Cult of the vagrant
July 3rd, 2007 at 17:35
Here’s another curious Facebook phenomenon for you: street vagrants, the sort of people you usually cross the road to avoid, have ended up the subject of Facebook groups, with membership numbering the thousands.
For example (you’ll need a Facebook account to see these): here, here, and here. And I haven’t gone out of my way to look for these, they’ve simply cropped up during my general browsing of the site.
There’s something strangely perverse about thousands of braying idiots tracking the movements of these poor individuals, who are probably homeless, or have mental health problems or whatever.
It’s all a bit weird. This one, in particular, has over 5000 members, and on an almost daily basis, there are new photos taken from afar of him. Some days I’ll get up, log on to the internet, check the group (not that I’m a member or support what they’re doing), to find new photos and sightings from earlier the same day. Its scary. And an obviously massive invasion of privacy.
What bemuses me about this is that in any normal context, these people would be avoided if they were to approach you. Put a photo of them on the internet though and immediately they become a “legend” and are elevated to celebrity status with an “appreciation society”. “Oh my god! The homeless man I avoid is seen around town a lot! What a ledge!”
The thing that worries me is the undue attention that these people are getting, despite it being completely unasked for. This “case study” group that I’m linking to, now over 5000 members strong, has had some idiot radio presenters from Leicester Sound trying to chase him down the road as he goes about his business.
One of the other “appreciation societies” posted a video to YouTube of their man, and about twenty people taking the piss out of him. It was literally them following him around, laughing and posing for photos with him, whilst he looked completely and utterly bewildered – and he was clearly mentally ill and in no way “in” on the joke. They had no intention of helping the man. Some vigilantism on the part of myself (and Katy) later, and they took the video down.
Whilst some of the people in the groups claim that its all good natured, I can’t help but feel its sneery and simply downright rude to do this to people unasked for. Its not as if they’re inviting fame like a celebrity would, they’re simply trying to live their lives.
Also: Hypocrite, moi? Well no, actually, I only write about nutters who harass me. I don’t call them a “ledge” because I thought they were about to stab me up.
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