Tuesday, January 27, 2009

I do not heart Facebook

I broke down and joined Facebook about a month ago, at the incessant encouragement of my friend Lish. I friend'ed a few people, and pretty soon other people friend'ed me. A few from childhood, a few from High School, a few from college, many that I work with, some family, a couple from the blogshere... All in all, a pretty eclectic group of folks. For the most part - not a group of people that you'd find partying together at the same place. I'm thinking probably not all that exciting for them to check out my Facebook page, seeing as most of them don't even know each other.

I don't get it.

Granted, it's been fun reconnecting with people. I enjoy seeing every one's pictures. The status updates are pretty funny sometimes.

But, I just don't understand what the point is.

Do I need to know when people become fans of something? I mean, I'm a big fan of dark chocolate, but I bet it doesn't change your life to know that. And what is with all these drinking requests? I don't even drink that much in real life, why would I want a bunch of fake internet drinks? Besides, I get nervous every time I attempt to accept one of these requests, and Facebook asks me if I'm ok with it pulling my profile information, photos, my friends' info, and other content that it requires to work... why the hell does it need all that crap just so that my socalledfriend can give me some kind of crazy drink that I can't even actually consume? Then there are the quizzes and games I've been invited to. They look like fun, but when am I supposed to find the time to do those? Blogging is already keeping me up later than I should be most times.

Then it keeps suggesting people for me to be friends with. Is the point to see how many people want to be your friend, because I got enough of that in High School, and frankly - I wasn't that good at it back then either. One of these people that it keeps wanting me to friend, is someone from work that I can not stand. The last thing I want to see is his stupid face every time I log into Facebook. And what do you do when someone sends you a friend request that you are not all that thrilled with being friends with. I can't help but feel rude to just ignore them, so I end up just accepting. Does that make me a Facebook whore?

And how often am I supposed to be updating my status? It currently says that I'm "now leaving work...TGIF", which is clearly now outdated. I feel like I should update it, but really don't have anything to say. Not to mention that every time I go to do a status update, I think about all the people that will read it. Maybe I don't want soandso to know that I'm watching The Bachelor, when I told them that I had something really important to do tonight. Even though it is important to evaluate how pathetic women can actually be in the hopes of marrying a man they are convinced they have fallen in love with based on reputation alone and the fact that so many other women are in a feeding frenzy for said man. I need to keep up, so I can get in on the post-show conversation at work. That's important.

So Lish, thanks a lot, but I am not loving Facebook.

Post script... My very good friend Lish felt this post made her sound like "some idiot Facebook fanatic". Let me go on record to say that she is definitely not some idiot Facebook fanatic. The girl does not even have internet at her house. So she's really some no-internet-access-at-home idiot. I mean really, who does not have internet access at home? She calls it self control. I call it just plain crazy. Truly Lish, you know I jest! The thing that sent me over the edge, and inspired this post, was a certain "friend" of mine who has been clogging up my Facebook home page with his constant status updates - I'm talking like every hour. I don't really want to know what this person is doing once a year, much less every freaking time I log onto Facebook. So, please don't take this post personally. It's not you. It's me.

17 comments:

Maggie said...

just give it time!! you'll so be loving it in, like, 2 weeks... tho i totally understand when ppl you hate try to friend you, its awkward when they are unaware of how much you hate them (so i have accepted those requests to save face!)

Renee said...

I've been on it for a while and I don't get it either. My mother in law loves it and has 150 friends (I have 40 or so).

rachel... said...

I feel the same! I joined under pressure from a couple friends, and it was great fun at first, catching up with people and getting a look at their photos and families and lives. But, yeah, my status updates are sparse and usually painfully boring and I HATE the gifts/drinks too. They should outlaw those.

I have just joined Twitter, too. I don't know why I do this to myself.

For Myself said...

Once you blog, FB is just stupid. Period.

Blogging = real you

FB = ?

Saved by Grace said...

THANK YOU!!! I was beginning to think I was just tech illiterate or something. I don't get it either. If I have something I want to say to someone, I just e-mail them or call them (old fashioned, I know). When my time is so limited, do I really want to connect with people who have no clue who I really am and what is really important?

Kirsten said...

It's another time suck. I like seeing what old friends are up to and looking at their photos. The drinks and tags and all that is just annoying. A younger person once told me that updating your status is dorky... so I guess that makes you hip and cool.

Anonymous said...

Same here. When I joined up a couple of years back (at the incessant request of someone else) my husband and I decided that if people like us *and people our parents age* were joining it must already be, by definition, uncool.
He keeps trying to unsubscribe but there doesn't seem to be a way to do that.
Some people do get into it though and that's fine.
I stopped updating my status and it seems to have disappeared. So that's one less thing to worry about :-)

2 Brits, 2 Yanks, 2 Dogs said...

I don't like it when people I don't want to be friends with, ask me. I had this conversation with my husband the other day and he told me to ignore them and like you I don't want to be rude. 2 sisters who weren't very nice in high school to me wanted me to be their friends and I 'ummed' and 'aaahed' over it for days. I ended up accepting them and now I wish I didn't. I told my husband it was like being cyberbullied into accepting. I can't believe that I am having these feelings when I'll be turning 40 in a couple of months.

Oh and I hardly ever update my status.

2 Brits, 2 Yanks, 2 Dogs said...

Oops forgot to mention that I did the collage in photoshop.

PsychMamma said...

Exactly why I quit Facebook. Not worth the time, grief and hassle, in my opinion.

Anonymous said...

Clearly you haven't gotten any in awhile and maybe you should drink more.

anymommy said...

I absolutely refuse to do it, I already spend too much time on line! Thanks for encouraging me and keeping away temptation.

Melissa said...

Facebook is interesting. On one hand I did like being able to re-connect with a group from college. That's fun. And the word games? Total crack. My friends and I really mess with each on the ladder and that's a hoot.

But the friend whores? I just ignore them. I felt bad at first, but then I realized that since I didn't like them anyway, who cares what they think? :)

In the end, it's harmless fun, but I like blogging better.

Anonymous said...

Please see Facebook for my comments regarding the post script.

ShallowGal said...

I refuse to join facebook. I've never even seen it.

My husband gives me endless updates on people's statuses and I'm always like "dude, I don't care." What does he expect? "OMG, your friend Ian from high school is watching the Villanova game. How exciting for everyone! "

xoxo, SG

Janeen T, aka: Ben's Mommy said...

'the last thing i want to see is his stupid face'...i love it!

Julia@SometimesLucid said...

How funny. I was just about to leave you a comment saying that I found you through your sister and to direct you to that youtube video :)

Great blog by the way!

 

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