Shameless plugs, haphazard groups, and a general abundance of Facebook spamming have occurred this week. The freshmen running for USG’s 2016 Class Council have taken over News Feeds and posted much too often on the 2016 Facebook page.
And I’m one of them.
Consider this as much of an apology as a weekly blog post. It breaks my heart spamming Facebook so often, because I know how annoyed I’d be by it. But it’s just so hard to resist, considering how popular Facebook is for our class and how easy it is to spread information about the election. And this brought to mind some questions: why are people so annoyed with Facebook “spamming”? Isn’t this what Facebook is made for – to quickly get in touch with a great deal of people? Why don’t people have the same reaction to Facebook ads, which spread unwanted information in a similar manner?
Think way back to the dark ages of the 1990s. When email was the most popular form of online communication, similar “spam” emails were spread rapidly through networks of people. Some involved quizzes, some advertised events or groups, and some contained myths where if you didn’t forward the email to 10 other people in the next hour a creepy clown would come to your door. If I remember correctly, folks had a similar reaction to the “spam emails” they received, and could even mark the email so that any further emails from the sender would be put in a “spam folder.” But why were these emails so despised, and why is “Facebook spamming” so hated now?
In my opinion, the main reason why people get annoyed from spamming is that they see it as a waste of time. When a post regarding the freshman election pop up on someone’s News Feed, they waste an entire 6 seconds reading said post, when they could have been reading a funny post by a friend or watching a viral video. Time is a particularly valuable commodity for college students, and any time lost seems that much more wasted than it would normally.
Ads also play into this notion of loss of time. When I am forced to look at an ad after I submit a word on Words With Friends, a sigh of frustration escapes my mouth at the thought of 2 seconds wasted. When I watch television, I keep three or four channels on a constant rotation so that I never have to watch an advertisement.
Has our generation become so time-obsessed that we can’t bear to spend an extra few seconds unproductively? Are there different standards for spam and advertisements that appear on Facebook, versus emails, television, and radio?
P.S. In the spirit of this post’s topic, don’t forget that voting is online from October 8th through the 10th, and you can vote for as many candidates as you want! I have a lot of ideas for the council, and would really appreciate your support! You can learn more about my election platform at this website. Sorry to spam! (: