The April fools' joker is the real April fool!

When I was still a toddler, I always derived a lot of pleasure from April fool's day. I can certainly recall the moments of glee when I would tell a friend or family member utter falsehoods of a shocking or heartbreaking nature, with such a straight face that they would swallow it all in; hook, line and sinker. After allowing myself some moments of sadistic pleasure at witnessing their shocked and sometimes panicky reactions, I would then remind them that it was the first of April and they had just become another statistic on the April Fools' list. The shock and panic would then swiftly give way to either sheepish grins as my noodles (prank victims) kicked themselves for falling for my lies, or at times the shock and panic would yield to angry outbursts. Either way, I would have had my fun.

One of the best pranks that I witnessed as a young teenager was when some older boys in high school, lifted a lady teacher's tiny Renault 4 from the staff parking lot and placed it by a fish pond in the school. At that time, I could not help admire what I perceived to be the pure genius of it all. Admittedly, my April Fools' pranks were limited in scope and I would never have had the guts to participate in such a daring scheme. That element of cowardice was probably good for me and saved me from a lot of trouble. It did not mean however, that I did not appreciate the deed. Sending an otherwise tough and stern teacher into a emotional mess upon discovering that her car had "disappeared" from the parking lot, was in my book, the ultimate April Fool's prank!

On hindsight, I realise that I was the April Fool. My April Fools' jokes and lies secured me a place on the real April Fools' list. The senior high school jokesters who hid the teacher's car by the fish pond, the newspaper editors who put up front page headlines about non-existant bomb blasts and tsunamis, as well as the false alarmists who tweet lies about Jackie Chan being dead on Twitter are the real fools. I say a fool is someone who does foolish things and not one who unwittingly falls victim to someone else's foolishness!

I read someone's status update on a social network today and it got me thinking. If Christianity and other religions do not condone the speaking and practising of falsehoods, can we claim to be true Christians, Muslims, Hindus, etc, if we engage in them? Some might feel that my change of heart towards the day is too extreme and that I have become too judgemental on something that is just harmless fun. I do not think so. What can begin as harmless fun may develop into something bigger and not so harmless. When your April fool decides to get back at you and comes up with a retaliatory scheme that will leave you not so amused, a battle is likely to develop as newer and more distasteful methods are employed in seeking to make fools out of each other. More dangerously, the culture of lying and hurting others becomes ingrained in the minds of the younger generation who then grow up with weakened values.

Hopefully one day, most people will realise that April Fools' day is nothing but a glorification of foolish behaviour and the practice will become a thing of the past. The history of the day though, dates back to the 16th century, so do not hold your breath about it fading away! That might not happen anytime soon.

Surely I am not a Facebook junkie in denial?

Facebook, Facebook and Facebook; there seems to be very little of late that people spend their time on other than Mark Zuckerberg's social networking site - Facebook. I was just thinking out loud this morning of how maybe I need to reduce the amount of time that I spend on this popular social network before I end up an official Facebook junkie. Maybe I am in denial and am already one but from my self observation, I am not quite there yet.


What lines of distinction am I using to separate a Facebook junkie and a person on the verge of becoming one? The junkie spends 90 percent of his or her time (including time set aside for work and other things) poking friends, accepting friends requests, posting status updates, commenting on other people's walls and profiles, joining every group under the Facebook sun and inviting every person under the sun to be their friend.


A social networker on the verge of being a junkie (like me) spends 90 percent of their free time (note the words "free time") doing most of the things mentioned above which the junkie does full time. A few distinctions in activity however exist. I still have some kind of discretion when it comes to accepting and inviting friends. Admittedly though, there are a few friends that I have invited or accepted on the basis of sharing more than ten mutual friends with them. I used to have a hardline stance that whoever I do not know cannot be on my list. I have however arrived at a philosophy (not to be confused with an excuse) that if all my friends know you, then I either know you too or I should be knowing you. I have not joined or liked every group under the sun and I have not reached the stage of liking my own status updates. I can go for more than a day without posting anything on my profile or wall. Although I have more than 600 Facebook friends, I do not in my point of view believe that it is a lot considering other people have three thousand friends or more yet they are not celebrities.


So you see, I am an intensive Facebook user but I am not really a Facebook junkie (also known as a Mark Zuckerberg zombie). All I need to do is make sure that I do not cross the line that I have ever so carefully drawn up for myself. Are you convinced? I hope you are and if you want you can drop me your response via my inbox or you can write it on my wall. You will of course need to add me as a friend and when I accept your invitation, you can write on my Facebook wall!

Being a social networking junkie is not a licence for dumping social junk

I would not go as far as rating myself as a social networking junkie, but at the same time I will accept that I do enjoy regular and substantial indulgence in Facebook, Twitter, Gtalk and one or two mobile phone applications. My wife and some friends will probably be emphatic in arguing that I truly am a junkie but am steeped in denial and need professional help to realise that the blood in my veins is driven by status updates, tweets, retweets and buzzes.



My usual defence is that no self respecting blogger can survive without belonging to sound networks in which he or she can meet other bloggers, inform friends and readers of latest postings, gain better search engine rankings, as well as keep up to date with the latest news headlines. This excuse is not exactly a fib but I admit that my online activities do often extend to non blogging activity such as “poking” friends on Facebook. I take comfort in the knowledge that I am yet to be one of those junkies who have long lost their marbles to the extent that they see no wrong in airing dirty personal junk in public for the whole world to see.



As much as you want the whole world to empathise, laugh or rejoice with you, there are certain things that the world does not need to know about you. Let us face it, very few of us limit our friend lists to only genuine friends. Often than not we accept friend invitations or agree to be “followed” by individuals that we do not know, or who we do not have much to say to besides a simple “hello.”



If you did not know, now you do that it is highly idiotic to post or tweet to virtual strangers that you have just wet your pants, fought with your spouse or that you are on the prowl at some seedy bar in search of a one night stand with some strumpet. Also high on the list of junk droppers, are the braggers whose junk is usually along the lines of asking for “advice” about which airline might have business class tickets to some fancy destination because the travel agents seem to have only economy class available. Others will cry about being tired after being locked in a full day’s meeting with the Mayor, a CEO of some huge multi-national, or the President. If you do decide to pay attention to these drama queens and kings, be sure to take what they say with a pinch of salt since their version of events often differs from the real life scenario.



So dear social networkers let us avoid polluting the social space with our over the top outpour of each and every thought, problem, emotion or activity that we have. It becomes fodder for gossip, ridicule and general character assaination. It seems that some of our “open minded” friends ought to realise that there is actually something known as too much information!