the most disgusting opinion piece

i've just read the most disgusting opinion piece i've seen in a long time in the Newpaper.

"Stay out of my Facebook, dad." by Liew Hanqing. it's in the bitchaboutcorner section - very aptly named i must say but this has been one of the nastiest pieces i've seen in a long time.

since it's such a nasty piece of work, i have no qualms abt putting the author's name in digital print either. i was contemplating emailing her abt her horrid piece but decided against it. free speech, after all. AND, it's an opinion piece. AND the section's named bitchaboutcorner already, so i've been duly warned.

BUT. i want to bitch about it myself here cos it struck me as so yucks. this woman proudly stated that she threw a hissy fit to get her father off Facebook cos "Facebook belongs to my generation - not my parents'."

"I wouldn't want to log into my Facebook account, only to find my Dad has written on my wall... It would just be too embarrassing."

how utterly childish. it stunned me, frankly speaking. what's so embarrassing abt having your dad write on your wall? if my dad wanted to get in touch with my generation and decided to set up a facebook account, and if he decided to write on my wall, i'd think it's the sweetest thing ever. the whole "i don't wanna do things my parents do cos it ain't cool" idea she was writing about is so ludicrous, and just plain juvenile. if you're worried about how "cool" you are solely based on the differentiation between your generation and your parents', then you have my condolences. it'd just appear that you never grew up and out of the "too-cool-for-thou" stage.

while reading the article and eating my noodles, i couldn't keep down my feeling of gross indignance and disgust.

"We don't want to be Facebook friends with senior citizens." - supposedly the name of a facebook group according to our bitchaboutcorner author.

i think these people don't realise that they'll be 'senior citizens' one day themselves, sooner rather than later, and their oh-so-sweet children will come up with "cool" groups that have names that reek of senior citizen discrimination. if this author thinks that her point of view has been validated by the existence of such childishly named groups on facebook, i'd think she is very sorely mistaken because the existence of such groups do not prove anything except that some people on facebook are just gerascophobic, narrow-minded, and still think that they'll remain young forever.

i recognise this author's right to free speech, and hence the right to express her opinions - no matter how much of an ill-taste they leave in my mouth.

but at the same time, i can't help but wish the Newpaper didn't print something like that. it just reinforced my opinion that the Newpaper prints nothing but trash and is good for nothing except the extensive sports pages.

and darling author, facebook isn't of your generation. you belong to the generation of friendster. the facebook generation are the secondary school children who'll have grown up using facebook and facebook only.

a lot of growing up and feeling comfortable in your own skin is needed, it would seem. Singapore is getting full of adults who haven't really grown up but are still feeding on childish notions of "cool" and "uncool".