Most of us are willing to put up with quite a lot when it comes to social media, but now and again a feature comes along that really gets under your skin.
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Social media has become so utterly ingrained in our daily lives that many
people have become numb to the onslaught of features that companies like
Facebook or Twitter throw at us every year.
While some of these features are so simple and intuitive that they slot
seamlessly into the platform, others have turned out to be real clangers. The
Telegraph takes a look at some of the social media features that really got up
your nose.
Facebook 'Poke'
One of Facebook's earliest and most annoying features, a 'Poke' was intended
to attract the attention of another user. Pokes did not have any specific
purpose, and users interpreted them many different ways. Endless Poke wars
ensued, with people poking each other back and forth until one side gave up.
Things escalated when Facebook allowed users to perform other actions to their
friends – such as "wave to" or "throw a sheep at". Mercifully, everyone got a
bit bored of the whole thing and Facebook quietly removed poke button from
profile pages and put it in a drop-down menu.
MSN 'Nudge'
Back in 2005 when the nudge was first introduced, users could “shake” the
chat window of the person to whom they were chatting. MSN added a time limit
between each nudge so that users wouldn’t abuse the feature, but in a world
where everybody expects instant responses, friends would nudge each other
repeatedly, or would even start a conversation with a nudge. Many MSN users
permanently set their statuses to "Busy", just to get a little peace.
Bebo 'Share the Luv'
In the early days of Bebo the hardest daily decision was who deserved your
Luv for the day. Bebo's 'Share the Luv' button allowed users to display a small
red heart graphic in messages to their friends. Initially, each user was
restricted to giving one heart a day, and the amount of hearts you won over was
indicative of popularity. Then you were allowed to share three Luvs a day, which
made everything less special, and in hindsight was clearly the beginning of the
end.
BBM broadcast messages
BlackBerry's 'broadcast messages' feature wes introduced to allow people to
send a message to everyone on their BBM contact list simultaneously. Inevitably,
this just ended up being used to spread chain messages and spam, demanding that
people pass on the message to 100 people or face a grisly death. BBM is set to
launch on rival platforms such as Apple’s iOS and Google Android later this
summer, and BlackBerry is considering spinning off the messaging service to form
a new company, so even more poeple can be subjected to this irritating feature.
Hashtags
Hashtags do, admittedly, have a valid purpose, and can be a useful way to
navigate Twitter. However, excessive use of pointless hashtags, like #thatslife,
multiple hashtags, or incredibly long hashtags, like
#dontknowhowiwilleverlivethisonedown, can elicit a swift response of "Unfollow".
What's even more annoying is when people start using hashtags on other social
networks like Facebook, or even adding the word "hashtag" into their speech.
Automated direct messages on Twitter
Another unfortunate Twitter feature is the one that lets you send an
automatic direct message to anyone who makes the mistake of following you,
thanking them for the follow and requesting a 'Like' on your Facebook page when
you've done absolutely nothing to deserve it. Twitter is a social network
set up for social interactions. Setting up a bot to spam people with
anonymous requests is not only annoying but counter-productive.
LinkedIn 'Who's viewed your profile'
There's something about being able to see who has been looking at your
profile that feels a bit wrong. Maybe it's because Facebook has set a precedent
of being able to browse contacts' profiles totally anonymously, but it just
feels like you have to be on your best behaviour all the time. On the other
hand, clicking the 'who's viewed you profile' button and not being able to see
certain people, because they have set their profiles to anonymous, is even more
frustrating, and all part of LinkedIn's ploy to get you to upgrade to its
premium service.
Google+ 'What's hot'
'What's hot', introduced in 2011, is a stream showing what Google+ users are
excited about – including people who are not in your circles. Initially these
posts would appear in the middle of a user's stream, but in February 2012,
Google added a slider control, letting users turn the feature off completely
(except for it being listed on the left side of the page) by sliding the slider
for it to the nothing position. 'What's Hot' was such an annoying feature that
it was listed as one of Google+'s 'known issues'.
Facebook game updates
"Hey, did you know that Jamie just got the Red Poll Calf in Farmville and
claimed some animal feed. Well, now you do and oh, by the way, did you see
Bertha's latest score in Lucky Slots?" Does anybody really need to know that
their friends are playing some mindless game to wile away the hours at work?
It's basically just advertising in disguise, and can seriously clutter up your
news feed. Definitely a feature that needs to be turned off.
Foursquare Mayorships
What's so great about being a Mayor anyway? Surely it just proves that you
spend far too much in any given coffee shop or beauty salon or drinking
establishment. Yet some people seem to be obsessive about their Mayorship status
endlessly collect badges and trophies by repeatedly checking in at the same
location. OK, maybe you get the occasional voucher for a free coffee, but is it
really worth exposing yourself as an utter bore in the process ?
source: telegraph.co.uk
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