Philosophical Facebook leaves you with real questions to ponder

Dave O'Connell

A Different View

A Different View with Dave O’Connell

The world finally turned full circle last week when Facebook asked me what must be the ultimate philosophical question – do I really know myself?

Of course they didn’t quite phrase it in that way and they never intended it to be thought-provoking or in any way deep.

But by asking me if I knew Dave O’Connell, they got me thinking – to the point that I now reckon there are people I’ve never met who know me better than I know myself.

But let’s explain the Facebook poser first: not being the most adept at this whole malarkey, I accidently set up two different Facebook accounts for myself back when this entire craze started.

One of them I’ve ignored entirely ever since, while I’m on little more than nodding terms with the other – but Facebook doesn’t know that, and regularly wonders why my world doesn’t revolve around this parallel universe.

All of that is fine – after all, there are teams of people in Indian call centres who seem to share a concern about all aspects of my life and how their clients could make it better.

But when Facebook asks me if I know Dave O’Connell – on the basis that I might like to be friends with him, given that our profiles and interests are eerily similar – then you have to take stock.

It’s bad enough to have virtual friends that, not alone aren’t your friends in real life, you wouldn’t recognise them if you knocked them over. But when you’re so stuck for new friends that it’s suggested you befriend yourself, it’s time to take stock.

With this in mind – and seeking an independent assessment of my strengths and weaknesses – it was on to another social site, Linkedin, a sort of quasi-business website which started out as a way of displaying your professional wares, so to speak, but seems to have ended up as a competition for who can find the most contacts.

Once again, most of these acquaintances are people you’ve never actually met, but it’s fair enough if they might prove useful for some reason in the future.

However, the brains behind Linkedin thought of another way of increasing its – and your – profile by asking these friends to endorse you for your talents.

In reality, this wouldn’t take long for most of us, but I’ve been endorsed more often than a boy racer for skills that I’d never have pretended to have.

Fair enough; I’m delighted that 28 people think I’ve journalistic skills and 19 more endorsed me for newspapers – but three people endorsed me for my public relations skills even though I’ve never worked a day in PR; and I’ve one each for writing press releases (never did) and for Corporate Communications – a strength I’d never claim to have, even with the fairest wind behind me.

I’ve even got one for storytelling from an old college lecturer of mine which I could easily misinterpret as suggesting I make things up.

All told, I have 97 endorsements which even puts me ahead of Eamon Dunphy – and he drove up one-way streets in west Cork to acquire one of his.

I’m humbled by each and every one of them – even the ones that are not true – because it’s terrific to think anyone took the time to give me a gold star for anything.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.