I have chosen the wrong career. If Facebook status updates are any indication as to how I ought to live my life (and really what could offer more sage advice?), then I should have chosen to be a real estate agent in New York or San Francisco. Or both.
Several times a week my news feed announces that an apartment is available, an awesome apartment, or that someone needs a sublet. Pronto. But Facebook status updates are ephemeral and I'm not a real estate agent who cares to remember how many square feet you need to live. By the time it occurs to me that two statuses are related, I've forgotten who needs what and when they need it. And I've probably already defriended both of you.
I'm not talking a Note here. I'm not talking about posting a link to a Craigslist ad. I'm talking about publicity that's about as good as shouting to me from a moving car. Most people's Facebook friends number in the hundreds, and most of those friends have a lot of work they are trying to avoid by hanging out on Facebook. News feeds move fast and you're competing with snarky comments, dog videos, and more news than I have time to read in a day.
If you were to post a link, well now you'd really mean business. I might actually be able to remember that or find it later. But you don't want me to find you an apartment or a subletter, so you write up a status update on your cell phone while riding the Muni and leave it at that.
If we as a society have gotten to the point where a Craigslist ad is too much effort, then we have all collectively failed. When the responsibility for shelter in two of the must cutthroat housing markets in the world is left up to an announcement sandwiched between what someone's baby ate for lunch and a Menudo video from the 80s, then maybe we're all a little too laid back for our own good.
The technology available to us to make personal news public and access social networks to fulfill our needs boggles the mind. And maybe that's the problem. It's becoming harder and harder to distinguish what's status-worthy vs. Note-worthy vs. E-mail-worthy. We're overwhelmed with options. There isn't just an app for that, there are hundreds of apps for that.
So you revert to the lowest common denominator and just write a status update- which I will overlook despite being able to help because you chose the wrong medium, and because my news feed moves fast, and because I have ADD. If I were a real estate agent, maybe things would be different. But for now I will assume you don't want my help. Not really.
Of course, if my news feed starts looking like the bulletin board at the back of a bagle shop, then I'm defriending all of you.