I have been thinking alot about my facebook account.
I love the fact that I have reconnected with some of my high school and college friends. I love it that my kids grandparents can keep in contact with their grand children. I love some of the funny things that friends post. I think it is funny that I can post a manly question and it gets so many responses immediately (it is the old "Seinfeld" truth that people really want to just talk about nothing).
What drives me crazy about facebook are all posts about what you are doing every minute of the day-- like everyone really cares. It drives me crazy when someone posts, "Having a bad day :(" --because you know everyone wants to know why your day is so bad and you put a frowny face up. It drives me crazy that people are becoming fans of everything under the sun, especially the becoming the fan of stuff that is a paragraph long. And seriously, your not in a real mafia, have a real farm, own a cafe and there is no such thing as festive fish (I am embarassed to say that I have learned this from my own experience). I wish I could really make the money I have made being in a mafia, raising produce, owning a cafe and raising fish. I keep waiting for the facebook version of churchville so we can see how many people we can pile into a building on the corner of Main and Prospect.
Here is what I really hate about facebook and why I am thinking about ditching the whole thing:
I hate the fact that people are bold enough to say things to people they would never say to someones face. I hate the fact that people bring all their drama to their wall. I hate the fact that the divorce rate has gone up as people are rekindling old high school and college romances. I hate the fact that it has become another avenue for gossip and a place that promotes half truths. Random thoughts were never meant to be made public, we should be slow to speak because when we post exactly what we are thinking things are taken out of context, people get hurt and we become more divided.
With all that said, I will continue to have a Facebook page, I will just be more selective in how I engage on the social network.
6 comments:
i have witnessed first hand the lives of 2 different friends fall apart since facebook. one going thru a divorce after 30 years of marriage & raising 5 children. another one on the verge of divorce after an affair with someone from high school. i don't blame facebook for these divorces/affairs anymore than i blame budweiser for someone's alcoholism or marlboro for someone's lung cancer. we are talking about, for the most part, adults. people that know right from wrong. people that made these desicions and allowed the outcome to be what it is. facebook is not sending subliminal messages to cheat on their spouses, kill Vinnie with a hatchett in mafia, or raise emu in farmville. these are all deliberate decisions people make, but noone wants to be accountable for the consequence. i understand you called it an avenue for these types of behavior, but i personally can't blame facebook for other people's actions.
Dee Dee,
I didn't mean for this to be a blame Facebook post. I meant for it to be a post where people think about their actions on facebook and what those actions can lead to.
You are right about adults who need to make right and wrong decisions. The problem as you state is that people do not want to be accountable for making wrong decisions. People constantly justify making wrong decisions. (I am currently working on a post about that very topic).
Thanks for your comment.
One other thing--Can you really raise an emu in farmville?
First of all, missed your blogging! Wow Scott it is awesome and kinda freaky when you blog what I am thinking. I guess it's just like annything else it all about how we use it. I have refused to have my own facebook account and rarely get on Kimberly's for most of the reasons you stated and several others. I don't understand accepting friend request from people I don't really know or was never really friends with before just because. We asked our youth group how many of those people listed as friends are "really" your friends and they all paused and said some but not most of them....we adults have done the same thing. I see people spending an inordinate amount of time posting and checking status updates about...I don't know.... nothing! I can't say that there is anything wrong with it and it has proven to be a wonderful tool for getting information out but it just starts to feel like another bad reality show or soap opera at times. It's all in how we use it I guess?
M....is Melvin by the way Scott
Just think--without facebook you wouldn't have known that Eli had bought a car as soon.
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