In September 2007 - prior to Facebook being banned in my workplace - my coworker and friend Elysia (I did a shout out) got me to join Facebook. I had a previous encounter with social networking sites in 2004 when I did Friendster for a year, but once I shut down my Friendster account I really enjoyed the privacy it afforded me. MySpace always confused me because there was too much going on and when I left Friendster, which was very limited in what you could and couldn't do with your online profile, I really didn't feel like I'd suffered a loss.
I will admit that Facebook is addictive - for no other reason than you can spy on people. Sometimes, I don't like what I discover. Can you believe so and so are friends? Can you believe so and so friend requested me or so and so deleted me as a friend? I've seen pretty much every high school and college friend's wedding pictures because of Facebook. I know when someone gets engaged, when someone gets pregnant, when someone gets a job or loses a job, when someone moves to a new place, you get the point BUT my brain is now so overloaded with unimportant information - completely irrelevant to my life that I cannot take it anymore.
I started really getting fed up when people my parent's age started popping up on Facebook. I get that in order to make more money they had to open it up to the Baby Boomer generation, but it sort of took something away from being a member on the site. For one, it made me feel younger that the only way you could join was if you had a college e-mail account. I think when they opened it up to anyone and everyone, it stopped making me feel young. Now, I feel like the old fart that gets friend suggestions to people 15 years younger than me. I don't know these people, but I do know that my 28 year old self has no need to become friends with a 15 year old that I'm not related to - it's just creepy.
It's funny, but for as sick as I am of Facebook I'm still not able to close down my account. I have taken steps to distance myself from it - lessen my online presence. For one, I deleted Facebook for iPhone - in large part because iPhone's suck and the application was always on the fritz, but deleting that application was a step in the right direction. Two, Facebook is banned at work and the last thing that I want to do when I get home is sit in front of my computer for another couple of hours. It's funny that my office banned Facebook considering the insurance company I work for is now on Facebook and Twitter...go figure. Doesn't that further prove my point about how lame all these social networking sites have gotten? Why does an insurance office need to have a Facebook profile? What person is sitting around thinking about taking a corporation seriously and says to themselves "gee, I wonder if that business has a Facebook profile? I only trust businesses that are so in touch with society that they are on Facebook promoting their business." Three, I've considered deactivating my profile, but not deleting my account. Who are we kidding, I need to just pull the plug and do it cold turkey. I want to say that I'm not there yet, but it's only a matter of time until I am ready to do away with the account. I'm so over Facebook!!!
Posts
2 comments:
Facebook is bitter sweet in my opinion, great to keep in touch with distant friends, not so great when there is no distance between friends from college, friends from home, friends from work. Some things should just be seperate. My new hubby and I now share a facebook page, we tried shutting down our profiles completely but than it was hard to share photos and keep up with long distance friends and family. This has helped us to keep it under control and neither of us use it as often. Plus there are no more pesky inquiries from old girlfriends posting notes on his wall telling him how good he looks and where they are going out that weekend :)
Good points, I've been going on less and less. Maybe when I have a baby I'll enjoy it more!
Post a Comment