My major pet hate about FB type sites(ie. socially connected sites) is the manner in which people use them.
I'd have no issue if they do this during their own time, but when 90% of their work time is spent on Fb(mainly, but not exclusively) as well as other social interacting sites like Twitter and whatnot .. it really becomes annoying.
Imagine this as a typical scenario: inside the depot but just outside the office a round table with room for about 6 or so people comfortably around it.
6 or 7 people seated. Not all that much general chat, with 6 of those 7 people all glued to their smartphones.
(one guess as to who the black sheep in this group is!
)
The land line phone rings .. and is only half an arms reach from the person who is supposed to answer it, yet they they will interrupt what it is they're doing on their phone, and politely ask me if I could answer it!
My job isn't to answer phones(at the moment my job is as a driver, due to the volume of work), but part of my job is to be here and there and everywhere.
So, because I'm not actually doing anything when the phone rings I'll answer it knowing full well that the caller will ask a question that only the person who didn't want to interrupt their Fb time will know the answer too. So I answer the phone, knowing that I'd be giving it to this person who will know the answer to the caller's question .. I agree to take the call.
The situation usually transpires into me working as a relay between person that knows the answer and the caller, with me trying to give the phone to the person that knows so they can answer the caller directly, making for a more efficient exchange of info and cutting out an unnecessary middleman(me!).
Yet the person(who should have answered the phone) that knows the answers, tries his hardest to avoid taking the phone during this time. Not because he doesn't want to talk to the person on the phone to end the call as quickly as possible .. simply because he can't bear the thought that he has to put down his smartphone and thus lose access to his facebook time.
What makes this all the more sad is that not only is this during work, but that the person that knows the information that the caller is looking for is supposed to be the despatch
manager!
At this
rate of decay I can't see any real future for employers in this country at least, where 90% of work time is spent on social sites.
The interactions between the other people at the table is usually along the lines of comments about what was just posted on Fb, and exchanging smartphones with each other to watch some tedious video on Youtube.
It's hard to find any party, or event, or gathering of any sort nowadays and not see half (or more) of the attendees not tethered to their smartphone.
The Aliens that Am referred too have already landed and are already among us, yet no one has noticed because it hasn't been posted on Fb yet!
(and I'm too busy to talk to them as I'm trying to balance housekeeping, looking after kids, helping to do a renovation, ignoring my missed calls and texts and trying to use my logged in time here more efficiently .... I have this week off work as it's my week with the kids)