Beautiful People Website Was Invaded

Now this is some interesting info...high-tech, virtual and weirdness on social media.

There is a social networking site for "beautiful people", which has some 700,000 members worldwide. Recently, it was hit by what is known as the "Shrek" virus that allowed some tens of thousands of "ugly" applicants to sign up. (My apologies for using the word "ugly" but sadly this is how the owners of the site refer to the unwanted applicants.)

BeautifulPeople.com has always had a very strict rating stage where existing users vote on whether someone is attractive enough to be accepted into the online community...wow isn't that quite racist?

Last month, this screening process lost its strict set of rules and allowed anyone to join in, regardless of their looks.

Today, the owners of the site have apologized to more than 30,000 unfortunate people who were wrongly admitted to the site. They are now banished from there.

Check this out how the Managing Director of this racist site, Greg Hodge handled the media today...I am amazed to see his choice of words.

"We got suspicious when tens of thousands of new members were accepted over a six-week period, many of whom were no oil painting."

"We responded immediately, repairing the damage from the Shrek virus and putting every new member back into the rating module for a legitimate and democratic vote. The result is that we have lost over 30,000 recent members."

"We have sincere regret for the unfortunate people who were wrongly admitted to the site and who believed, albeit for a short while, that they were beautiful."

"It must be a bitter pill to swallow, but better to have had a slice of heaven then never to have tasted it at all."

Wow how insane was that? People actually prove they are beautiful by being on a site and if a site rejects them they feel sad that they are ugly.

Anyway, it is believed this virus was caused by a former employee or by one of the 5.5. million people who were rejected by the site. Just for our info UK, Russia and Poland are a few countries with the highest rejection rate on this site, while most successful new members are from USA, Denmark and France.

I am finding this whole website to be so vain...the whole idea is so discriminating and biased. Anyway, if it is doing well it is because there is demand for such discrimination where people love to be called beautiful while millions are rejected because people find them ugly. The world is going down the drains.

I Am An Addict

I have read and heard this many times that internet and virtual world is contributing greatly in isolating people from the real life to a virtual life. People who spend too much time on the internet and social networking sites  don't really have real friends and groups to hang out with nor do they spend healthy time in out door physical activities. 

Thus now a study conducted by University of Maryland's International Center for Media and the Public Agenda and the Salzburf Global Seminar's Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change has proved the fact that people who use social media frequently are displaying symptoms similar to alcohol and drug addicts. They end up having physical and mental anxiety.

Now, the real issue is with social media entrepreneurs, marketers and those who have a job that requires them to work on social networking sites to share large amounts of information are the real target of becoming addicts. More on the article goes on to say that such people will have no friends when they will retire.

This is not a shocker...some people have such jobs and some people do it for fun. One is essential and the other can be controlled. Some people like to do hard core corporate jobs that can be really painful and stressful as well on the other hand and can be the cause of early grey hair, baldness, back problems and heart attacks. 

But yes, the important thing is to be aware of such news. I say there have always been people who are introverts, recluse and who don't like to socially interact, much before the social media arrival. Such people are just never accepted ever.

Ok I am an addict too, I will take their words. I worked the same way when I wasn't into social media too. The choice is between working in peace and having fun at the same time and guess what I have friends too :)