Fishing For Sympathy ???

[GhostShip]

I read this interesting article

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-49883030

A social-media "trend" is leaving young people with genuine mental health problems "facing unfair and distressing criticism", private-school leaders say.

"Sadfishing" is a growing "behavioural trend", where people make "exaggerated claims about their emotional problems to generate sympathy", the heads say. And it means those with real problems are often overlooked or even bullied.
Young people are finding sadfishing very "hard to manage", the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference says.

I think we have all seen fleeting examples of this on social media but I have to say I havent seen such activity on the WPN chat rooms, at least not any of those I visit.

I like to think that this difference in behavioural activity is in the longeivity of the social relationship.

Many folks will see some random facebook post thats been passed from user to user and arrives unwelcomed and often out of original context in a users facebook feed, contrast this to the mainly group limited chat room with regular members whose behaviour traits are well known and thus unsuprising or dramatic, (some would say even mundane in some rooms) I feel the long term nature of the social connection lends itself to ensuring folks are more genuine and comfortable discussing real emotions amongst their peer group and the need to gather immediate short term attention seems heavily reduced.as the group support in a chat room is not immediately going to vanish and thus the requirement for an impulsive response or reaction en-masse as seen across other social media systems is diminished in the main.

What do you guys think is important when it comes to the fine balancing of privacy and exposure of your online  lives ?

[wonderer]

facebook is a very strange medium and to navigate through all nonsense posts to find real information is starting to be a science. A good example is the unreal mix up of climate change and earth pollution that of CO2 emission in specific.
And then try to select a group to join where genuine people share interest and information without discussions degenerating in shaming and flaming far out of context.
Those groups have some similarity with the chatrooms on WPN.
Many times I am surprised to see and feel obligated to warn my friend not to be so very easy with showing documents with very personal information. Announcements of coming holidays and pictures of loading the camper and street names and house numbers clearly visible in the background. 

[GhostShip]

I had forgotten those sorts of situation Wonderer, I have messged people many times to alert them to divulging private information before getting to know another chat user across a period of time, 

Having read the statistic regarding Facebook users wasting up to a third of a day with time wasting ads and shared junk messages I am always glad its something I have avoided,

As most of us know the solution to excess CO2 is to plant trees, and lots of them as they absorb and store C02.
I read about all sorts of other nonsense like carbon capture and building refrigerating equipment at the poles but the truth is if we cut down all the trees to make room for food production and housing we are simply acting like rats or rabbits in a land of no predators, we are the problem and we individually need to think long and hard about how we plan and live our lives to minimise our consumption of the planets finite resources, if we have to "take something" we must endeavour to put something back, planting trees sounds like a decent start to me.

[wonderer]

planting trees is what is happening very successful in Afrika and as expected reducing dessert space. Millions of trees will help and how funny it sounds in will create more room for food production. and I would not be surprised when more forest has a much greater impact on the climate than all speed limits on highways all over the world.
I am also a bit worried about the new generation blaming us for all the pollution.  I am an old generation guy and I got my lunch in a paper bag to school and that bag was used multiple times. we did not have a new phone every three years from primary school on. we walked to school or went on step bike and  no way our parents acted as taxi.
the exploding polution in the form of disposable stuff is only from the last 30 years.
My 1982 olivetti computer still works flawless, but the 2006 computer crashed beyond repair long ago.

[GhostShip]

Whilst we have to be wary of generalising any generation, I myself noted the cult of selfishness took hold during the mid 80's, it has always been easier to blame others rather than step forward ourselves to undertake helpful community activity in the real and online worlds.

I undertake roles where I live in the voluntary sector and do my best to enthuse others towards being generous with their time and knowledge, the end results are heart-warming and satisfying, achieving something as a group brings a good feeling and seeing others suddenly awake to the knowledge they are not alone in lifes struggles is the best reward of all.

[Pri]

Facebook to me is like an ocean wide and a foot deep when it comes to social interaction. I do not use it personally but it feels shallow just there's a billion people standing around in the pool.

WinMX chat, IRC chat, forums where you can have long multi-year interactions with the same people that feels deeper to me on the internet social scale.

[GhostShip]

Your words reasonate perfectly with my comprehension of Facebook Pri, I am still amazed so many people use the platform given its not much more than a collection of PM,s with pictures or video embedded using a web server,  not really impressive technology wise.