A Different View
Philosophical Facebook leaves you with real questions to ponder
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.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
The only time in your life that you should ever utter the words: “Do you know who I am?” are if you’ve just had a bang on the head or you are unfortunately suffering from dementia.
Because, otherwise, the phrase ‘do you know who I am’ only serves to make things a whole lot worse.
Normally, the phrase is unleashed towards late night door staff on a wave of alcohol – and never once in the history of time has it produced the result the utterer had intended.
The doorman may well know who you are which is often the very reason you’re not getting into the place in the first instance – or if he doesn’t know who you are, he won’t be unduly influenced when he does, unless you’re a famous movie star or his long-lost cousin.
‘Do you know where I am?’ might often be closer to the phrase you’re looking for, because that would serve you well when you’re looking for a taxi.
‘Do you know who I am?’ is a threatening phrase that in truth wouldn’t frighten the cat. But if you’re anxious to dig the hole a few shovels deeper, you should follow up with ‘I’d like to speak to your manager.’
Managers can be elusive at the best of times, but they’re normally rarer than hen’s teeth when it comes to the small hours of the morning – and even if they’re there, they are most likely watching proceedings on CCTV…just so they know who you are, in case you yourself can’t remember.
‘I’d like to speak to your manager’ suggests that you and he or she are from the one social sphere which is several strata north of the one occupied by door staff.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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A Different View with Dave O’Connell
As it turned out, we were much closer to a Eurovision win than we could ever have imagined – not Ireland, of course, because we’ve now mastered the art of just sending cannon fodder to be blown out in the semi-final.
No, this was just two of us – myself and our eldest – who were lucky enough to be at Anfield for the Reds’ recent win over Brentford, where positioned in the seat right in front of us were four happy lads from Finland.
One of them, we now know, was Käärijä, the singer of the catchiest song at Eurovision, Cha Cha Cha.
But just a week before 7,000 people sung his catchphrase at the Eurovision Arena, he and two his mates – accompanied by an older bloke who had to be either his dad or from the national broadcaster – sat anonymously in the same corner of the lower level of Anfield’s Main Stand.
He was utterly unknown to us as well of course, and the only thing that saw him stand out was his green nail varnish. Live and let live, of course, but it still ensures that you make an impression even if it looks like you were just very late for St Patrick’s Day.
Käärijä may well be Liverpool’s greatest Scandinavian fan, although the bar for that is set fairly high, given that they invade the city in greater numbers every two weeks than the Vikings did just once during the first millennium.
Equally, he may not be a football fan at all – although, as the rest of the week proved, he sure loves a crowd.
Positioned as we were in the corner of the Main Stand, the next section to us, around the corner in the Anfield Road Stand – currently adding a top layer – was occupied by the visiting Brentford supporters.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
A Different View with Dave O’Connell
Contactless payments reached a record €17.9 billion in Ireland last year – up by 31 per cent on 2021, as people came out from under their Covid shell and appear to have left their cash behind them.
Figures from the Banking & Payments Federation found that – despite the cost-of-living increases – the Irish public made three million contactless payments a day, worth an average of €53 million in the final quarter of 2022.
Given that there are 3.8 million people in Ireland over the age of 18, that means that almost every single one of us tapped the card every day last year.
And again, on the presumption that there are a few who still prefer peeling a fifty off a wad of notes, the true figure may be even higher, as we eschew actual money every time we go into a restaurant, bar or shop.
Then comes the monthly morning of reckoning when you open your statement – electronic of course because, like paper money, banks don’t deal in paper statements anymore either – and your guilty secrets unfurl like a rap sheet before your very eyes.
Five taps of a Friday night in the local, followed by a five-ounce burger meal on the way home.
And just why did you need a family-pack of crisps when a small bag would have done? Was all that beer and wine really for a party, or a night in just for one?
Cash provided plenty of dark corners to ignore your profligacy, but there are no hiding places in the contactless world.
Worse still, until that morning of reckoning arrives, you’ve no clue how much you’ve spent, and handing over the card doesn’t hurt half as much as parting with hard cash.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
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