much as I'd like. Really. (bites nails) ;-)
Alki,
under the circumstances, I shall have to accept your excuses :-)
I just signed up on FB a month ago, due to suggestions from friends.
I am under the impression that the whole thing is about" knowing" and "sharing" from a comfortable chair in your own home.
I would never ever have all the folks on FB 'in' my home...and yet 'I do'....I wouldn't ever feel the need to read, comment or share, with everyone on facebook.
I think 'lurking' should be 'looking'.
Too much comment is not good to me...it stops the flow of someone else having an opportunity to share.
Virgy, I guess so - but at least update your own status :-)
I agree with you, and regularly 'cull' my Friend list to remove lurkers. It just feels creepy to have someone quietly watching and reading. I've noticed that Gen Y are less tolerant of it whereas the Boomers seem to think its OK. A change of attitude over the generations perhaps?
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