'Faceoff! Facebook Hug/Kiss/Spank Apps: Creepy or Not?'

[wolven7]

Over on AntiSocial Netowrking, Nina writes: 'But kiss/hug/spank applications are one of those things that seem innocent on the surface but are actually more insidiously creepy. Yes, we're "just online" and "it's not the real world" but remember that those lines are progressively becoming blurred. This relates to what I wrote in a previous post. But instead of is this a story I would tell in person? ask yourself two things:

'1. Would I do this in person?
'2. Would the person in question be receptive to it?

'Remember what I said about assumptions? Don't send skeevy emails because someone fits the suit.'

And that brings me to something I've been thinking about, a lot, lately. Well, maybe not a lot, but a bit: Know the person with whom you're flirting. This is important to know, be it online, in meatspace, at a clcub, in Facebook, the MySpace, whatever. If you don't know for certain that the person in question will receive it as "innocent flirtation," with nothing inteded to come from it (if, in fact that is how you intend it), then you need to be extremely careful about the signals you're sending.

And if you know what they mean, but they don't know that you might mean something else? Well, that can lead to several different kinds of issues, couldn't it?

Flirting is fun, but just be sensible about it.

Ta.

Comments

[theatreannie.livejournal.com]

it's especially creepy when the head of stage management/general manager of the theatre department uses superpoke but doesn't know what it means and thus ends up "trout slapping" people

[wolven.livejournal.com]

That's pretty damn creepy, yes...

[anarchette.livejournal.com]

hey damien, *poke!*

haha.

i couldn't help myself. D:

what's up for tomorrow?

[wolven.livejournal.com]

At least it was just a poke...

And nothing too special, just hanging around.

[anarchette.livejournal.com]

i shall see how the other half feels. its nearly the end of the year and he's run himself silly with loose ends and the general mayhem that ensues during the closing of the school year.

;D

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. Lemme know.

[anarchette.livejournal.com]

ended up accidentally napping. got your vm though. raincheck?D:

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Raincheck for sure. :)

[kitsuchan.livejournal.com]

I'm kinda a fan of the poke, but I only use it one the people I have actually poked in real life. Like Max's friend Luke B. from Horizons (remember him?) who deserves at least a poke.

I would rather type *hug* than use an app, anyway. Apps seem so impersonal. Like the difference between asking a friend to give someone a hug for you and sending a hugbot2500 after them.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I like *hug* better, too. :)

[mendori.livejournal.com]

I dunno, the Hugbot2500 sounds sexy. Is it single?

[wolven.livejournal.com]

It's polyamourous.

[mendori.livejournal.com]

Even better.

[wolven.livejournal.com]

That's what it figured, too.

And as a robot, it can reprogram its emotional states, if things start to get too complicated.