The Netizen

Facebook has gone chain-addicted mad!

Don't people ever get sick of filling out these stupid random chain surveys?

"Your First..."

It was 25 randoms, now it's 25 firsts. It starts off with:

"1. Who was your FIRST love?"

It ends with:

"25. Who will be the FIRST to repost this?"

That is a hint to keep it going.
--

"44 ODD Things about you!"

So 25 things wasn't already too much, now it's 44.

"If you opened this, FILL IT OUT! Learn 44
things about your friends, and let them learn 44 things about
you! Tag the person that sent it plus others."

No thanks.

Getting tagged in a personally written note is great. Getting tagged because a friend fell for a chain letter isn't so great.
--

"3
Now, here's what you're supposed to do...and please do not spoil the fun."

That phrase is also found in the "bunch of questions" chain letter. It was manipulative there and it is here as well. You're not spoiling the fun by refusing to answer a viral survey.

"Create a new note, copy and paste this message, delete my answers and type in your answers. Then tag a few good friends and family INCLUDING the person who tagged you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little known things about your friends and family. Have FUN!"

Just like the "25 random things" "40 odd things" "bunch of questions" chain letters.
--

"Yes or No
You can ONLY answer Yes or No!"

I'll answer however I choose or not, thank you.

"You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages or comments you and Asks!"

How interesting would that be? Not very. This would result in even more boring chain note posts than the usual questionaires.

"Now, here's what you're supposed to do... And please do not spoil the Fun. Copy and paste this into your notes , delete my answers and type in your answers. Then see what happens."

That was already said in "3" and the "Bunch of questions" and it's still bollox.
--

Another one going around on Facebook is called

"I Want to Know More About You!"

It claims:

"Here are the rules - post this list on your profile (in Notes) replacing my answers with yours. Tag people to do the same thing. If I tagged YOU, it's because I want to know more about YOU!"

No, you tagged somebody because this chain note says so and you want to answer more meaningless questions about yourself which are either boring, pointless, or things that should probably remain private.
--

"The list
You just got tagged and now you're it!"

Again, this is not a real game of tag. It's a chain note. Real tag is not a viral scheme.

"Just copy and paste and put your own answers in. The purpose of this is to get to know your friends better and it's so much fun!"

-Fun for the people who originate these things, seeing how far and wide their junk gets mass-produced. Not so fun for people who find out their friends have fallen for another chain note that gives them an excuse to answer a bunch of pointless forgetable questions about themselves yet again.

"Here are the rules - post this list on your profile (in Notes) replacing my answers with yours. Tag 25 people to do the same thing."

So it's back to 25 things and notifying 25 people you have just done another chain note.

"If I tagged YOU, it's because I want to know more about YOU!"

That's the exact same claim in another "More About You" chain survey as well and it's just as flimsy. You only tagged because the chain letter says so and you like answering the same boring types of survey questions about yourself.
--

"Name-ology
Let others know a little more about yourself, re-post this as your name followed by "ology"

Sounds like it might be fun, but it's just another chain note survey with a huge load of the same typical questions found in every other chain.
--

"Distant Memories"

At first glance, the title suggests it might be a survey that asks about your distant memories.

A look at the instructions shows it might actually be a fun game to play, if it were not for the obligatory tagging x number of people. Don't be fooled by the fun appeal, it is still a viral chain letter scheme.

"1. Put your music player on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS!
4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing the same as well as the person you got the note from."

No thanks to the tagging madness. The results of this thing is a song title answer for each seemingly random question about you.

This song game would actually be a game and a lot of fun if it was played in person with several people taking turns answering the questions around a table together. but Who in the world wants to read all this nonsense cluttering up their friends' blogs and notes in this pathetic viral version?
--

Senior Year in Highschool chain letter!

"Fill this out about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!! FORWARD with name of high school and graduating year in the subject box. Send this to all your friends, but don't forget to send it back to me."

Why send copies back? If everybody did that, the internet would crash because of all the copies of chain letters, and it's already slowing up because of them as it is.

Why give all that info about school? Do you realize you are sharing all this info with all sorts of people who you probably don't even know if your Facebook notes are set for public viewing?

Why not just have a conversation with your friends about school instead of posting some silly questionaire chain?
--

A chain letter for couples, what next?

This one probably hit right around Valentine's Day 2009 and continued after that date.

"Couples questions
This is about you and your spouse or significant other ... not just you. Come on, play along - inquiring minds want to know! ;-) Just copy this post into your own notes & change the answers!"

It doesn't explicitly tell people to "tag" or forward it, but the hope is that the appeal to tell all will be too strong to resist, and people will proliferate this thing even without prompting. And they have. If you answered these questions and put them in your Facebook notes, you have perpetuated a chain letter, junked up your notes, and probably ended up revealing a lot more information to way more people than you realized, and that's assuming anybody would be interested in the first place.

How important and interesting is this thing really?

Maybe it's important to you and your spouse, in which case, why not keep it between the two of you? Email yourself and your spouse a copy, print it out and frame it if you so desire and mount it on your kitchen, bathroom, basement or bedroom wall, but take my word for it, no one else wants to see this stuff clogging your Facebook notes and telling a bunch of information better kept private.
--

Before answering any of these questions in a public note, maybe you should be asking some questions of your own.

Do you really want all your 500 Facebook friends to know all of these details? Are your Facebook notes set so that only your friends can view them, or do friends of friends, or even all of Facebook have access? Don't you realize that getting tagged in a note you actually wrote that is not a viral scheme is a lot more fun and personal than getting tagged out of obligation to a chain letter?

What makes you think anyone is going to care and be bothered to read anything from you when it becomes clear you are a sucker for every stupid chain note meme survey to cross your monitor?