I think most people in our little bubble of LJ read their friendslists to be exposed to intriguing snippets of other peoples' lives, or intriguing new ideas, or the creativity of their talented friends. Not to find out what Powerpuff Girl their friends "would be" in the opinion of some bored, semi-literate junior web designer.
It's the infectious aspect of these memes that's most annoying. It's OK if one person does it, but once your whole list posts the thing, it gets to be a real pain in the arse. And it doesn't actually tell you anything - if people answered the questions in this one honestly, it might be interesting, but they're generally too polite to say that (for example) they'd date someone who's taken. Plus, how entertaining is it to find out that someone you know a bit doesn't know the middle name of someone you don't know at all? Not very.
I heard an interview with some CEO of a web services firm where he said that the one thing that people can't get enough of is information about themselves - no matter how trivial or bogus. So there's endless sites that tell you which celebrity you're most compatible with, or what your ideal blood group is, or some nonsense. Most of the stuff posted as "memes" comes under that solipsistic category - it's not even interesting to your close friends. The thing I like about them least is that I know most of the people on my friends list could write something much more interesting in the time they spent answering stupid questions.
So the reason these things are wrong is that it's just lazy and self-centred to post them. I'm not totally guilt-free in this respect, but after the current outbreak, I swear I never will again.
It's the infectious aspect of these memes that's most annoying. It's OK if one person does it, but once your whole list posts the thing, it gets to be a real pain in the arse. And it doesn't actually tell you anything - if people answered the questions in this one honestly, it might be interesting, but they're generally too polite to say that (for example) they'd date someone who's taken. Plus, how entertaining is it to find out that someone you know a bit doesn't know the middle name of someone you don't know at all? Not very.
I heard an interview with some CEO of a web services firm where he said that the one thing that people can't get enough of is information about themselves - no matter how trivial or bogus. So there's endless sites that tell you which celebrity you're most compatible with, or what your ideal blood group is, or some nonsense. Most of the stuff posted as "memes" comes under that solipsistic category - it's not even interesting to your close friends. The thing I like about them least is that I know most of the people on my friends list could write something much more interesting in the time they spent answering stupid questions.
So the reason these things are wrong is that it's just lazy and self-centred to post them. I'm not totally guilt-free in this respect, but after the current outbreak, I swear I never will again.
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