I hoped it would never have to come to this – but I’m going to have to start this article with a disclaimer. Thankfully no vicars, small boys, or indeed small girls form a part of this dissociation.
Disclaimer – I have never met, spoken to, written to, seduced, followed, or in any other way communicated with the red-haired genius behind the following videos. I just think they’re great.
The Elegant Guide is a six-part web comedy series written and presented by Ella Morton.
“Ella is a writer, actor and host with a penchant for absurdity and a fondness for dispensing questionable advice. She is the New York correspondent for the popular daily web show Rocketboom and maintains Sprinkle of Ginger, a blog about creativity, inspiration and social awkwardness.”
I’ll pull myself back from spinning lines such as “The Elegant Guide is refreshingly funny”, or “The Elegant Guide is a breath of fresh air”, simply because that’s lazy journalism, and this is certainly not. Journalism.
What I will say is I’ve watched all three of the currently released episodes several times each now, and they get a laugh each time. So go on, give in to the Elegant Guide.
Thinking for yourself is soon to become a thing of the past. Facebook, the popular social networking website and all round orgy of unnecessary information has recently started a campaign to poke and prod users into re-establishing relationships with long-lost friends who, as they point out with great tact, “You haven’t talked [to] on Facebook lately.”
What a brainwave! Such a simple solution will mend broken relationships across the World! Maybe, but I suspect not.
A friend of mine recently noted that Facebook has a habit of suggesting she reconnects with her own mother. This is of course very comical, the idea that a few lines of code within a website can keep a family in regular contact through encouragement along the lines of “Send her a message”, “Reconnect with him”, or my personal favourite; “Help make Facebook better for her”.
But what next Facebook? Are you going to start hinting at us to reconnect with dead friends and relatives? “We’ve not talked on Facebook lately?” I’m not surprised, he’s six feet under – the WiFi is terrible down there.
I am, however, drawn into the idea of Facebook going down the the opposite route of suggesting you ‘lay off’ some friends. “You’ve been pestering her a lot recently, she’s clearly not interested – stop sending her messages”. I suggest this will go a lot further in improving your mass social circle than encouraging you to talk to somebody you used to sit next to on the bus for four years ever could.
If only the next time I argue with a friend I could have a single line of text saying “Leave it a couple of days” next to their name, that really would be a stepping stone. But until them I’m going to continue to ignore all interfering prompts.
I’ll make my own mind up Facebook, for the time being at least.
About
Benjamin Spall lives to laugh. He does little else. Only Logical compromises of commentaries and compositions written on a semi-regular basis. For further information, visit the about page.
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