FaceBook is an incredible tool. Like any tool it can be used properly or improperly. I'm at about an 80/20 balance. I've found childhood friends from 40 years ago. I met the daughter of a woman that my dad went to the high school prom with in 1932. It has enabled me to keep up with high school and college acquaintances and friends who are flung across the land. I'm amazed at how obsessed some people are with it and I suspect that is what you are criticizing.
I think there's a big divide in younger and older users. Facebook feeds into everything bad about high school popularity obsessions and attention craving. It's completely different post-college, where it's a nice passive way to keep everyone (especially semi-distant friends) updated on your life. I certainly will never miss the days of mass emails and huge 30+picture attachments. It's almost (almost) annoying that I have to "repeat" things to some of the non-FB friends I have, including my sister. It's so convenient to have facebook as a bulletin board. And I find it hilarious that so many people that quit facebook do so because they don't like having so many friends that aren't actually friends. Maybe you shouldn't be so fast to send/accept requests as soon as you meet some random person the first time or be so caught up in boosting your friend count. Besides, all you have to do is go on a un-friend purge or change your privacy settings. It's not like that one-time acquaintance is going to even notice.
faceblogging a pregnancy can have such terrible results if anything goes wrong... the latest trend that annoys me is all the old people interacting with each other. like or share if you recognize this old contraption from the 60's! that, or they use fb like it is chainmail now, sharing the latest unvetted meme or tumor faced baby/shelter dog
The other day, two of my FB friends were unknowingly competing for most status updates in a day. They both have eclectic music tastes and that accounts for most of their status updates-- links to music they like. I kidded them about their continuous updates. They responded to me good naturedly and then started responding to each other, then became FB friends and then referred like-minded FB friends to each other.
If you don't know 1000 people, don't add 1000 people. If you want random people to follow you, use twitter.
I have FB and other social media craps, but don't log in enough to remember the countless user/pw, which i can't retrieve bc of my countless emails that i don't even use, and can't even log in bc again for the same reason.
I don't use it or check it much, but I keep it. It's useful for sharing pictures of the kids and for business. If it wasn't for those 2 things, I probably would deactivate.
I hate Facebook for a lot of reasons, but it is useful. I use it for dating / networking / collaboration. As a musician I have actually been able to collaborate with several bands by crossing paths on Facebook. It's a good way to build relationships with people, and it helps me get the word out on music releases that I'm involved in, or to get critical feedback. The best use of Facebook requires self-control that most people don't have. If you use Facebook to air emotional baggage, that's all you'll get out of it. Then there's the mindless political propaganda. I steer clear of that stuff. I constantly 'prune' my friends, if you will. So far it has leveled off at about 250 and I even unsubscribe from many of those in my newsfeed. I only keep 'real' friends around. If I want to broadcast random thoughts to random people, I use twitter.
Good post. It all comes down to self control. Facebook is an interesting manifestation of a person's personality.
it is not that bad - don't spend time clicking around and reading peoples' pointless updates if it annoys you so much. i would miss SO MUCH from my favorite bands if it wasn't all there for me in one convenient place. the only thing i can think of that's REALLY annoying is my mother asking "didja see the pics i posted" or "didja see that funny status i wrote" meaning "please comment on them!!!!"
Not sure why some people waste so much time on FB. I check mine during lunch or after work for about 10 minutes then I am good. I'd never find out that one of my former co-workers brother is Marlen Esparza's coach if it wasn't for FB. Or wouldn't find out that one of people I know has a son starring in The Campigan movie. It is useful for catching up with news for family/friends.
