😬
Argh! Not again! 🤦♀️ Oh, no, not again!
It's the dreaded "friendiversary" video meme!
😢
It started on Facebook and within a year, was absolutely rampant!
I hope it doesn't infect other internet sites, 😟 because this meme is so irritating
It all started with those stupid one-year anniversary montage memes people posted on their profiles, likely prompted by FB itself. "Ohh! I been a whole year on FB! Whoop-dee-doo!"
After a few years of this rot, the meme morphed into the friendiversary, probably to boost user activity stats.
It started like this.
You'd get a notify from Facebook saying that a friend has added, not shared, but added a video.
😋
This used to mean that a friend had uploaded a video they shot with their own device, at home or wherever they are at the time.
BUT -
🤨
Not any more.
😨
With a "friendiversary" video, clicking on a link to view it would result in "Person A is celebrating x number of years/months/etc. of friendship with Person B." and then it would show a collection of various images/animations from those two friends FB activity throughout the time they were friends on FB.
😕 😖
Until the monstrosity of the "friendiversary" video, "added" was different from "shared", which is just sharing videos that are already shared and re-shared by friends of friends of friends - memes.
😵
Now, that line has been very much blurred, because friendship anniversary videos are called "added" and not "shared". 😕 The reason for this is probably because the video slideshows/animations look different and feature whoever the friendship is about. So if Kelly and Chris were friends on FB for 5 years, but Chris and Jane were only friends for two, Kelly's video saying "Kelly is celebrating 5 years of friendship with Chris" would have a slideshow containing various things concerning their activity on FB. But Chris's video featuring her and Jane would have a slideshow summary of hers and Jane's FB activities, with "Chris and Jane are celebrating 2 years of friendship".
🙄
So if you know Chris, but you don't know Jane or Kelly, you get two separate notifies saying "Chris has added a video" at different times, because she friendiversaried Kelly at 4:43 one day, and Jane at 2:54 the next.
😓 😨
But Chris does the friendiversary thing with many more people, it shows up in your feed and notifies, over and over - and - OVER! It isn't necessarily all happening at once. This torture goes on at random. You never know when the next Facebook friend-brag belch meme will show up, you only know for certain that it will...
😰
So Chris is subjecting you to countless repeats of this meme, and there is no end to it! 😳
But Chris is by far not the only one doing this. However many friends you have on FB, more and more of them have turned into friendiversary zombies! So you're not just getting these annoyances from Chris, but from any friend at any time, with no end in sight!
😱
So this meme is insidious in that it looks just personal enough not to be thought of as a meme to people who get all warm and fuzzy about "Friendship with my pal for this many years on FB! Huzza! Let's celebrate with this video!"
😦
But it's still something FB cobbles together based on friends' activities, and the music and message of "So-and-so is celebrating x number of years of friendship with So-And-So!" So it is not truly an "added" video, but a re-shared viral scheme - yes, it's a meme. Another annoying meme!
😞
So, I've been disappointed many times when my initial excitement at the prospect of seeing some real video of my friends, get completely dashed when it turns out to be - just - another - freaking - awful - friendiversary - video...!
😠
ARGH!
I have a strong suspicion that this is an attempt by FB to keep even closer tabs on everyone, has something to do with advertising and marketing, and both FB and Twitter are desperate not to go the way of Myspace. So, the more they can get people dependent on them for staying connected on the net, the less likely they'll lose customers, no matter how crappy their platforms or services get. It is a way to amp up their activity stats and claim they are the most popular, most active social network.
This keeps recycling and mutating.
It is not just infecting video posts any more. It has taken over regular statuses and some picture uploads too. There is no getting away from this insidious thing!
🤢
It has also invaded private FB inboxes/messenger! 😧
Imagine my dismay when discovering some FB notifies that said I had new messages from my friends, only to read "You and So-and-so are celebrating x months/years of friendship."
🤮
Aaaaaaaaaaag!
🤬
Just shoot me please!
Then another horrible thought hit.
🤯
O my freaking gosh! Has Facebook been sending such messages to my friends as well, making them look as if they were from me?
😖😫
No! No, no, no, just - no! I would never inflict this thing on anyone else!
😭
when people object to these memes, they get told to shut up, stop being offensive, ignore it, just don't rock the boat. Most gallingly, I've had this one hurled at me over this very meme - "It's not just about you." Oh 🤬! That really ticks me off! Instead of aiming that one at me, tell that to the people re-sharing all this stuff!!
Why do the memers get the privilege to plaster their re-shares all over the net and those of us who are sick of it are supposed to just keep quiet, pretend we're totally cool with it all and deny our own feelings as social networks and other places on the net get flooded with more and more stuff that makes every cyberspace look like every other?
Facebook blames some of these problems on a bug.
This article touches on the problem, and I will include that section right here. The whole article goes on at length about two-factor authentification which has nothing to do with this subject.
'I think they very much count on the fact that it will produce an addictive response.' DAVID GREENFIELD, UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT SCHOOL OF MEDICINE Greenfield also pointed out that Facebook isn’t the first platform to deploy these kinds of alerts. Twitter, for example, has been sending push notifications about activity occurring on the platform since last year, like when a number of people you follow all interact with the same tweet.
The new notifications appear to be part of a series of efforts to carry out what Zuckerberg says is Facebook's new mission: to “bring people closer together.” For example, Facebook is also prompting people to hangout with each other in real life. It’s encouraging users to celebrate the day they became friends with a specific acquaintance on Facebook as a kind of social media holiday. Facebook even tried to rebrand its own anniversary as “friends day” earlier this month.
Facebook’s new efforts often feel so annoying because it’s easy to forget that it's not just a social network, but a for-profit advertising business. The new notifications and features aren’t really that at all—they’re spam and marketing campaigns. It’s not unusual for other types of online businesses to send users texts or emails to promote their services. Facebook's service just happens to be connecting you with your friends in exchange for your attention. “You wouldn’t have a stock selling for $180 a share if it was about people talking and making nice,” says Greenfield.
Okay, I'm going to say it.
😤
This is ego-pandering at its worst, and it is artificial. Friendiversaries aren't real communication/interaction. They're cliquy and spammy. "Memory" re-shares are duplicates of stuff posted in the past. Why, FB? Just - why?
Not only do I not give one iota of a flying hot dart who was friends with whom for how many years, ((friendiversary addicts, please, Get a room)! I am utterly sick of seeing this nefarious thing cropping up everywhere, and FB's deception of calling it an "add" or "updated status" when it should be labeled a "share"! And to those who get on their freaking high horses with this "It's not about you" crap, here's a newsflash: it doesn't get more self-absorbed than friendiversaries! Hasn't anyone actually stopped to think about that for at least two dang seconds?
It's really annoying clicking something, thinking you'll get an actual original personally written/videoed post, only to find another instance of an insufferable meme you've been trying so hard to avoid and ignore! Especially one that just stinks of "Lookee how popular I am, I gots friendz!"
Cram it!
👿
Does anyone actually want me checking out their videos and status updates?
if so, stop with the friendiversaries! Because it's getting so I will no longer check videos out, and statuses are starting to get the same avoidance. I've already made the mistake too many times of clicking only to find it's nothing but this insufferable meme - again!
🤒
"Friendiversary" posts literally make me so mad at my friends, and very sorry for checking out their posts. They make me lonely for real interaction and communication, and wanting to throw in the towel and go searching somewhere else for signs of intelligent life.
🤕
And yes, I called it nefarious because it is, for one, manipulative. It's a meme. So its aim is to take over/inundate wherever it is running rampant, in this case, Facebook.
It's deceptive because Facebook labels it so you'll think it's original content. It doesn't matter how different the images are from each user's collection, the scheme is "celebrating x years of friendship" so it's a meme.
Facebook was already getting desperate with their "memories" thing. You get notified that you have memories to look back on (stuff you posted a year ago on any given day). With these "memories" you can re-share them again, or re-share someone else's "memories".
Annoying as that is, at least it is labeled as "memories" so I can just go right on past those in my search for something original and interesting, and that's getting to be exceedingly difficult to find on a site choking with memes.
🤮
Whatever FB's motives might be, I've had it to here and beyond with this stupid "celebration of friendship" meme! I don't want it in my newsfeed. I don't want to see it cluttering up my friends' profiles. I sure as heck don't want the ruddy freaking thing invading my FB messenger or private message inbox!!!
I sincerely wish that "friendiversary" meme in all its forms would meet a black hole!
Over and out!
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