Oct 08 - PRO TIP: Turn off notifications

Written by YGTV Team on 08 October 2014.

There’s a whole world beyond undesired Facebook friends: You can get rid of the people on your friends list but if you’re ever feeling lonely there’s a whole other world out there; the world of Gibraltar Facebook groups.

This week I’ve decided to change things up a little and give you a little game to play and introduce a little fun into your Wednesday afternoon. So grab some scrap paper and a pen and write down your answers. For the answer sheet with the correct options you can get in contact on the web address at the end of the article and I’ll very happily forward it.

Give yourself as much time as you need, there’s no rush:

1. You are annoyed that the noise levels coming from a building site are too high and have been going on for too long. Do you:

A. Figure out the company that’s running the site (a quick Google search or peek out your window will suffice) and call them.

B. Log on to Facebook, search for Speak Freely and complain about it there.

C. Wait it out until the morning and complain to the correct government department.

2. You think the time is right to finally learn how to drive and would like to see which driving school will agree most with your economic situation. Do you:

A. Ask people close to you who have gone through the process you’re looking to go through.

B. Get the Yellow Pages in your Gibtelecom 2014 Directory (which you get on your doorstep, every year), look for ‘Driving School’ or ‘Instructor’, call to enquire prices and compare.

C. Stay on the sofa, write a sweet little message on Speak Freely and wait for replies.

3. You’re arrived at a restaurant twenty minutes before the end of service and they’re keeping the kitchen open just for you but unfortunately they don’t have any more bread, and you’re not happy about that. Do you:

A. You huff, and puff and head over to Eat and Drink in and around Gibraltaron Facebook to complaining, all whilst still being sat at the table, using the WI-FI they’ve kindly offered their customers.

B. Suck it up because you did turn up just as the waiters were flipping chairs onto the tables and didn’t think “oh, we’ll go somewhere else”.

C. Take it up with the management, either in a letter, email or schedule an appointment with them, because ‘THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT’.

4. Your Caps Lock button seems to be stuck but that’s not what you’re complaining about. You just want to complain about something like some trees expelling their seeds or about complaining in general. You just want to complain. Do you:

A. Bother your wife or significant other about it.

B. Give your co-workers the chance to roll their eyes

C. Take your complaints to where complaints really should go, Gibraltar Politics.

I have a love hate relationship with these Facebook groups: A part of me wants to go over to the ‘Report to Facebook’ option and then quit but then another part of me is too curious to give it up. A happy medium is to turn notifications off and pop in whenever you want to laugh (or maybe cry).

So why do we like these groups? Why do we keep posting in them? As frustrated as I get when I see someone who has spent the same amount of time to log on to Facebook, search for Speak Freely and ask for Gallo Nero’s number (and wait for replies) as it would’ve taken them to write Gibyellow on their address bar and searched for it there (and already had the number), I just have to laugh.

We’ve become lazy and not even in a good way. I have no idea who said this (perhaps somebody can point it out in the comment section) but I’ve seen this ‘inspirational’ quote more than once:
“Get the laziest person to do the hardest job because they will find an easy way around it”

Or something like that. But that’s not even how it works with Gibraltarians on the internet; Google is never an option, Facebook always is.

And that’s just the people asking for information on things, how about the politicians? And not the ones that sit in parliament, the ones that sit on the throne (the porcelain throne, at home). Sure thing, I get it, you want to keep up with current affairs but when your arguments aren’t structured and young people are losing respect for you because you’re someone’s grandmother and you’re using language nobody should be using with strangers, it’s time to quit. It’s worrying, really. I scroll through some of these groups and see people my parents’ age and older acting like children. And it’s even worse when you get real politicians in the mix, partaking in the quarrels.

But what definitely gets me most is the Eat and Drink in and around Gibraltar group. I’m a big time foodie, I think about food all the time. In fact, when I started writing this article earlier on this morning I had just eaten a grapefruit for breakfast and was already thinking about lunch and dinner. You get the idea. So just like the other groups I got rid of the notifications on this one too, but it’s probably the one I browse more often. And although most of the content is adverts by business owners (which is definitely what shouldn’t be posted on this group) there are some posts by people “reviewing” restaurants they’ve been to. I’m okay with that, but it’s the bad reviews that get me. I get it, you’ve gone to a restaurant and haven’t enjoyed your experience, but can you really complain about it so much? The waiter doesn’t speak very good English, the food was cold (after you probably spent ten minutes Instagramming it, mind you), they got the order slightly wrong…

I love going out to eat, I love trying new things, I like to think I know quite a bit about food but if I ask for my chips to be on the side and they happen to be a little on top I’m not going to throw a hissy fit, especially if I’m eating at a pub. By all means, if you’re at a three Michelin star restaurant you can write all you want about it on Facebook. And still. We don’t realise how destructive our ‘reviews’ are. I mean, if I was a restaurateur in Gibraltar right now I would honestly be more worried about a crappy review from a picky eater with zero food knowledge than about the environmental agency shutting me down for bugs (chapulines, anyone?).

And they’re all the same; it’s not just the food group that’s destructive. I think once people are being sent to court over things that are happening online in these groups you know it HAS TO STOP.

Oh and I haven’t even mentioned the people that post personal things in these groups that should definitely be on their own walls…

I hope you enjoyed the little quiz and the article, and if you still want the answer sheet you can contact me via: www.stefanoblanca.com

This article is the second half of a two-part article on internet usage in Gibraltar. Catch up with Stefano’s blog next week…