I have used Facebook for 2 1/2 years, and have experienced a lot of self-promoting, narcissistic behavior on there. A lot of the people on it (whether you like it or not) like to use it as a platform for glamorizing their social lives (or lack thereof), whilst possessing a collection of thousands of faces they have never once exchanged messages with (and never will). For people who aren’t very “social,” looking at photos of other people showing them having a “good” time only wrecks one’s own self-esteem, and makes them feel utterly worthless in comparison. It’s those kinds of photos of people who look all “happy” and are shown meeting lots of people at an event, having crazy drinking parties, etc.

Many of the people I had added on Facebook in the past would usually ignore me, no matter how many times I would greet them. And instead they would turn around and keep spamming up their walls with stupid apps or TMI-quality posts that honestly no one cared about (unless you’re a stalker). (I know there are some people who would respond to you almost all of the time, but sadly they are in the minority, and with millions of people on Facebook it’s difficult to find the right person who actually gives a shit about you as a person first and foremost.)

On Facebook, the value of friendship seems to have been lost as it tends to lean more towards compiling a huge mass of random strangers rather than putting yourself out there to get to know each and every person you add a little better. This was my main gripe with MySpace, and since its demise Facebook is carrying the torch of social solitude onwards. To add more insult to the injury, people are getting out much less and they are spending more time trying to attract online attention (be it uploading a truckload of personal photos, embedding a thousand YouTube videos a day, or what have you).

Perhaps Facebook wouldn’t be such a bad site at all if more of its users posted things that were the least bit interesting, as opposed to downright stupid wall posts like “i think pee smells like cheerios.” And as for those who are saying it’s more the problem of the people on there as opposed to the site itself, I rather like to think of Facebook as another online forum: if the community sucks for the most part, I am less likely to stay on there, no matter what “nifty” features are there.

Good riddance of that shit. I don’t care if you still use Facebook, but regardless of what you try to convince me otherwise with I refuse to return to Facebook, out of disgust for that site. I don’t have time to worry about that crap because I have a life of my own to worry about, and that to me is the real deal of socializing.

I dislike is that there are seemingly no conversations or forums as I’ve experienced elsewhere. It’s just for sharing photos, playing games, brief commenting.. but not really meaningful interaction, and this is social? It reminds me of saying “Hi, how are you” in passing.. not much deeper than that. Why is any of this enriching? Members choose to become “friends” with hundreds of strangers.. yet we know in “real life” that would not the case, which requires devoting time to developing and maintaining real relationships, based on a mutuality and a commonality, over time.

Another frustration is, since people I know use the site, they will say “If you want to know what is going on with me, go to Facebook”. No phone calls anymore? When I am with family, they are inevitably checking in with the site and spend an incredible amount of time there each week.

Personally, I won’t miss it when I ship out and won’t be wasting time with it. All I care about is keeping involved with people I actually know and care about. Too bad many are not inclined the same way and I think that this “social network” has actually become a detriment to society.