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Too Many Friends
My computer thinks I'm gay
I threw that piece of junk away
On the Champs-Elysées
As I was walking home
This is my last communiqué
Down the superhighway
All that I have left to say
In a single tome
I've got too many friends
Too many people
That I'll never meet
And I'll never be there for
I'll never be there for
Cause I'll never be there
If I could give it all away
Would it come back to me someday?
Like a needle in the hay
Or an expensive stone
But I got a reason to declaim
The applications are to blame
For all my sorrow and my pain
of feeling so alone
I got too many friends
Too many people
That I'll never meet
And I'll never be there for
I'll never be there for
Cause I'll never be there
My computer thinks I'm gay
What's the difference anyway
When all that people do all day
Is stare into a phone
I got too many friends
Too many people
That I'll never meet
And I'll never be there for
I'll never be there for
Cause I'll never be there
Troppi Amici
Il mio computer pensa che io sia gay,
ho gettato via quel pezzo di robaccia
sugli Champs-Élysées
mentre tornavo a casa.
Questo è il mio ultimo comunicato
dall'autostrada
Tutto ciò che mi resta da dire
(è racchiuso) in un unico volume.
Ho troppi amici, troppe persone
che non incontrerò mai, per cui non ci sarò mai,
non ci sarò mai per loro, perchè non ci sarò mai più.
Se potessi mandare tutto all'aria
prima o poi tornerebbe tutto come prima?
Come un ago in un pagliaio, o una pietra costosa
Ma ho una ragione per declamare
che la colpa è delle applicazioni (elettroniche)
per tutta la mia sofferenza, il mio dolore
per il sentirmi così solo.
Ho troppi amici, troppe persone
che non incontrerò mai, per cui non ci sarò mai,
non ci sarò mai per loro, perchè non ci sarò mai più.
Il mio computer pensa che io sia gay
Tanto che differenza fa
mentre tutto ciò che le persone fanno durante il giorno
è fissare un telefonino.
Ho troppi amici, troppe persone
che non incontrerò mai, per cui non ci sarò mai,
non ci sarò mai per loro, perchè non ci sarò mai più.
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• Placebo Quotes about TOO MANY FRIENDSDoes the song " Too Many Friends" portray the social networking phenomena Facebook, Twitter and the likes only negative?
It's a song about modern loneliness that is disguised as busyness . Especially zealous Facebook and Twitter Posters poet but in real life, often from . This new kind of social isolation is clear in bars and restaurants. Where the discrepancy between physical proximity and mental distance is surprisingly high . The small screen is unfortunately many attractive than the real man at the next table .
Do you personally have negative experiences with it?
Of course . Before there was Facebook, the fans wanted , where they met me , talk to me. Now they only ask for a photo with me , which they then post on Facebook to show their friends that they have made a rock star. This is very dehumanizing for me.Brian Molko, Die Presse The song 'Too Many Friends' concerns about using social networks. What do you all think?
I have an image of a man who sits at home alone in front of the computer, but at the same time, Facebook had thousands of friends appear . I thought about this divide . How can you have so many virtual relationships , and still be completely unable to communicate in the real world?Brian Molko, Moustique The single " Too Many Friends" sounds as if you would hate Facebook ...
I do not hate Facebook , I found the contrary, new technologies have always been fascinating. The song also is not about Facebook, but of a very modern form of loneliness. I think about it , what it means for friendships that we are so obsessed with it , to live our lives in public. What it has on our society for an effect that while we sit next to each other physically , but can not resist the lure of smartphones. Because let's not be naive : companies like Facebook have not , in the sense of bringing us closer together . They just want to create wealth for a few people .
What effects does it have?
That it harder for people to take a risk with other people and to get open and therefore vulnerable in relationships. I think it needs it to find a kind of happiness in life . It is much safer between the computer back on . And I fear that technology displaces the religions as " opium of the people " . Blame but is not the technology . These are always the people themselvesBrian Molko, Kurier The single " Too Many Friends " criticized Facebook. Why do not you like social media?
The song is not necessarily of social media , but simply of technology and loneliness. Previously people were waiting in romantic songs by the phone until it rang. It is the same ie , only the technology has changed. I do not believe that technology is the problem, but the people . In just tried to talk about today's loneliness. I'm also fascinated by how changed friendship.
If it does it really ?
I think so. If you want to get really close to a person , you have to take a risk . You have to allow yourself to be vulnerable . Otherwise there can be no real connection , and without such we can never be happy. Unless you 're a Buddhist monk.
That's not always the case.
But today it is so that instead of being physically present rather stare at a screen . That takes away our vulnerability. We present ourselves in an edited edition from us online. That's why people take no more listeners in the hand and lead a real conversation .Brian Molko, 20 Minuten “Too Many Friends is based on real events. One day I was at my computer – and I don’t know what I typed into Google… what dodgy porn I was watching… and all of sudden my computer started advertising to me. Like, you know, I was a gay man into the fetish thing. And I remember saying to myself, ‘My computer thinks I’m gay today’ – what a ridiculous line to start a song (laughs). Around the same time, some friends of mine who use social media, and I should say that I don’t myself because I have enough trouble keeping up with my real friends, said they had to stop taking friend requests because they had too many friends. I started thinking ‘How can we ever have too many friends? Then I wondered how many ‘real’ friends do I actually have and how is the virtual world humans are creating affecting the way we interact with each other?
“Is it creating a new society founded on togetherness or is it simply creating a new form of social alienation? I think it’s very dangerous. People don’t have to communicate face to face anymore – you can do it from behind a screen. You no longer have to have the courage of your convictions – you don’t have to justify what you feel and what you really mean. The virtual world creates an amazing platform for the spineless. It’s both a fascinating and dangerous proposition to consider.”Brian Molko, The music.com.au “Mettiamola così: la gente dice che Facebook è come un droga, si può diventare molto dipendenti molto velocemente e io ho una personalità tendente alle dipendenze, quindi me ne tengo alla larga. Ma ti racconto come è andata la storia di Too Many Friends: quando navigo su Internet ricevo sempre pubblicità mirate a uomini eterosessuali. Un giorno – non ricordo esattamente cos'ho fatto, cosa ho digitato su Google o che tipo di porno ho guardato – ma improvvisamente il mio computer ha cambiato e ha iniziato a identificarmi come gay e a mostrarmi pubblicità di tutt'altro tipo. Ho pensato “Strano, il mio computer pensa che io sia gay”, e poi mi è venuto in mente che sarebbe stato un modo veramente ridicolo per iniziare una canzone. Allo stesso tempo alcuni miei amici mi hanno detto di aver smesso di accettare nuovi amici su Facebook perchè ne avevano troppi e ho iniziato a chiedermi se la vita sociale su internet stia diventando più importante della vita nel mondo fisico e che tipo di impatto questi network abbiano sulle nostre capacità di interazione sociale ed è così che è nato il testo. Lo so che ormai questa tecnologia fa parte del quotidiano e non è immaginabile tornare indietro...sta all'individuo scegliere se adottarla o no. Io scelgo la seconda opzione semplicemente perchè sento che non è nelle mie corde. Faccio già abbastanza fatica a tenermi in contatto con gli amici del mondo reale senza dovermi preoccupare della gente che non ho mai incontrato.”Brian Molko, XL Repubblica It’s funny with that line; it’s kind of androgynous and with Stefan being gay and everything… But that line itself, Brian was just on the internet one day and he was getting pop-ups as if he was a gay man, for all these gay websites and stuff, you know what I mean? So he comes up and says, “My computer thinks I’m gay”, and that’s where that line came from (laughs). What a great line to start a song out with, what an androgynous line! It’s gonna grab people’s attention, you know? Steve Forrest, Music Feeds Your new single “Too Many Friends” seems a bit of a rallying cry against social media…
"Too Many Friends" is most definitely not a rallying cry against social media. It is a small story about social alienation. I do worry, however, that technology is fast replacing religion as the opium of the people. But we cannot blame the technology itself—people are the problem. After all, guns don't kill people, but people do.Brian Molko, Bk.asia-city On “Too many friends”, probably the most striking song on the new record contentwise, he rants at the effects which use of social media sites can have on human beings. The song was inspired by a succession of minor, each on their own petty/insignificant incidents happening within a few days. “First of all my computer started to show only advertisements directed at gay men” he remembers laughing. “I have no idea what I typed in on Google or which porn I had watched! That’s how the first line “My computer thinks I’m gay” sprung to my mind. At the same time a friend of mine, who - in contrast to myself – is active in social networks said to me that he’s not accepting any more friends requests because he had “too many friends”. I couldn’t get this out of my head anymore! How could you have too many friends? This made me think about the difference between friendships in virtual and real life. After all, today people that are physically present at the same place are mentally absent because they’re constantly staring at their phone. This was the starting point for the song and I think it captures the present situation quite well.”Brian Molko, Zillo magazine WOULD YOU SAY THAT YOUR NEW SINGLE ‘TOO MANY FRIENDS’ IS AN ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA PROTEST SONG IN A WAY? DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA YOURSELVES?
Brian: I wouldn’t say that I’m anti it but I don’t use it – I’ve never felt the need or the desire to. The song was kind of inspired by a couple of things… some friends of mine that do use social media had said to me that they’d stopped taking friend requests because they had too many, and that was a real novel idea to me because I don’t social network so I didn’t really understand. I started thinking about, ‘well, how many friends do I have, how many real friends do I have? And how many imaginary friends do they have that they could have too many?’ And it got me thinking about the nature of friendship and how it’s changed and it made me ask myself a few questions like, ‘are we better off, now that we live our lives in public and now that we communicate with each other through these social mediums? Is it a way of staying in touch with everybody or a way of not staying in touch with everybody?’ We don’t have to call people up on the telephone anymore because you announce to the whole world what you’re doing. I wonder how has this changed the way people interact with each other and if it’s having a positive effect or a negative effect on our ability to connect with each other in the physical world, particularly when we’ve become such slaves to our smartphones. I’m as guilty as the next guy, I freak out if I don’t have it on but is it really healthy?
Stefan: I think musically that song is a bit of a celebration of our love of big anthemic eighties pop, like ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’. We kind of went all out there musically for that track. And I think in terms of lyrical subject, it definitely touches upon the effect of technology and on the way that we interact. It’s a phenomenon that’s occurring right now and we’re just asking a few questions like, ‘is it actually bringing people closer together? Creating a lot of cyber friends – what does that actually mean? Does it mean that you have more friends or does it mean you’re creating some kind of virtual existence?’Hungertv Talking bout “Too Many Friends,” my personal take was how privacy is sacred and technology is everywhere even when I look at my Facebook page, Iʼm wondering who half these people really are and was the message you wanted to give or something.
S: You touched on something that we relate to – privacy. Neither me or Brian are engaged in social media. I set up a Facebook account then I immediately shut it down. I felt, first of all, that I was being invaded by all these people who wanted to be my friend and there is a reason Iʼm not in touch with these people anymore. (It felt) almost like an emotional black mail, asking to be my friend. And I donʼt like to over expose myself. You put yourself in a vulnerable position. Iʼve seen a lot of people to share their lives on social media and get really hurt by it. So the song questions the nature of friendship with these new “cyber friends.” The big question is – Is it really bringing people closer together or is it isolating people? Considering the fact that people spend more time at home in front of the computer then interacting face to face.
That’s so true. And even when we are out socially we still check our screens all the time!
S: Yeah! I even find myself reaching for my phone during social events. It has led to this new compulsion and there are treatments for internet addicts. It’s a technological lifestyle change that is happening so fast I think its hard for us to say what effect its having to society and what the long terms affects may be. It’s a really interesting formula and that’s what Too many friends touches upon.Stefan Olsdal: MTV Asia “Too Many Friends” is about feeling disconnected and not finding the satisfaction, the fulfillment that you need from genuine human contact, through a plethora of virtual friendships.PureVolume In the song “Too Many Friends,” you open with the line “My computer thinks I’m gay.” Understandably, that line’s become quite a talking point. When you wrote it, did you think that it would catch people’s attention as much as it has?
I was aware of the fact that it would probably polarize opinions quite a bit. I’ve never shyed away from doing that in the past. At the time, I thought, “Do I have the courage to do this?,” because it is so brazen that people are either gonna love it, get it or hate it. Do I still have the courage to do that, almost 20 years down the line? At the end of the day, I feel that to a great degree, fortune favors the brave, and I mustered up the courage to just go for it.
Do you have any regret going ahead with that line?
I wouldn’t have done it if it hadn’t happened to me. Up until that day itself, my computer had advertised to me specifically as a heterosexual male. I don’t know what I did (I have my suspicions, but I won’t go into that), but it started advertising towards me specifically as a homosexual male.
I’m quite fascinated by technology. I found that extremely significant, and I did think to myself, “Wow, my computer thinks I’m gay today!” I thought, “Whoa, OK, that’s quite a brave way to start a song,” and it coincided with some friends of mine talking about how they were stopping taking friend requests on their social networks because they had too many friends.
I had never thought of that before, because I don’t social network, so I thought [about] what an interesting concept that is. Can you have too many friends? How many friends do I have, and what does friendship mean today? How is a burgeoning obsession with [technology] affecting friendship today, and our social skills and our sense of community? I sat down and tried to put that all into “Too Many Friends.” I tried to make it about a person, and their sense of disconnection and loneliness.
Thousands of songs, since the invention of the fixed landline telephone, have mentioned sitting by the phone, waiting for you to call. The song’s about loneliness, it’s not about the technology itself. It’s a modern version of, “I’m sitting by the phone, waiting for you to call.”Pure Volume Edited by - glòsòli - - 20/9/2013, 15:07 |
e ciao a tutti 
