Facebook Live: Just another trend?

Just when we were settling down with uploading stories on Snapchat, Facebook took a step further by promoting their social media with the option of going "live" on Facebook. The benefit? To broaden up opportunities and innovate the "global village."

From watching the entire inauguration day to openings of concerts to how our favourite celebrities are spending their vacation in Bali, we know it all. We are seeing it all through Facebook posts and "live" sessions.  But how are we utilising this option? Are we going with the trend with a positive view or are we just wasting our and everyone's time with it?

The good guys

Facebook Live is highly used among beauty bloggers who usually go live to promote their upcoming sales or simply teach their followers to do a 20 minute glam makeup by letting them stream live. Some promote their food menu in their restaurant. Others show their music skills and teach their followers to play the ukulele. These guys are the good guys. They utilise the option of Facebook Live as a chance to be with their followers when they cannot be with them upfront. This is another way of promoting their channels or skills to the world which gives them the opportunity of doing better.

The party peeps

Every night is a New Year's Eve and it is absolutely essential for them to show it off. With the hazy pink lights, blurry camera and Bollywood remix (DJ Chetas on the floor!) they have to let you know that "their life > your life." Little do they know that it is certainly the other way around.

"Hello Frans"

We all have that mutual friend who we never talked to yet accepted their friend request because they were our juniors, seniors or just a friend of a friend. It is strange but interesting how you know what goes on their lives because they are always, and I mean always, live on Facebook.

From how the weather makes them feel to how their lover cheated on them, they will let you know whether you like it or not. They will invite you to the "adda" because apparently a face to face conversation is so old school for them.

PEEK-A-BOO!

By far the most annoying thing you would have to face on Facebook is checking your notification where it says that your friend is live and when you click on it to see what exactly is going on, it just so seems that they were live for about 6 seconds. Usually, some try this out for attention that is clearly unnecessary and some click on the option just to try it out. As embarrassing as it maybe, they will go YOLO on the whole situation. 

You can't get enough of TV

These crowds usually watch a concert or a match on the TV and they will zoom in on the screen and make you see it with them which I might just add is impossible to see because of the bad resolution. A simple status would have just sealed the deal but that is clearly not enough sharing for them. 

The blabbers

Whether it is a live video of anything good, there are always going to be "party poopers." Just for the sake of how people are commenting on the video, if you click on the comments you will see how extremely nosy they get. If it is a guitar lesson live video, you will notice a few comments such as "Vro pls reply, amr mon karap." Accepting critical comments is nothing new for people who go live but out of the context comments are difficult to deal with.

There are always going to be new trends and new options which will create opportunities for us to connect with each other or be entertained but overdoing anything will only make it difficult for us because it is after all the Internet and a tiny manipulated shot of reality, or not even real at all. So, let us go out and meet up with people, travel and find ourselves instead of going live and ranting about how life is giving us "the lemons".