The chief operating officer of a company called Viral Spiral, which is a content management company, said that cats were popular because they made people laugh.
I’m not sure that he is completely correct. There is no doubt that cats make us smile and make us feel better and sometimes they make us laugh. Sometimes they make us sad or anxious.
Because cats make people laugh, it is said that this is the reason why more than 350,000 cat owners in Britain have set up social networking accounts with websites, such as Facebook, for their cat. Have these Facebook accounts being set up correctly using the correct pages and are they compliant with Facebook’s rules and regulations? Who reads the regulations? There are 83 million fake accounts on Facebook. How many of them are pages about pets which inadvertently fall foul of Facebook’s rules and regulations?
In addition, the number of photographs of cats put online each day by British people is 3.8 million. The number of photographs of people put online, by comparison, is 1.4 million.
This is an interesting statistic. Research indicates that one in five people who have set up a social networking account for their cat believe that their cat is more interesting than themselves.
There is also the modern Internet, social networking phenomenon which is the desire of some cat owners to make their cat a celebrity in order to receive some fame themselves vicariously through their cat.
This would seem to have some similarities to pushy and ambitious parents achieving something that they wish they had achieved themselves but did not and then try to do so through their children.
People clearly love seeing and sharing funny or cute pictures of their cat, including videos and memes. A meme is an idea or method of presenting something which catches on from person to person on the Internet and which becomes a craze. Funny cat pictures with captions in “Impact” font are an example.
However, I have two observations to make about that. Firstly, the funny cat picture is on the wane. This has to be the case because they are a craze, although very long-lived, and crazes always have their day and become eventually a part of history. This observation can be seen by checking out the cheeseburger website which has totally reconfigured itself because at one time it took a nosedive when it was exclusively based upon funny cat pictures.
Secondly, I’m not convinced that using the domestic cat as a means of entertainment is a good idea. I think what has happened is that people who do not like cats have also enjoyed laughing at cats, which has led to a disrespectful approach to the domestic cat. The wrong sort of person has jumped onto the bandwagon and this has distorted our relationship with the domestic cat, in my opinion. It has caused some people who do not care for a cat to perceive the domestic cat as something that he or she is not. The Internet cat sharing phenomenon is good fun but I’m not sure that it helps to improve cat welfare or to improve the relationship between people and the domestic cat.
There is a gulf between the cat picture sharing phenomenon on social networking sites and the lives of shelter cats, stray cats and feral cats. It would seem that the reality of the latter is something that people like to forget.
There are many benefits to sharing photographs of cats on the Internet. It is enjoyable and often educational. It is possible that Facebook has had a beneficial effect upon cat welfare. We should just make sure that we respect the cat at all times.
There’s something about looking at cats that makes me smile, the cat or a picture of the cat, I do enjoy seeing them on FB if not posed, or cruel, or staged to be funny at the cat’s expense which is what all too often happens. I think cats are a great tonic to cat lovers, seeing one definitely cheers us up, getting to touch one makes our day 🙂
yes and nice pictures can make you feel relexed
Michael have you ever been in Facebook jail? I’m serving 2 weeks this time for asking strangers to be my friends. Most of this comes about when we’re working together to save an animal and I realize I need this person in my network.
I can receive messages from anyone, but can only respond if the person is on my friends list. No friend requests can be sent. I also can’t message anyone with a LIKE page on that page. That’s really hurting me because I PM people with those pages to get them to list my articles where they have better publicity.
In the past I’ve even been in Facebook jail without sending strangers friend requests. And don’t try to contact Facebook because no one is actually running Facebook. It’s a necessary but very frustrating presence while trying to promote animals in need.
really elisa again. you were in Facebook jail a wee while ago too
But the time I was in for 30 days I was innocent. Hadn’t sent requests in forever. The time comes from hooking up with people while trying to find half frozen dogs in the upstate. I have a few people having to pass along messages because I’m banned from sending them to people I need to contact on the LIKE pages.
poor elisa hugs, so not fair.
Elisa, I have never been in Facebook jail. I had never heard of it until you mentioned it! Mind you, you use Facebook far more than I do and probably far more than most people because you are an excellent networker. It is difficult to know what the rules are and as you say it is impossible to contact anyone on Facebook. In fact it is often impossible or very difficult to contact an actual person behind one of these big websites. I have quite a good relationship with Google and am able to talk to someone there and feel quite privileged to be able to do so.
I wrote this in 2010 and believe I’ve been in Facebook jail maybe 6 more times. I’m having serious issues not being able to message the like pages. An article gets more exposure if the page administrator posts it. http://elisataylor.hubpages.com/hub/A-Facebook-Nightmare
im going to manapouri in Fiordland on tuesday for a week. Which is lower part of south island. Its prob alot like parts of england theres lots of greenery and forest. Ive been telling them we going away and i think hes picked up on that. Also i think hes picked up that im spendng more time out in the lounge where i use my laptop. So ill be away for a week. Be nice to have a break. I’m abit nervous as well as havent been away this long in ages.
My niece and her husband are currently in New Zealand. I’m not sure whether they will ever come back to England! New Zealand is one of the places I would love to see and it always looks beautiful. There appears to be a lot more space than in England because of the lower population and the landscape looks awesome.
Yes I’m Proud to be a new Zealand. There’s different areas,that are more beautiful than others. Yea,well NZ is small population compared to some countries in the world. New Zealand is the size of one city imagine that or state. Auckland is the biggest city where most people seem to go to its too busy for me. I much Prefer Christchurch as was born there. Be three years tomorrow since earthquake in 2011. So hard to believe it happend.