Time For A Rant

It seems like a long time since I posted anything that wasn't a film review, Hell it has been a long time since I posted much of anything really. Often finding myself just not being in the head space for doing a post. At one point I was determined to review every film I watched, which being a raging film geek like myself proved quite difficult.

But today I just wanted to go on about people for a bit.

To preface all this, I understand that people have their own lives to live but in recent times I have found people to be so much more selfish and ignorant to other people than they used to be.

I pride myself on trying to be a good friend to people. Case in point - my friend Stacey passed her driving test today, and as I was coming to Thetford to visit my Mum I tried to nip round to her flat with a congratulations card I bought. This was no big deal for me, I didn't feel like I was going out of my way to do it. It's just the sort of thing people should do right?

Well if it is, I'm the only one doing it. Where did this wave of selfishness come from?

Example - my BlackBerry was sent away to be repaired and I had none of my numbers on the courtesy phone so using Facebook (and I feel this place is a prime reason for what I'm talking about) I put up a couple of statuses and sent a message to the people I text most, and to say the response rate was poor was an understatement.

I get that message and I take the what? 30 seconds? To quickly send off a text. But no, this seems to be too big a deal for some.

Although I still find it a useful tool (mainly for collecting photographs together as you're not going to get all your Facebook friends to jump over to Flickr lets be fair) although it is grating on me. Since when does the fact you have a Facebook profile mean you don't have to send a birthday card or something like that? Obviously I have 89 friends on there and they aren't all going to get birthday cards but people just seem to use it so they don't need to make an effort anymore.

That isn't saying I don't use Facebook as a shortcut sometimes. Take the chat application on there. It is a fast and easy way to keep in touch with people but you have to ask yourself what the point is when people don't even reply on that. Can't be bothered/too busy to talk with someone? Fucking TELL THEM. It requires about 5 seconds of effort but even that seems too much these days.

I know I was brought up slightly earlier than most of my friends but I refuse to believe that its a generational thing. Although it is probably getting there. It just seems in the last year or so people I know, or people friends tell me about, hell even customers where I work are more self involved and rude than before!

As I said, I know people have their own lives but it takes the piss royally. Take this story, based on true events. The names have been changed...

W has a friend, lets call them X. It's X's birthday on a Saturday and although W has had a heavy night the night before and feels like shit he goes out for it, but takes his friend Y and heads out early unless he falls asleep at home. A venue is pretty much decided on. W and Y sit in this place for almost 3 hours, not really feeling 100% (and by the way texting X to let them know they are there) only to see X and their contingent walk past (and looking straight in at W and Y) and go somewhere else without a word.

And when they are called on it the next day X lays a guilt trip on W.

That is an actual example of something that happened to me. And they said to me that I seemed to want something more from them, a pressure of kinds. And THAT, pardon the upcoming pun is the X Factor - reliability. That isn't something you should have to pressure people into. People should treat people how they would like to be treated.

The above isn't an isolated event but its a particularly potent example of how people just live in their little bubbles with their own little agendas and its not just one person, two people but everyone. I should also point out that the friend isn't the only one, I'm not just picking on one person a lot of people can be guilty of it. I could have actually used as different case study but that wasn't my story to tell.

I seem to have to walk a fine line. I don't want to become a pity case because of my Father passing away earlier in the year. I get generally uncomfortable when people show sympathy and that, I appreciate it but don't know what to do with it. But I feel people around me (and people around others) should just make an effort. And I don't want that to be mixed up with "Feel sorry for me!"

Send a text, make a phone call, send an email. Hell, I know this is 2010 and human contact seems to beginning to get frowned upon - but go out for a drink with someone, catch a movie, you can even sacrifice a goat if you want to!

So that is my rant about that. Apologies go out to the people in my life who are reliable. They know who they are.

Till next time.