Flushing Facebook

I've been a member of Facebook for what seems to be a long time.  I checked and the date I joined was August 17th, 2009.  At the time, Facebook was well on its way to super stardom.  Everybody was getting on board and wondering what all the fuss was about.

Early on, I was leery.  I resisted for quite a while.  I had been a member of MySpace in its heyday, and it turned to total crap in a very short time.  It ended up being riddled with a mass of blinky crap, and links that led you to viruses.  As I said--I resisted Facebook for a long time but I eventually got caught up in it.  It was different than MySpace because it was instant.  Everything you posted on Facebook was practically like you were there in the same room as the other people.  You would hit the enter button and BLAM--it was instantly on someone else's screen if they happened to be looking.  It was fun.

We didn't care that our personal space was in jeopardy because they knew what we were doing, and we could see what everybody else was doing.  It seemed to be justified somehow.  It didn't matter then that people knew when and how long you were online and that they could see what you were posting about other people.  It was entertainment, sharing, and even like having your own private detective that could track people down.  It was amazing!  Here you were--able to connect with people you hadn't communicated with since who knows when?  Wow!

Sometimes when I would connect with someone from my past, I'd feel all warm and fuzzy for a short time, then reality would hit me:  Why did I connect with them?  If we were really friends we would never have lost touch to begin with.  Other times I would request to be 'friends' with them and never hear a peep back.  I would wonder WTF?  I would be miffed for a short time then in no time I'd be over it.  What the hell--they weren't real friends anyway, right?  Coincidentally, it took about the same amount of time to get over that as it did for the new 'friendships' to become uninteresting.

I only reached out to touch them because I could.  Not because I wanted to.  I wanted to see what they would say.  Maybe I thought they would hold their arms wide open like a long lost relative.

I look at all my local friends that are on Facebook and do I share anything meaningful with them?  Hardly ever.  An email would be much more personal and to the point.

I watch other people that will post something just to cause trouble.  Antagonistic trolling seems to be their M.O.  If they can stir up some trouble within their circle of 'friends' then their meaningless lives are somehow more complete.  In the meantime I see the ripple effect that such crap causes and I hate it.  Why?  Because Facebook has just made it too easy for them.  If nobody was listening to the drivel and stupid comments that spew forth from their keyboards they wouldn't feel complete.  Because there are 'friends' in their Facebook circle, there is someone "listening" to them any time they log on.  People like this cause a lot of trouble, and everyone in their wake is constantly having to do damage control.

Then there are the times when something just plain goes wrong.  Someone means well but a voice inflection is not there to clarify their point.  People get upset and it spawns a whole new pile of grief and reactive communication while they're trying to sort the mess out.  When its all said and done, it should have never happened in the first place.  But it did.  Because Facebook made it too easy.  Again, damage control needed.

Then there is the Big Brother syndrome.  Does anyone really ever stop to think about how many people that are not even in their circle of 'friends' have access to their lives through Facebook?  It became more apparent to me when I was job searching.  Stories of people that lose their jobs because of a Facebook post, or those that were denied a potential job because of the overall "flavor" of their Facebook pages.

You know what else angers me about Facebook?  The way "Like" has taken over the internet.  Every single time I have to wait for a website to load you know what the last item to pop up is?  The item that the webpage was waiting for before you could actually scroll it around and use it?  It was the stupid little line that says, "Like us on Facebook".  Try watching for it sometime.  It's not always plain to see, but if you're scanning the page while waiting for the activity icon on your browser to stop turning, most likely you'll see that little Facebook addendum pop up to complete the page load.  Apparently, it has to get that line of code from the Facebook mother ship.

Screw it.  I'm done with Facebook.  I downloaded my entire history of posts from them and my account of 3+ years is closed.  I encourage others to get a life and do the same.  I just feel it's time to get our lives back to the roots.  That means meeting face-to-face, calling on the phone, and sending an email when you need to.

It would cause their lives to be a lot less dramatic.