Falling out of love with Facebook?

The Facebook Effect

You’re not alone!

I joined Facebook last year, the last to join amongst everyone I know, and, I’m willing to bet, behind everyone who reads this. Initially I loved it and regretted not jumping on the bandwagon earlier. It was so gossipy and everyone was on it, what wasn’t there to love?

It was great to share pics with and laugh at weird videos of dogs talking or drunk people falling over. Then, like all good love affairs, Facebook started to change and I got bored with it. I’ve also fallen for the charms of Twitter and although I’m sure I’ll tire of tweeting drivel over there too, at the moment  if I had to choose, Twitter is more vital to me than the Spawn of Zuckerberg.

I’ll admit there are some things I still ‘need’ Facebook for (it bizarrely remains my most visited site when I open Chrome) particularly for events and for knowing what’s going on. Even though I’m such a hermit these days, I’d miss even more events if I wasn’t on FB. Plus it’s replaced texts and emails among my closest friends. If I wanna know what’s happening in their lives I know where to go, or should I say, click. Sad and impersonal but true.

All that aside, Facebook drives me bonkers each time I go on it, increasingly so. Nothing major, just the little things.  Always the little things.  Based on many angry status updates I’ve read lately I know some of you are too.

For the purposes of venting, here are my 10 main peeves with Facebook lately:

1. Friends who like their own status update or comment. Who does that? Yeah, you uploaded it, aren’t you great!
2. Boasters. Not the yummy biccies, the “Oh I didn’t expect to spend the day sunbathing with Orlando Bloom today rah rah rah” types. No matter how casual they try to pass the comment off as, it just smacks of boasting. Equally bad are perpetual status updates about how bored you are. Seriously, get a life or in this instance at least make up one.
3. Iqbal. This is my own term for random friend requests. Most recently a dude who worked with my friend for about a week in Korea and who has never even met me added me as a friend. I also got added by a Cheryl Cole fanatic who wanted to abuse me for daring to question her talents on a showbiz page. If you don’t know me, have never spoken to me, and are actually unlikely to ever meet me, why would you add me? Ignore, ignore, ignore!
4. The dreaded ‘you have been tagged’ email after a night out. Praise the lord for the untag option.
5. Ok so I’m being a granny here but I dislike the constant changes. I still hate the new photo viewer, this whole ‘Face recognition’ stuff freaks me out and the constant push for more information about our lives to the point where I’m waiting on a new option to describe our last meal to appear, all make me Facebook-weary.
6. People who join just to be nosey. You know the types, they don’t have a profile pic or have one of say a potted plant yet they are the first to peruse your drunken night out snaps and comment on your status to ask who you spent the night with.
7. Friends who come on chat, send you a message like “Hi Lisa!” or “Any fun?” and then disappear as soon as you reply. What’s that all about? Is my reply that boring you’ve fallen asleep?
8. Bad spelling. No I will not join your group which has ‘Facbook’ in the title. I mean, it’s right there on the left-hand side of your screen, how did you manage to spell it wrong? It seems that bad spelling or general illiteracy is essential for having a page or group on Facebook and for this reason I won’t join them. For example: Amature Boxing Club, Ladys Night etc.
9. The tiny little techy bugs the whole site seems riddled with. Recently I had to leave a comment 4 times before it appeared. Yes, I too am amazed I didn’t give up after attempt 2. See also chat being a temperamental bitch or my profile suddenly becoming unavailable for no apparent reason.
10. The snap happy types. Ok I’m a bit guilty of this one myself. I get a bit Japanese Tourist with my camera and upload nonsensical albums on Facebook which probably mean nothing to anyone else but me. Thankfully I’m not a repeat offender. Some people upload album after album containing 800 pics each with only 4 decent ones among them. Is there a weird ‘see who can add as many pics as possible’ competition I don’t know about or is there a ‘I’ll upload millions of pictures of nothing and it’ll make my life look so exciting’ motive behind this? Who knows but it’s annoying. Show and Tell for the Ipod generation etc etc.